A space apart [Paperback]

Meredith Sue Willis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1982

A Space Apart is so deftly and subtly written, I hardly noticed how involved I'd become until I'd read the last page and turned it, wanting more. The Scarlin family is going to be with me for a very long time. -- Anne Tyler Willis fleshes out with warmth and tenderness the complexities of family love, which not only defines commitment but deepens the need. An important new talent. -The Kirkus Reviews The narrative carries warmth and strength. The people are as real as your next door neighbors. - Houston Chronicle Willis views the Scarlin family ties and loyalties, limits and tensions, with realism, sensitivity and precision. A noteworthy first novel. - Publisher's Weekly This is the story of a broken family trying to mend itself through three generations. It is a painful but essential process, and like all such repair jobs, it is only partly successful. Before it is over we come to know John and Vera and Mary Kay, as well as Vera's daughters, Lee and Tonie-- to understand the wars they must declare and the peaces that they are able to proclaim within the state of being Scarlins. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer First novelist Willis shapes her story with exquisite care, detailing the lives of a West Virginia preacher's family: John Scarlin, minister and son of "the Preacher," a wild old born-again Baptist; John's sturdy sister Mary Katherine; his capricious wife Vera, a strong character who commands attention in one fine scene after another; and his daughter Lee and Tonie who grow up to reject and embrace the meaning of Galatia, their hometown....Finally what is revealed by a family, inextricably bound together while struggling with each other's need to find "a place apart." Narratively skilled and disciplined, this is an impressive debut. -- Library Journal

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Meredith Sue Willis, a native of West Virginia, is the author of more than a dozen books, including fiction for adults like In the Mountains of America (Mercury House, 1994) and Oradell at Sea (West Virginia University Press, 2002) as well as novels for children and books about house to write. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: John Curley & Associates; First Edition edition (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893405167
• ISBN-13: 978-0893405168
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,597,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Meredith Sue Willis grew up in West Virginia where her parents were both teachers. She has degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University, and her fiction has been published by Scribners', HarperCollins, West Virginia University Press, Mercury House, Ohio University Press, and others. Her book of literary short stories, In the Mountains of America, was praised in the New York Times Book Review as "a[n]...important lesson on the nature and function of literature itself." Her novels for children are Billie of Fish House Lane, The Secret Super Powers of Marco and Marco's Monster.

Her latest books are Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel, and a new collection of Appalachian short stories, Out of the Mountains.

She lives in South Orange, New Jersey where she keeps a four season organic garden and is active in local racial integration politics as well as teaching writing in the schools and at New York University.