Chicagoan Ashley Norton’s novel inspired by her real-life issues

While much in Ashley Prentice Norton’s second novel “If You Left” comes from her own imagination, the Chicago native based the manic depression issues involving her main character, Althea, on her own past struggles with bipolar disease.

The author, a great-great granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller — and the oldest child of Chicago philanthropist and former newspaper columnist Abra Prentice Wilkin and the late longtime Chicago Tribune reporter Jon Anderson — Norton freely admitted in a recent phone interview her desire to use her book to shine a light on the impact mental health issues can have on a marriage.

“I do have bipolar, but that’s just the jumping-off part for the book,” said Norton, sharing her process in developing her new book. “I had a really bad clinical depression about six years ago, but the novel originally was more focused on the nanny to a very overprivileged family on the Upper East Side [of New York City.] But I wasn’t that happy with it, and it didn’t feel quite right. It wasn’t until I started focusing more on the mother character that I really clicked with it, and the book took off.”

“If You Left” focuses on Althea and the relationship she has with her disease, her husband Oliver, their daughter Clem and several other key characters in their lives — including a female French designer and a young man hired to paint Althea and Oliver’s weekend home in the Hamptons.

While Norton said “I knew a lot about the disease from my own experience and thought it was good to use what I had, and incorporate that into the story … I really wanted to share what happens if someone spends their whole life fighting their depression. I know people who are constantly recurring. Some people never get well. Althea is someone who is like that, recycling though her disease.

“I wanted to explore what that would be like — and look at what effect that could have on a marriage.

“Luckily, I’m married to a wonderful man who was supportive of me dealing with my illness the whole time and stuck by me. That piece of the story was based on fact, though I added a lot of not-so-flattering aspects to the husband in the book which are totally fictional. Plus I have three kids, and Althea only has one adopted daughter.”

In the book, Althea calls her bouts with deep depression “The Tombs,” and her manic highs “The Visions.” Oliver is totally devoted and caring toward Althea when she’s in the throes of her disease, but when she’s well — when she’s stable — he often acts out his suppressed anger and cheats on her.

Norton explained she wrote about that to show that caregivers “can’t be terrible to someone when they’re sick, but when they are well, that’s when the anger comes out. During the caregiving stage, those people often feel somewhat like a hostage. But when their sick partners get well, there has to be a release. It’s like they say, ‘I’ve played this role and I’m sick of it!’

“Frankly, with any kind of disease, I think a lot of anger can build up in caregivers,” said Norton.

Another element Norton wanted to shine a light on was to “take the stigma off of electric shock therapy. I had 17 rounds of it, and let me tell you, it’s not exactly polite cocktail party conversation!

“People think that once you do that you’re totally out of your mind — and they certainly don’t want your kids to be in their play group!” Norton added with a rueful laugh. “But listen, those treatments made me well. That’s all I can say. It’s still kind of experimental and they’re not sure how or why it works for some people, but I want to stop the stigma still attached to it and explain it can make you a normal person again.”

Norton credits her parents with passing on both a talent for writing — “even though they were very different kinds of writers” — and an appreciation of dark humor.

“But most of all, I love my mom and dad for teaching me to never be insular in this world — to be interested in all kinds of people. That gives a novelist so much to draw on. … I’m very grateful to them for that.”

As for “The Chocolate Money,” her first novel, Norton said, “I’m not like a lot of writers who always have like 30 copies of their book on hand — ready at a moment’s notice. I think I may have one copy of my [first] book around someplace. I wrote it, and that’s it. I would never go back and read it again,” said Norton, noting “there’s too many hurtful things associated with that experience.”

That first novel’s principal character was seen by many as being inspired by Norton’s mother — showcasing attributes that were quite unflattering. While Norton always said the book was a work of fiction, “The Chocolate Money” did lead to a rift with her mother that fortunately has now been healed.

Norton is happy that Wilkin “likes this book,” but laughed as she noted her mother’s penchant for being a stickler for details.

“In writing a novel about real places and real things, you always want to get the details right. If you make a mistake about various details — like a description of a store or a place or things — it can take the reader out of the story and make them focus on mistakes or misrepresentations.

One example is when Norton describes Althea’s inability to find where “the majolica mugs are kept in her kitchen,” as an example of how Althea’s battle with depression has diminished her ability to be a normal parent who can take care of her child and her needs.

“My mom loved the book, but pointed out to me that they don’t make majolica mugs,” said Norton with a big laugh, noting that detail about the famous, collectible pottery. “Now when I go back and read those passages it bothers me too!”

Norton looks back fondly on her years growing up in Chicago, saying she discovered her love of writing at an early age. “Obviously there were the influences from both of my parents, but I remember — in particular — doing well at [the Latin School of Chicago] and writing this piece on Ring Lardner.”

Norton went on to the prestigious Exeter Academy and then Georgetown University, where she began delving into a series of creative writing courses. She also credits jobs working on the copy desk at the Sun-Times back in the late 1980s and then a later stint at Town & Country magazine “as being great experiences and helped me so much in my journey.”

Before hanging up, Norton said, “Writing is a constant journey. I want to write another novel, and then another one and another one. I want to get better with each one, and hopefully give readers something worthwhile to spend their time exploring.”