I just finished
Lone Stars, Sophia Healy's first novel, copyright 1989, a third person account of shifting viewpoints. It is a portrait of a married couple living in San Antonio, he a Polish immigrant and unsuccessful artist who has a knack for trading stocks, she a Mexican immigrant 20 years his junior, whose first exhibition is about to take place. Their closest friends are also immigrants. The couple has agreed that the marriage should be open, modern in sexual activity. Will that hold up or will one of them suffer jealousy? That is essence of the narrative, which feels incomplete. Despite this, the book has several things going for it. The characters, including the circle of friends, are interesting; the author does well in showing how artists see the particulars of the world around them; and the blending of cultures is very cool. That said, the novel feels like an outline. Only 169 pages - much less given the many chapter breaks, it seems a lot is missing. And there is none of the confrontation that makes a work crackle. It remains on a single plain from start to finish. The writing occasionally soars, but, overall, I think it needed another draft, more polish. Despite the Bohemian values of the characters, the action is not explicit. Hardly anyone would be offended. No one has rated the book at Amazon. I usually render my opinion on books that have attracted less than ten reviews. I'm hesitant to here because I couldn't in good conscience give it more than two stars, and I would feel rotten doing that to a writer I'm sure put a lot of effort into her work. If there were other, good reviews there to mitigate my opinion, I would do it. It's odd that not a single one of her friends has posted a review. In the novel's favor,
Atlantic Monthly Press, in business since 1917, thought enough of it to put it into print, so maybe it's me who fails to see its worth. Healy has published others books through the years, but none seem to have been any more successful than her first. She seems to be an artist first, writer second. According to her website, she has had exhibitions in Boston, Sao Paolo, Poughkeepsie and San Antonio, and hosted workshops in Vermont, Mexico and Brazil. Here's the cover of another of her works, which I like better than that of
Lone Stars. I believe it is out of print. I don't know if she did the artwork:
Q: What did the pig say on the really hot day? A: I’m bacon. It’s so hot that chickens are laying omelets... that I saw a squirrel pick up a nut with pot holders... that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron... that cows are giving evaporated milk... that I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen. Yesterday's heat had me looking up jokes on the subject. Last night at nine PM, sick of drinking water and seltzer, I decided to go to CVS for a yogurt drink. It was still hot! For the first time ever I had the fan running all night.
Conditions were 50% better under the scaffold today, the temperature lower and a fresh breeze blowing through the shade. My thanks to the woman who bought two books in Russian, and to Cabbie, who did a swap and buy of paperback thrillers; and to Marie, who donated five books, one of which I've begun to read. Special thanks to the gentleman who must have been told I'm a writer, who bought
Five Cents as well as Hemingway's
The Sun Also Rises. I asked what year he'd emigrated to the U.S.. He said 1990. I told him
Five Cents takes place in the '70's and that he might not find it relevant, but he stuck with it. If he'd passed, I would have suggested he try
Killing. He has bought much serious literature the past several years, a lot of it on Israel.
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