Author Lisa Williamson Rosenberg is stopping by to discuss her latest release, Mirror Me.
Tell me about your latest book.
Mirror Me is the story of Eddie Asher, a young man who is biracial, of Swedish and African descent (his birth mother failed to share what country his birth father was from), adopted by a white, Jewish family. Eddie has suffered from memory lapses all his life, hence the opening crisis of the book: he believes he may have pushed his brother’s fiancée, Lucy, in front of an oncoming subway train. With some evidence that he’s killed her, but no memory of having done so, Eddie checks into a mental hospital to find out what really happened. The Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital happens to be run by Dr. Montgomery, a specialist in multiple personality disorders (from which Eddie does not suffer, but that’s the red herring of the novel). In any event, Montgomery’s methods open up Eddie’s mind and his memories spin out of control. The main narrator of the book is Pär, a disembodied consciousness who took the name Eddie’s birth mother gave him. What gives the book its magical realism street cred is Pär himself, whom I think of not as Eddie’s alter ego, but more as his own personal Greek Chorus. Pär knows the truth of Eddie’s lapses and also observes him when he’s not lapsing. Pär knows the secrets about Eddie’s birthparents, his adoption circumstances, and his identity on the whole.
Why did you decide to write it?
To be very honest, I can’t remember exactly why I decided to write it. Mirror Me began as a sequel to an earlier, unpublished novel I wrote called Birchwood Doll. Eddie started out as a side character who couldn’t hold a job and was secretly in love with his brother’s wife. But I kept wondering about why he was the way he was, and the story shifted, unfolding with Eddie as the center. I became obsessed with Eddie’s character, his anxiety and sense of feeling other in the world, his relationships with his family, and his neuroses. I knew I needed him to be Black and Jewish like I am, a bit of an outsider in each culture. The character of Pär came later. I wanted Pär to be the expression of who Eddie might be—if he’d remained with his birth mother. That concept evolved too, though I don’t want to give away spoilers. I’ve been tinkering with this novel—mostly while on breaks from other projects—since 2009.
Who is your favorite character in the book and why?
I feel like I should say Eddie, since he is the main protagonist, and I’ve spent the most time with him in my head. But my honest answer is Anders, who is introduced a little later in the book—again, it would be a spoiler to explain who he is exactly. Also biracial, Anders is raised in the 1970s by a white mother in a Berkshire hamlet where he rarely encounters another Black person. Then, at the age of ten, Anders goes to live with the Wynter family in New York, where he studies dance. Tyrone and Dominique Wynter introduce Anders to their world of lush, abundant Black culture—music, art, dance—which the boy drinks in and relishes. I grew up surrounded by the works of Charles White, Ernest Crichlow, and Elizabeth Catlett, who were friends of my parents. So, I decorated the walls of the Wynter home with their art. What I love about Anders is his wild enthusiasm for life, dance, New York City, and his embrace of his Black identity.
What was the hardest part about writing the story?
Originally, I’d set MIRROR ME in the present day and struggled with tension and objectives. The fact was that most of the twists I envisioned for the plot could be wiped out with a single social media deep dive or a Google search. When I decided to set the story back thirty years, pre-internet, the secrets could be concealed and revealed as I saw fit. Things flowed and made more sense then.
If you were to write a book about your life, what would be the title and why?
I think it would be called Brown Girl with Bubblegum, after an essay I published in Longreads. It would be about identity and belonging, the challenges to the latter faced by a biracial only child born to much older parents. Brown Girl with Bubblegum is an essay about how learning to blow bubbles validated my sense of “American-ness” despite feeling other.
What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
I’d tell my 16-year-old self to take better care of her body, to eat more and smoke less, to take advantage of the opportunities ahead, not to talk herself out of challenges, not to underestimate herself. I wouldn’t tell her how things turn out, that she’ll be an author one day. I’d want her to keep pushing, keep striving.
What is something readers would be surprised to know about you?
I think most people would be surprised to learn that I was a professional ballet dancer—the second black corps de ballet member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet—and also an adoption social worker. Both past careers figure heavily into the world of MIRROR ME, especially Eddie’s adoption by a white family who—back in the 1970s—fail to learn the importance of celebrating his Blackness. I worked at an adoption agency in the 1990s, when most of the transracial adoptions we facilitated were international, centered in East Asia. We encouraged families to make Chinese and Vietnamese culture part of their family life. But having worked with many of these adoptees as teens and adults in my private practice, I know that a certain amount of isolation and grieving for the country/culture of origin was very common.
Tell me about a book that changed your life and why.
The Bluest Eye was my first literary exposure to the concepts of colorism and internalized racism. While I’d lived with these twin phenomena my entire life, no other book had forced me to consider how I, as the child of a white mother and Black father, had been affected by both. Morrison immerses us in the experience of being Black in the line of the white gaze, how Claudia resists and defies its demands; how Pecola, who’s been shattered by sexual trauma, succumbs and internalizes it. Morrison was the most magnificently nuanced storyteller when it came to race, colorism, class, and childhood. I return to this book again and again and always learn something new.
What’s next for you?
I have two works in progress going right now. One picks up where one of the stories from Embers On The Wind left off and answers the question: What happened to Baby Olivia? The other is a family saga told in dual POVs and time periods, alternating between the 1970s and the present day.
Use the Black Fiction Addiction affiliate link to purchase your copy of Mirror Me.
To learn more about author and psychotherapist Lisa Williamson Rosenberg, visit her website or connect with her on social media.
Website: https://lisawrosenberg.com
Instagram: @lwrose.author
Bluesky: @lwroseauthor.bsky.social
Facebook: LWrose.author
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg is the author of Mirror Me (December 3, 2024; Little A) and Embers on the Wind. (August 1, 2022; Little A). She is a former ballet dancer and psychotherapist specializing in depression, developmental trauma, and multiracial identity. Her essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Longreads, Narratively, Mamalode, and The Common. Her fiction has been published in the Piltdown Review and in Literary Mama, where Lisa received a Pushcart nomination. A born-and-raised New Yorker and mother of two college students, Lisa now lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and dog. You can visit Lisa online at lisawrosenberg.com
Synopsis for MIRROR ME (December 3, 2024; Little A)
A psychiatric patient’s desperate search for answers reveals peculiar memories and unexpected connections in a twisty and mind-bending novel of love, family, betrayal, and secrets.
Eddie Asher arrives at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital panicked that he may have murdered his brother’s fiancée, Lucy, with whom he shared a profound kinship. He can’t imagine doing such a terrible thing, but Eddie hasn’t been himself lately.
Eddie’s anxiety is nothing new to Pär, the one Eddie calls his Other, who protects Eddie from truths he’s too sensitive to face. Or so Pär says. Troubled by Pär’s increasing sway over his life, Eddie seeks out Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in dissociative identities. The psychiatrist is Eddie’s best chance for piecing together the puzzle of what really happened to Lucy and to understanding his inexplicable memories of another man’s life.
But Montgomery’s methods trigger a kaleidoscope of memories that Pär can’t contain, bringing Eddie closer to an unimaginable truth about his identity.