Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Basch-Katie-child-welfare-book

Full Text:

Fiction Blends With Fact In Sandy Hook Author's First Novel

(with cut, book cover)

BY SHANNON HICKS

An 18-month-old girl manages to work her highchair across a kitchen floor

close enough to a stove to pull a pot of boiling water onto herself. In the

split second it takes for the scalding liquid to begin melting through the

tray of the highchair the baby is sitting in, the world she lives in is

changed forever.

The 18-month-old is Katie, a fictional character in the new release Degrees of

Love (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 281 pages, April 1998). The book is the

first published novel of Rachel Basch, a Sandy Hook resident. Publisher's

Weekly has already credited Mrs Basch for writing a "rich, surprising

page-turner."

The novel tells the story of Katie's accident from the viewpoint of both her

parents, Lily Sterne and Jack Heliher. Lily is involuntarily thrust into the

public spotlight, while her marriage is quietly falling apart. Jack is

struggling with his own feelings, and silently making his wife feel more

guilty than any of the incorrect and misread reports being filed by

well-meaning ER doctors and social workers.

On the surface, Degrees of Love is about baby Katie's accident and the

repercussions her parents go through. Author Rachel Basch says the book's

story is much deeper.

"It's very superficially about a case of mistaken child abuse," the author

said. "I really think this book is about marriage and parenting. It's about

work and the way families negotiate work and work lives and privacy. It's also

about the issue of privacy in society at all levels.

"The minute you have children, you are no longer anonymous," she believes.

"Whether you think you do or not, you become part of something much greater

after having children."

Mrs Basch, the mother of two young children, says she began with the story

being told only from the mother's point of view. She found that by 50 pages

into her manuscript, though, the problem was the narrative sounded like the

voice of a victim, which Lily is not.

"I was really worried about that," Mrs Basch said. "That's how all these

stories are told, from the side of the underdog. In order to really flush out

the full story, I needed to get inside his head. He's the one who makes her

feel the guiltiest."

While researching the story, Mrs Basch worked closely with two local social

workers, including one pediatric social worker. Both were instrumental in

providing ideas and even old guidebooks for background material. The research

was extremely disturbing at times.

"There are things I heard on that ward [at Shriners Boston, the hospital where

part of the story takes place]... you hear things and you don't forget them,"

she said. "And some of the stuff I read... You really have to give these

workers enormous amounts of credit. It takes an incredible amount of strength

and compassion to handles those jobs."

Mrs Basch began writing Degrees of Love in 1993. It took about 2« years before

she felt she had something worth sending off. Fortunately, the manuscript

wound up in the hands of W.W. Norton & Company, an independent publisher with

offices in New York and London.

"It was my first novel and it needed a lot of editing," Mrs Basch can admit

now. Mrs Basch discovered some of the child welfare laws she originally used

in her book were erroneous, after finding an attorney who was willing to read

the manuscript for accuracy. "Child welfare laws are made state-by-state," she

said. "My mistake was I did a lot of my research in Connecticut, thinking they

were federally mandated."

Before being given the final go-ahead, the publishing company put the

manuscript through the rigors of at least four copy editors.

The editing efforts paid off. The result is a very well-written book. The

novel is a very engrossing, but easy read. The details of Katie's accident,

the events each member of the family goes through, the thoughts of both major

adult characters are all cleanly knit together into a cohesive quilt that

could have been a tough story to read. Under Basch's pen the novel is very

enjoyable, and the topic could be straight out of today's headlines.

Rachel Basch has been writing as long as she can remember. She won prizes for

poetry as a child and wrote a collection of short stories as her thesis before

graduating from New York University. She has published fiction in Redbook .

She and her husband, David Gould, have been living in Sandy Hook for ten

years.

Even though the subject matter itself is somewhat frightening -- there are

people in the world who intentionally harm children -- Mrs Basch said writing

her book was not formidable.

"This was not really that difficult to write," Mrs Basch said this week. "That

was the joy of working on this: I tapped into something very good.

"It was the easiest thing I ever wrote."

Rachel Basch will be at The Book Review in Newtown for readings and to sign

copies of her book on Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 pm. The store is in Sand

Hill Plaza, 228 South Main Street/Route 25 (telephone 426-1711). Refreshments

will be served.

She will also be at Hickory Stick Book Shop, 1 Greenhill Road at Route 47 in

Washington Depot (860/868-0525), on Saturday, May 2, from 2-4 pm.