But, Mona didn t paint my night sky, she revised it. Jane and I are an example of how tenuous these distinctions are. It is sometimes thrilling to live vicariously through Jane. Some descriptions of Jane describe me more precisely than I can describe myself. Or maybe she liked herself that way, distorted.
Some distortions are frightening.
It is compelling, and sometimes dangerous, to combine life and fantasy to read invention as if it were life. In the story, Owens and Mary are Jane s parents. These are not my parents. But acquaintances of my family, who recognized the similarities between my life and Jane s, assumed that Mary and my mother must be similar too. My mother avoided A Regular Guy .