Customer Reviews

Leaving Alva: A Novel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Victoria Lipman gave us a wonderful first novel, full of fresh vocabulary and fast rhythm that breathe life into her protagonist and supporting cast. I was taken from the first sentence of Chloe, the main character, that "I had been feeling restless for months, a kind of palsy of the mind, and only the thought of leaving town on a night bus calmed me." Chloe is painted by a woman writer to a woman audience, as Chloe is that difficult female balance of intuition and instincts with self-doubt and quandry. The novel begins with the departure of Chloe from her husband because of her own undefined but recognized yearnings, and embarks on an original series of events and reflections, to develop self-confidence and emerge squarely on her own two feet. This was a challenging theme which has failed in many other novels I have read. Ms. Lipman manages not only to navigate the theme but add fresh voice along the way and then tie up the earlier threads. For example? I was particularly taken by a very early thought of Chloe who, having embarked on the bus away from Alva, finds herself in a public women's bathroom and echoes her depression: "The truth is that when I do look in the mirror, I sometimes don't recognize myself. ... My being visible to others surprises me as if I had no more form than windblown vapors." At the end she returns to the thought with "I didn't linger, didn't perform any checking-out-the-self rituals, but when I looked in the mirror now I saw someone, and that someone stayed the same whether I looked at myself six times a day or sixty: in all kinds of mirrors, in all kinds of light. I was there." A woman will be unable to read this novel without underlining multiple passages, smiling, and saying aloud, "YES!" Ms. Lipman clearly understands her subject matter and though it is fiction, it is also reflections of our collective female selves. I have not rated this novel a ten because there are several small potholes in this first novel, but ! such do not detract from its appeal and readability. I very much look forward to her next novel, and hope that she is already hard at work on it.

Very good, quite funny, often moving, full of wonderful observations.