Limestone Wall
by Marlene Lee
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Pub Date Nov 01 2014 | Archive Date Aug 22 2017
Description
A Note From the Publisher
Marlene Lee has worked as a court reporter, teacher, college instructor, and writer. A graduate of Kansas Wesleyan University (BA), University of Kansas (MA), and Brooklyn College (MFA), she currently tutors in the Writing Center at the University of Missouri. She has published numerous stories, poems, and essays, in the Indiana Review, Descant, Orange County Illustrated, Maverick Press, Autobiography, Calyx, Other Voices, roger: a journal of literature and art and Blue Fifth Review. She won first prize in the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Novel Contest, and first prize in the University of Kansas Poetry Contest. She has published three novels: The Absent Woman, Rebecca’s Road, and Scoville.
The settings in Marlene Lee’s work are almost characters in themselves. She would have difficulty choosing a favorite among the places where she has lived: small town and city, Kansas and Missouri, Northern and Southern California, Oregon and Washington, and New York City.
Advance Praise
Keija Parssinen, author of The Ruins Of Us, writes:
"Limestone Wall is a slim novel that nonetheless contains worlds upon worlds--in its wonderfully knobby, authentic characters, and in its elegant meditations on childhood, marriage, death, and the passage of time. Each page is a gift of beauty and truth. Fans of Marilynne Robinson and Paul Harding will find much to admire in Marlene Lee's books."
What they said about The Absent Woman:
"I couldn't put
down The Absent Woman. I relished every scene, every word. It's one of the most
compelling novels that I've read...”
Ella
Leffland (author of Rumors of Peace and The Knight, Death, and the
Devil.)
"Lee
writes quite beautifully, with grace and wit and precision... The
book will stay with me for a long time."
Alex
George (author of A Good American)
"... a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes excruciating, and always
compelling journey of self-examination. In lucid prose, Lee tells a marvelous
story with echoes of Kate Chopin's THE AWAKENING."
Keija
Parssinen (author of The Ruins of Us)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781909374348 |
| PRICE | $14.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 198 |
Featured Reviews
Annie B, Reviewer
Released in 2014, limestone wall is a literary work. The language is evocative and poetic. The author writes beautifully. The prose is haunting and there are a lot of quote-worthy passages.
I'm generally not the target audience for modern literature, so I truly don't want it to seem that I'm damning the book with faint praise. It is so skillfully written and I did enjoy reading it. For me it was very sad and bleak. The wreck and reverberations of many lives by insanity, criminality, tragedy and consequence. The book ended on something of a bleak note, but given the nature of the book, there wasn't room for a happily ever after type ending. There was resolution (we've all read book that make us want to grind our teeth with non-endings; this isn't that at all), but the whole experience just left me feeling melancholy and misty...
Four stars for the amazing writing. Beautifully, hauntingly written.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
Sue F, Reviewer
This is a short read at less than 200 pages. I enjoyed the writing but found it very sad. I felt for Evelyn who waited 40 years to visit her mother in prison. Mabel is serving a life sentence for the murder of her neighbour's twin babies. It's a story of loss and healing.
Thank you Netgalley for my copy.
Carol H, Reviewer
3.5 Stars. DARK.
The enticing book cover and Missouri setting attracted me to this novella first published in 2014.
In 1959, Evelyn Grant Williams was only nine years old. Now, 40 years later, she has decided to visit her mother in prison.....the mother who destroyed her family......the mother who is serving a life sentence.
What goes on behind the LIMESTONE WALL.....What went on in the house across the street.....combined with recent tragedy keep Evelyn's mind and actions in constant turmoil as she struggles to remember what really happened on that horrific day in 1962.
LIMESTONE WALL is a slow burn of grief-filled puzzle pieces that alternate between haunted memories of the past and coming to terms with the present; and while an interesting narrative, (for me) the story did not always transition smoothly between thoughts, characters, or places depicted at a particular time to the point of making me feel like I missed something.
At less than 200 pages, still a decent read, but DO SKIP the spoiler-filled book summary.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Holland House publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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