Lynda Cohen Loigman's "The Two-Family House," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman.

The entry begins:

I’m pretty sure this is every author’s favorite way to procrastinate. After all, what could be more fun than dream-casting actors to play your characters on screen? Just the thought of it makes me giddy.

The Two-Family House is a character-driven story, written from the alternating viewpoints of four adults. Later on, the voices of two children are added as well. Writing this way allowed me to fully inhabit each character, and to dig deeply with respect to their motivations and thoughts. You might say I’m a little overly attached to my characters at this point – which only makes imagining real people to play them more exciting!

When I was halfway done writing The Two-Family House, I began to imagine Natalie Portman as Rose. Rose changes so much throughout the book – she goes from desperate and timid to assertive and bitter. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Black Swan, you’ll know why I have such an appreciation for Natalie Portman’s talent to transform herself. Natalie is the perfect age to play Rose, and since she’s also a young mother, I feel like she would be able to bring that maternal experience to the role.

Helen is the tougher female character for me to cast. She is what my grandmother would have called a baleboste – the Yiddish word for a traditional wife, mother, homemaker type. The actor who plays Helen must be oozing warmth and love, but still be tough as nails. She has to...[read on]

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The Page 69 Test: The Two-Family House.

My Book, The Movie: The Two-Family House.

--Marshal Zeringue