The author Beth Kaplan discusses her memoir Loose Woman: My Odyssey from Lost to Found (Iguana Books, 2020), with Joseph Planta.

Loose Woman: My Odyssey from Lost to Found by Beth Kaplan (Iguana Books, 2020). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Loose Woman

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Everybody has that one important year in their life, where they grow up, or they come to some realisation as to where life’s headed; a year where something changes. For my guest now, Beth Kaplan, 1979 was one such year. She writes about this time in her life in a new book, Loose Woman: My Odyssey from Lost to Found. It’s the late 1970s and the world around her is changing, but she is too, whether she knows it or not. She’s in Vancouver, a successful young actress, who’s gotten good notices for her work with various theatre companies in town. Performing has been somewhat natural to her, even as kid, and she’s doing well. She portrays the scene here in town, with all its sex and drugs, that’s at once familiar as it seems like it’ll change soon enough as it does with a new decade. Beth is looking for a relationship. Despite forging connections and encounters, she’s looking for something lasting. She ends up in Europe, and at L’Arche in France, the community founded by Jean Vanier, that takes in and houses the intellectually disabled. Beth Kaplan works there that year, and the life changing experience there unlocks something about her she hadn’t known. She also contends with her parents in this year, and their relationship reaches a new level, as she understands her mother and father, two rather unique and remarkable people a little bit better. It’s a compelling book, one that’s fascinating with all its cameos (Dan Aykroyd was a pal at Carleton University, and Michael J. Fox was a castmate at the Arts Club here in Vancouver). She also deals with the recent revelations about Vanier and L’Arche. Beth Kaplan left a career as an actress to earn an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught memoir and personal essay writing since 1994. She has written three other books including Jewish Shakespeare, a biography of her great-grandfather. Visit www.bethkaplan.ca for more. This new memoir is published by Iguana Books. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Beth Kaplan; Ms. Kaplan, good morning.

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