Private Correspondences [Paperback]

Trudy Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 1996

This stark and powerful first novel--the winner of the 1994 William Goyen Prize for fiction--tells of a teenage girl who, when attacked by sexual violence, chooses not to flee it but to face it, and then to embrace it. Between lyrical moments of illumination and insight, Lewis explores the dark heart of a misogynist culture.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of TriQuarterly's 1994 William Goyen prize for fiction, this powerful debut novel explores the hidden niches of cruelty, lust, political corruption and misogyny. Narrator Libby Martin, daughter of a state senator, is 15 when she receives an anonymous obscene letter threatening her with rape and mutilation. The missive changes her life and her perceptions of her family and friends. In a course of painful discoveries, she confronts her father's duplicitous adulteries, her mother's frustrated obsessions with order and cleanliness and a friend's betrayal of trust and loyalty. Finally, in a violent and sexually graphic conclusion, she gains a form of empowerment. With perfectly pitched dialogue and a story grounded in details of contemporary manners and mores-from rock music to sexual harassment in the political arena-Lewis's shattering study of sexual violence and individual vulnerability is both timely and universally resonant.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

One fine day, 15-year-old Libby Martin, the daughter of a U.S. senator, receives a threatening anonymous letter. This event unleashes a torrent of jumbled half-memories and sexual fantasies that concludes with a convoluted rape and murder sequence. A victim of yet another dys-functional family with a womanizing father and a bitter mother, Libby is caught up in her own sexual innocence at a time when she is most vulnerable. The winner of the 1994 William Goyen Prize for fiction, this first novel unfortunately suffers from overstylized prose and a weak plot. Most libraries can pass.
Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., N.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Triquarterly (November 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810150417
• ISBN-13: 978-0810150416
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,319,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to put down., June 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Private Correspondences (Paperback)

Wow. That's all I had to say after finishing that one. Trudy Lewis does some amazing things with language, and the plot is intoxicating. I had some concerns about certain things--like why Libby's father takes it upon himself to protect her by bringing in her on a road trip, then abandons her, or what Cyril's political motives were exactly. Cyril himself seemed so far-fetched--he talks on an allegorical level about the biblical uses of menstrual blood and politics. The end was also a bit extreme. Nevertheless, this was one good read.