1979 Leacock Medal Winner
True Confections
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This interview is
with Sondra Gotlieb, author of True Confections: Or How My Family Arranged
My Marriage, a memoir-style novel that won the Leacock Medal for Humour in
1979. The story traces the life of a
girl from her Sweet 16 birthday party to her marriage a couple of years later. Set in 1950s Winnipeg, it talks a lot about
teenage preoccupations with clothes, boys, and food. It also mirrors Sondra's own
marriage to the Harvard-Berkeley-Oxford educated lawyer and the former Canadian
Ambassador to the United States, the late Alan Gottlieb. Sondra was a published
cookbook writer by the time she wrote True Confections, which was her
first novel. Later, she contributed to MacLean's and Chatelaine
magazines before starting her popular columns in the Washington Post. Over
her career, she also produced articles for Saturday night, the New York
Times, and the National Post.
DBD
I think anybody who reads True Confections wants to ask is to what
extent was the book autobiographical?
Sondra Gotlieb (SG)
Oh, yes. Well, I did write about growing up in North
Winnipeg, and it seemed to play a big role in my imagination, or life or
whatever. And, and there was a lot of emphasis on food.
DBD
Was food a big part of your growing up?
SG
Yes. My mother was a stay at home (mother). She
was always in the kitchen cooking. And I mean, to the extent that one would never
say women do these days - was baking, cooking? You know.
DBD
I know that
prior to True Confections, your main literary claim to fame was a very
successful cookbook. Do you recall what motivated you to write the book?
SG
Food !
I guess I grew
up in a family that concentrated on food. And when I started to fear, I would
love to write something. And I thought maybe I could do restaurant reviews. And
I started with that. And my husband and I, we used to go to restaurants that I
would write reviews for newspapers and things like that. And, and that's where
it all started. And then I wrote a recipe book, a couple of recipe books, and
then True Confections came out of that.
DBD
So that's
interesting, because it has the tone of being a very personal book and talking
about your marriage or a marriage at least.
SG
I married at 18,
and I knew my husband really for 10 days. I met him, and he took me out for
about 10 days and then he went back to Oxford. And he said, you know, maybe
we'll get married after you finish your university. Well, I didn't to do my
Christmas exams, they were looming. I just really didn't want to go into the
exams. And I said, Well, if you want to marry me, you’d better come back from
Oxford at Christmas and get married then.
DBD
So that does echo
a bit of the book.
SG
Yes, I put that
in my book? (Laughs) because I have no idea why I said that. I barely knew him.
So, we basically I knew him for 10 days before he left. And then he came back a
week before the wedding. So that was the extent of time I spend with him.
DBD
So you did
conclude the book by saying you spent the next few decades getting acquainted.
SG
Yes, well he's
dead now.
DBD
I'm very sorry.
It was just last year, right?
SG
Yeah, just last
year, and we're about 63 years. Yeah, yeah.
DB
Yeah, wow, so it
did it did work out.
SG
Yes, a very
happy marriage. (Laughs) I barely knew him. And it worked out very well.
DBD
I have to say it
was sad to note your daughter’s very sad passing – she was about the age you
were at the time you were writing the book?
SG
Yes. My daughter
My eldest Yeah.
DBD
One question I
guess that I should pose is to what extent did winning Leacock medal help you?
SG
It helped me get
published a little bit, you know. I was
so happy at getting the prize. And my friends and I, we went on some kind of
trip. We went from Orillia and went across the border. And I must say we had a
wild time. We went to the dinner and then we stayed overnight. We had a lot of
fun. That’s all I remember.
DBD
Yeah, I think
the Leacock banquet has been a launchpad for a lot of fun and parties over the
years.
SG
Yes. I think we had liquor in the trunk.
Then we went across the border. I mean, I remember that weekend so well. No, I
was very happy to get it. I wrote other books. My son says not as good as that
one. It did give me a step up, it really did. It was hard to get that one
published. And because all I had done was restaurant reviews before.
DBD
One other
question I would ask is if you were aware of the degree to which the Leacock
medal had not been given to woman writer for many years prior to you're getting
it? I think initially there was a few women who won it, but then there was like
25 years before you won it.
SG
Well, I mean,
women's movement was just beginning to hit the times, because I had no ambition
to do anything when I got married. I just wanted to follow my mother's
footsteps.
DBD
We're all
grateful that you expanded your circle beyond that
SG
I think my
husband was very helpful, very helpful. He was very, very supportive of me
writing and he was happy. He was terribly happy when I won the Leacock Medal.
DBD
Well, again,
condolences and thanks a lot for doing this.
SG
Okay, thank you
very much.