Customer Reviews

Spilling Clarence

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This novel is both emotionally and intellectually significant-a rare find! At the heart of the book is a chemical, deletrium, that escapes into the town of Clarence. People find themselves remembering things they've forgotten, and many of those memories are painful. The questions raised here are fascinating and central to a culture where Prozac in the water supply wouldn't be all that unbelievable. (Just a bit. Just until we can start shopping again.) I was especially impressed with the authority of Anne Ursu's prose-truly astonishing for a first novelist. She can guide us past the memory wars of the last twenty years, and make it look easy (!), without once losing sight of her characters. I've already given this book to two grad school friends. I wish I could rate this ten stars; it's that good.

The main reason that prompted my buying of this book was the interesting premise. I thought the idea behind this book was something very original and unique, and I was definitely excited about reading it. And while Spilling Clarence did provide me with something out of the ordinary, I believe the novel was more depressing that I anticipated.

Spilling Clarence tells the story about a small town, Clarence, and the chemical leak that changed everything. An explosion at the town's psychopharmaceutical plant has sent mind-altering vapors into the air. At first, authorities weren't actually sure what to make of the incident, but soon they got their answers. These vapors, a chemical called Deletrium, unlocks the brain's hidden and repressed memories, encouraging patients (or in this case, town residents) to remember things they had forgotten. At first it doesn't sound so bad -- who doesn't like a trip down memory lane every once in a while? But soon, most of the town starts to unravel -- not everyone's memories bring smiles and joy.

While the story talks about many of Clarence's citizens, most of the detail is reserved for three main characters: Bennie, a college psychology professor, whose memories bring his deceased wife, Lizzie, back to life; Madeline, Bennie's mother, who resides at the Sunny Shadows retirement home, remembers the life she led as a wife and as a widow; and Susannah, an aide at the retirement home, who has her own troubled past, mostly in the form of a mentally ill mother. All of these characters are portrayed in rich detail, and author Anne Ursu leaves no rock overturned.

Spilling Clarence is an insightful, moving story about memories and the mind's natural process of storing them away. The writing is exquisite and thoughtful, yet simple and easy to understand when the author flits back and forth between past and present. The tone is more depressing than I expected -- there is a lot of "falling down into a crumpled, shaking heap" in this book! -- but then again, that is life and a lot memories we repress mostly relate to an unhappy time. Spilling Clarence is an honest piece of work, and I applaud Anne Ursu for writing it.

A chemical spill at a pharmaceutical factory has a direct effect on the residents of Clarence, Minnesota. The Deletruim gas released in the air enhances the mind, unlocking long-forgotten memories.

"Spilling Clarence follows several Clarence residents as they simultaneously undergo a brief, intense drug-induced walk down memory lane. Their experiences are heartfelt, sometimes tragic, and often funny.

Anne Ursu's novel is an impressive debut. Her characters are complex, yet easy to comprehend. The tone of the book coincides with the rise and fall of the residents' moods, letting readers come along for the Deletruim ride.

The author's generous use of subtle humor adds to this unique story.

It's hard to read "Spilling Clarence" without a smile on your face. It's sweet. It's sad. It's funny. It's good.

...so, I come to Amazon to write a review of a charming and funny first novel - a novel that I gobbled up in a single day - and find a sloppy, peevish diatribe from Publishers Weekly, so spiteful it made me wonder if author stole the reviewer's boyfriend back in junior high. Is there a prozac shortage I'm unaware of?

Obviously, I greatly enjoyed this novel. As readable as it is intelligent, SPILLING CLARENCE begins with an intriguing premise and builds into a thought-provoking examination of the nature and power of our memories. Anne Ursu's prose style and concerns are more akin to Don Delillo's WHITE NOISE than Alice Hoffman's work, and she has a sharp wit reminiscent of Lorrie Moore. But it is Ursu's richly drawn characters that delight and surprise (especially Sophie, whom I just adored.) They stayed with me long after I finished reading the book. Highly recommended.

Just when you think you're the genius who discovered a great new talent, you log onto Amazon and find eight people have already given your discovery rave reviews. Well, I'm proud to join this bandwagon.

Though I finished reading this book last week, I find myself still thinking about the characters. I picture them drinking coffee, thumbing through books and telling jokes that I'd find very funny.

The characters are very compelling, but what I found most unique in Spilling Clarence was the narration. It's funny, hip, and a tiny bit unusual. I felt as though it sat in my lap a few times, in a way that was surprisingly comfortable.

This is one of those books you'll go racing back to each night, anxious to pick up where you left off. I love it when a book I adore is a first novel. There's so much to look forward to.

What if every memory you ever had came flooding back to you all at once? Good and bad. The one's you've tried to remember. The one's you've tried to forget.

For the small town of Clarence, a fire at the Harris Jones psychopharmaceutical factory triggers a big chemical spill. Deletrium enters the atmosphere, affecting residents of all ages.

Bennie Singer and his daughter Soiphie sit in the Davis and Dean superstore reading books when the emergency sirens go off. Little do they know, thoughts of Lizzie - Bennie's wife and Sophie's mother - will soon start to haunt them. The love, the accident, the pain. The memories will invade and take over their lives.

Susannah Korbet sits in Davis and Dean blending into the crowd. Across town, her boyfriend Todd is a student at Mansfield University's Memory Studies Ph.D. program. He becomes even more immersed in his studies after the spill, leaving Susannah alone with only her past to keep her company.

At Sunny Shadows Estates Elegant Living Retirement Community, Dr. Calvin Woodward is trying his best to woo Madeline Singer. But Calvin will be the first apparent victim of the chemical spill and Madeline will soon spiral into her own suffering.

The citizens of Clarence aren't quite sure what's happening to them. They're aware of things changing. And they quickly find themselves bombarded with every moment from their past.

The deletrium unleashes the power of memory and unlocks both the pleasure and pain of everything remembered. It all leads the city of Clarence to wonder if memory is a gift...or a punishment.

Anne Ursu's debut novel works off of an interesting and unique concept. Just how would our lives be different if we could remember everything that's ever happened to us? Ursu's novel is an excellent journey into self-exploration with a motley cast of well-crafted characters.

SPILLING CLARENCE, the debut novel of Anne Ursu, is one of those novels (one of those RARE novels) that you want to re-read the moment you've finished it. You'll want to go back and see if the wisdom that you've found is really there (it is) if the sly wit was really that funny (it is) and the voice itself is really that insightful into the human condition. (Trust me on this -- it IS!)

Beautifully written, filled with people that you will know (that you might BE) this is a book that speaks about ordinary people in an extraordinary time that was not of their own making, but how they live will be of their own choosing. What better book for the world we find ourselves in?

Highly recommended.

Spilling Clarence, what an interesting yet ambiguous book title. Only when I picked it up and riffled it did I realize the premise of the book was way more interesting than the title might have suggested.

Clarence was the name of the town where Anne Ursu's story unravels. The town is home of a pharmaceutical company which prides itself with the memory retrieval pill Deletrium. An explosion of the company's manufacturing plant not only disturbed the hush of the town but sent an immeasurable waft of memory-provoking gas throughout town. While the plant assured the chemical spill of Deletrium was not toxic; the medical substance did trigger brain receptors and unleash memories that were repressed in the brain. The inevitable outcome was a retrieval of memories, pleasant and painful, caught up with townspeople who had been exposed to the vapor.

Bennie, a psychology professor, was among those who in the least appreciated the chemical as it brought back painful memories of his deceased wife Lizzie. Bennie is a single-father who raised 9-years-old Sophie. Bennie's mother, Madeline, who lived in a retirement home, recounted her stricken years as a mother and widow. Susannah, an aide at the retirement home and took care of Madeline, also got her share of grieving reminiscence about her mother who suffered from mental illness. Her fiance Todd was a student at a local college working toward his degree. While the book mainly focused on the three aforementioned characters, Ursu's rich but not sating narrative touched on many other townspeople and their pasts. Even the paltry characters were etched.

The book deals with grievances of the pasts and how diligently people tried to put behind the painful loss. As intriguing as it may be, the book also brought to surface the nature of loneliness. It seemed to me that the troubled past, the bitterness, the sadness had imposed such formidable hurdle in the characters that they couldn't break away from their loneliness.

I want to remind fellow readers that this book is quite promising as Anne Ursu's debut novel. While Ursu doesn't play around with winding skeins of words that unspool and render elegantly like some of the most acclaimed prose stylists of our time; her writing is taut, crisp, and clear. She bears the tour de force to take her readers back and forth in time to make reference to reminiscence and to weave together various incidences in the lives of her characters. This is done somehow seamlessly and not obscurely.

Spilling Clarence is a relatively short book. It would be a perfect choice for a summer read though parts of it (the reminiscence) can be very depressing. I read it out of the curiosity for its unique and tantalizing premise and slipped it in between my arduous reading projects for a breath of fresh air. 3.8 stars.

What a find! A laugh-out-loud, cry-out-loud story, this rollicking, highly intelligent novel spins a tale of remembrance and love in the aftermath of a chemical spill. In the town of Clarence, characters you'd like for friends share heartbreak and hope as a mysterious vapor releases full recall of their triumphs and tragedies. With shimmering sentences, Anne Ursu creates an engaging, entrancing, and evocative world and explores the poignant nature of human relationships.

One cautionary note: Unless you want to become acquainted with the person seated next to you -- do not read this book on public transportation.

How exciting to find an innovative piece of fiction that is so appealing. This novel has such an original voice, has such a quirky sense of humor, and such a magnificent narrative pace and style.
Sometimes attempts at literary innovation mean the author is trying to belong to some "high art" literary club, means the author forgets the poor reader along the way. Not here.
Ursu is an intelligent, yet very feeling author.
I'll be recommending this novel for a long time to come.