so complicated to figure out who you're going to spend Christmas with.” Noting that many authors’ first novels are based on their own experience, Patchett explained that she had started her career wanting “to prove that I had this great imagination. But the wonderful thing about publishing this book at 52 is that I know that I am capable of working from a place of deep imagination. Now I just feel like I own every part of myself and my life and my imagination and the rocky terrain of my own brain, and that feels really good.” Major themes Fact in fiction Patchett frankly used her own memories in writing this novel and in it she raises the question of whether writing fiction based on real events and people is inherently exploitative. The famous novelist in the book, Leon Posen, uses Franny’s childhood memories.“He said that what she had told him was nothing but the jumping-off point for his imagination ... It wasn't her family. No one would see them there.” But, of course, Franny’s sibling and her step-siblings do see themselves there. This famous stranger’s book is a jarring act of exposure and misrepresentation of their most private moments.” Prior to this book, Patchett set all her novels far from home-- for example, the idea for the plot of Bel Canto came from an actual hostage crisis in Peru that she had read about in the news. Even so, in an interview about Commonwealth, Patchett said, “I’ve always been writing about my family, but up until now I'd been very clever to hide everyone in giant costumes made out of chicken wire and masking tape.” She had consulted her family before publishing Commonwealth, but about her own feelings said, “I have a real fear that the whole publication of this novel is going to center around questions of autobiography, .... Most of the things in this book didn't actually happen, but the feelings are very close to home. Or, as my mother [the novelist Jeanne Ray] said, “None of it happened and all of it's true.” Time Events in Commonwealth begin in the 1960s and take place over 50 years, time enough for children to be transformed in maturity, to recover from heartbreaks, to forgive one another and possibly even their parents. Interviewed in Slate Ann Patchett is quoted saying, “One of the things I'm obsessed with in all