Customer Reviews

Valeria's Last Stand: A Novel

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This is a light hearted love story with an unexpected romantic couple. Valeria is a 68 year old spinster living in the Hungarian town of Zivatar. Valeria suffered heartbreak as a young woman and has since become the crotchety town hag. She finds love again with the town potter, but he is involved with the pub owner Ibolya. Each member of this strange love triangle fears that this is their last chance at love. Valeria and Ibolya both want the potter and neither will let anyone or anything get in their way.
This is a delightful story written as if it were an Hungarian folk tale. Many characters are unnamed and referred to only by their occupation: the mayor, the potter, etc. Well written and featuring a host of zany characters, I highly recommend this book.

Set in a small town in Hungary, in what appears to be the late 1990s, this charming debut novel revolves around a senior citizen love triangle. The town's well-liked, white-haired, widower potter has not only taken up with a busty, lusty, and venomous tavern owner, but also falls in bed with a pear-shaped, sourpuss spinster (the Valeria of the title). For a town so far off the beaten track that both WWII and the 1956 revolution were merely something that happened over the horizon to some other people, the tug-of-war between the tavernista and Valeria ranks as a major showdown. It's not for nothing that the town is named Zivatar -- the word means "thunderstorm" in Hungarian, which is emblematic of the chaos that is about to engulf the timeless town.

That chaos comes not only from the battle between the tavernista and Valeria for the exclusive affections of the potter, but also the arrival of an scheming itinerant chimney-sweep. Meanwhile, another subplot concerns the mayor's scheme to connect to the town to the national rail system, and thus usher in a new era of connectedness and prosperity. So along with what is a simple, and frequently funny, story of matchmaking is the larger theme of modernity arriving at this little hamlet, where the ability to buy an entire bag of imported oranges is a mark of true wealth and power.

There's nothing particularly deep or grand about any of this, it's a nice little story that reminds the reader that it's never too late for love, and that thoughtlessness in affairs of the heart (or body) carries consequences. Fitten has managed to capture a certain timeless tone without it getting cutsey or cloying -- indeed, there is some coarse language, and even a graphic sexual scene or two, which are a nice counterpoint to what might have been a merely quaint portrayal. The only real misstep comes at the end, where the townspeople start to riot in a way that didn't feel particularly plausible. On the whole, it's a fun little book, the first in a projected trilogy.

Note: For fiction written by Hungarians about small towns, try George Konrad's The City Builder or Laszlo Krasznahorkai's The Melancholy of Resistance.

In this astonishing, brilliant first novel, the author creates a village peopled by vivid and unforgettable characters. Although it's set in Hungary in the 1990s, in a place bypassed by history and set in its ways, the book makes it all seem familiar, warm, and entirely believable. Simply stated, after a lifetime of mundane work and gossip, the town potter and the village hag fall in love, and Zivatar is never the same after that. Even the coming of the railroad and of EU-era progress seems of less import.

That this is from a young American author is even more remarkable. Nothing rings false or out of synch in his village, particularly a village that no passing army, in over a century of tumultuous history over the horizon, thought Zivatar worth sacking or even notice. His characters seem likeable in their own irritating ways and they interact in a story that, in its quirky way, goes from grumpy beginnings to hilarious complications and a wild denouement. If this is indeed the start of trilogy then those will be worth looking forward to. Certainly, this book stands on its own as a delightful and well-crafted story.

Highly recommend.

I found Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten an absolutely delightful surprise. This light-hearted story of a Hungarian town moving into the 21st century when it had barely come to terms with the 20th was a joy to read.

The term light-hearted should not be confused with "light" as in insignificant or throw-away. While centered on Valeria, a once-jilted older woman who never allowed herself to enjoy life, this is really the story of the town whose people, in the aggregate, form a separate character. The town has been pretty much bypassed or as the author puts it, "ignored," by history--no bombings during WWII, no tanks rolling over them after the 1956 Revolution, Communism being seen wistfully by the older generation as convenience that provided good pensions and security. Now the mayor--once a loyal party member, now an ardent capitalist--is bent on bringing "progress" to the town. He is building a new train station and constantly courting outside investors. While the rest of the town still travels on foot or bicycle, he drives his Mercedes even to travel just down the block.The three main characters--Valeria, The Potter, and Ibolya--all middle-aged or a little beyond--represent the town, teetering on the brink of new possibilities yet hesitant to move forward.

Marc Fenton definitely surprised me. As Editor of the Chattahoochee Review where the stories are often darker and certainly more "literary" in form, I was expecting something different. The surprise was a pleasant one, however, and I highly recommend this book.Valeria's Last Stand: A Novel

Valeria and her towns people are a hoot, thanks to author Marc Fitten. Fitten got me to do something I would never have imagined - become entwined in the life of an elderly Hungarian woman.

The writing is superb - hilarious, passionate, provocative, and plain, when it counts. Definitely an enjoyable read.

"It was as though she had stepped into her familiar yard when the sun was at a certain angle, and there, right in front of her, at the base of a tree she had looked at countless times, a precious stone that had always been there glinted and caught her eye."


~ Marc Fitten, Valeria's Last Stand



The very moment I cracked the spine of Valeria's Last Stand I knew I was in for something magical. Marc has an uncanny ability to weave words and beguile his reader until real life and novel become seamlessly intertwined. His main characters, Valeria, the Potter, Iboyla, the Mayor and the Chimney Sweep are larger than life and fleshed out so vividly and intimately that by the end of the book it was if I had walked alongside them for the duration of their journey and could only hold my breath as their lives exploded and unfolded between the pages.



Like the blooming of a inestimable orchid, Valeria's tale unfolds its precious petals so languidly that one can't help but slip a finger between the pages in hopes of speeding up the story; and yet, each sentence, each page, is rife with new magic and impossible to skim over; the reader becomes a willing captive.



Valeria's Last Stand is a gem of a novel that gives the reader a penetrating perspective of a backwater Hungarian village and it's assortment of colorful and unsuspecting inhabitants. Known for their complacency and contentedness to remain anonymous and unchanged, the villagers find themselves suddenly upended as one single act of whim on Valeria's part metamorphoses them all, forcing them to take stock of their lives, their desires, and their dreams.



Marc's story flows, one character's story from another, until every breath is interconnected. The tumult and discord the villagers are forced to face will likely lead them all to ruin, their tiny, perfect life speared open by a single caprice of one of their most curmudgeonly inhabitants...or will it? You will have to read Valeria's Last Stand and find out, I promise you, this book is a keeper!

This book is set in Hungary, and revolves around the life (especially love life) of an middle aged woman (60's) named Valeria. While it deals with a love triangle it managed to do so in a way that makes us fall in love with the characters (This sounds strange, but it's true). It is a very humorous little book, and because it is written in such a way one almost does not mind the rough language, the implausibility of certain situations/events and the couple of graphic scenes included. I fell in love with this book and am hopeful that the next who books to follow will be just as good.

Set in a small Hungarian village, one so lacking in value that tanks rumbled on by with nary a look-in, Fitten's comic/romantic/fabulous (in the literal sense) novel examines the effect of post-Soviet economics and culture on those whose lives were shaped under the hammer-and-sickle.

Valeria is a grumpy old woman. She disapproves. Of people, of vegetables, of the world around her. Until one day, as she is turning up her nose at the market offerings, she sees the village potter, as though for the first time. And something moves in her. And in the potter. It's difficult. They don't quite know how to behave with each other. Not to mention that he has been keeping company with the woman who runs the local bar. When a chimney sweep with an eye for the main chance arrives in the town, and casts that eye on Valeria, the consequences are startling.

The story has the feel of a folk tale, and, indeed, many of the characters are nameless, described simply as "the potter", "the apprentice", "the mayor". Yet Fitten has created very human characters. None of them are perfect, but none are completely bad, either. Just when you decide you know what's ticking, there's a turn and you're surprised by the change in your viewpoint. It's wonderful, too, that his sensuous, sexy, hard-working, heroine, over whom the potter and sweep come literally to blows, is a woman of sixty-eight.

This is Fitten's first novel. According to an interview in the back of the book, it is the first of "A Paprika Trilogy". I look forward to the rest.

I kept losing my copy of this book -- I think it was an unconscious reflection on the way I felt about it. Even when the book was within reach, I didn't find myself wanting to keep reading. Mainly, I didn't find any of the characters at all sympathetic, even the ones with names. Part of the reason for this was the obsession all of the main characters had with sex -- unbroken, except for a passing thought for money.
I understand that Fitten intended Valeria's Last Stand to be a fable of sorts, but I have always thought that fables cannot work if the book does not work as a story first. I didn't find this story compelling enough to stretch it to a fable.
As for my copy of this book, I should always be able to find it from now on -- I don't see it moving off of my bookshelf very often.

This was a wonderful, feel-good book. Marc Fitten has written a very good debut novel. The story revolves around Valeria a Hungarian peasant woman who finally blossoms sexually and emotionally and becomes enamored with two men - a potter and a chimney sweep. Her rival for the affections of both men is Ibolya - the village's sole bar owner.

Both characters, the Hungarian village where they live and the other villagers are wonderfully described by Fitten. The story was so interesting that I had a hard time putting the book down I barely could wait to see how the story would end.

I found I could identify with Valeria and was really rooting for her. As a 50 plus something female, I was happy to read about a wonderful sixty year old female who has lots of energy and who is a force to be reckoned with.

I have already recommended this book to a friend of mine. He really, really loved the novel. Enjoy all the zany situation in this novel/fable.