In Looker, Laura Sims Turns the Torturous Limbo of Infertility Into Fascinating Fiction

I didn’t. I don’t think of my characters in that way. In the actress’s case, we really don’t know what or who she is beneath the veneer the narrator sees. I was focused more on emphasizing the fallacy of the narrator’s viewpoint—which is our viewpoint, too, when we look at celebrities or others we emulate from afar—and on how this culture of looking can distort someone’s view and even, ultimately, poison the soul. The actress may look like a “paragon of femininity,” but that’s simply the role she’s been cast in by the narrator’s view, which is the societal view as well. Women who are beautiful, slim, rich, famous, married mothers are raised up as paragons in our society, and we all look at them. My narrator, even as she endorses that view and buys deeply, tragically into it, also acts as a foil to the simplicity of slotting women into roles like that because of her own involving complexity. I don’t think of her as a stereotype—I see her as deeply human: flawed, delusional, funny, and teetering on the verge of chaos as we all are, as we all might be in her shoes.

Along those lines, female insanity or hysteria has historically been tied to their reproductive organs. Was this legacy in your mind as you were writing your novel?

No, it really wasn’t, though I’m certainly aware of it. I know there’s room for that interpretation in the novel—that my narrator’s infertility has triggered her insanity—but I hope that readers can see the fuller picture, the myriad factors pushing her to the brink—not least of all her natural mental state. Her struggle with fertility is certainly a contributing factor, but it isn’t the only one.

Without giving too much away, your main character is a woman who walks up to several transgressive lines and then crosses them. I’m guessing you didn’t worry about making your protagonist a “likable” character?

I did not, though I personally find her immensely likable! Even at her worst. A mother’s love, you know. But I understand what you mean. And yes, she crosses lines that have already caused controversy, evident in some reader responses I’ve read. My only answer is that I followed where she led, without judgment, and without too much consideration of what would endear her (or not) to readers. I don’t recommend looking for pleasant role models in fictional characters; most of them, like most humans, are sadly disappointing that way. What’s more interesting to me is a character whose thoughts, feelings, and actions I can believe, and maybe even identify with, however uncomfortable that makes me. More than “liking” her, I hope readers feel this way about my narrator.