Death brings new life for character, author
Written by Writer on Friday, October 17th, 2008
Death brings new life for character, author
Ikuko Kitagawa / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
You’ve lost somebody close to you in a car accident or to a disease. You can’t accept it; what do you do? Three weeks after her husband’s untimely death, 29-year-old Holly finds herself repeatedly calling her husband’s message service just to hear his voice.
“It’s the little things that hit them every day; it’s the phone that rings and you expect it to be them, and you realize that it’s not,” says Cecilia Ahern, writer of P.S. I Love You and daughter of former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. “Writing when she’s calling and listening to the voice, that was, I suppose, putting myself in that position and imagining. I know I would do that.”
Ahern’s book was recently adapted into a movie starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as Holly and Gerard Butler as her dead husband, Gerry, who is from Ireland. “I want to hear the sound of their voice. That was the idea behind the letters [used in my novel]. You want to hear them say something new and maintain communication,” the author says.
The twist to P.S. I Love You that takes the story beyond mere chick-flick is the concept that Holly starts getting letters from Gerry on her 30th birthday. The 10 letters she gets over the course of the movie inspires her to try things, such as karaoke, and to visit his homeland for the holidays. They also help her to move on. Unmotivated and depressed, Holly opens up her mind, believing it is Gerry who is watching over her.
“If you can’t hear their voice, I think the most precious thing after that is being able to read their words that they’ve written. For me words are really, really precious…and I think when people write letters, it’s really personal,” she said.
Ahern said she hasn’t suffered a loss like Holly’s. She instead used her imagination to bring out the fear of losing someone she loves.
“If you know what it’s like to love, then you will know what it is like losing them, and you can so easily put yourself in that position and bring yourself on the journey. I cried my eyes out writing this book and I really felt like it was like therapy,” she said.
Ahern wrote the novel when she was 21 years old, a few months after she finished university. Graduation day was also her deadline for submitting the final manuscript. Writing about a character who was a decade older–and a widow–must have been a challenge, but she said it was necessary for her to make the character at a transitional stage in life, particularly in her late-20s to early-30s.
Now approaching Holly’s age, Ahern herself has experienced some life changes.
“P.S. I Love You created a new life for me,” said Ahern, adding that it led to jobs such as producing the ABC drama Samantha Who? in the United States and having yet another novel adapted for the big screen in Britain. Not to mention, P.S. I Love You has become a best-seller and is scheduled to be published in more than 40 countries. She’s currently working on her seventh book.
Would the story of P.S. I Love You be different if it was written now, by a more mature Ahern?
“I was in the moment right then, and that’s when I was experiencing and having all those thoughts…whereas if I were to write it now…the feeling probably wouldn’t be there. That was the time for me to write it,” she says.
“I was kind of in the same position as Holly. I had just finished college and was stepping out into the world with this new beginning. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had lot of questions exactly like Holly has. So that was my journey. She was at home all day and all night in her pajamas with her family trying to get her out from the house. That was me, writing at home the whole day in my pajamas and people saying ‘What is she doing writing this novel? It’ll never be published.’
Said Ahern: “The letters were helping her and the writing was helping me. Every novel is like that for me. I have to go through it exactly as the characters do.”
“P.S. I Love You” opens Saturday. - (Oct. 17, 2008)
