Loving Violet

A Novel

By Steven Lewis

Subjects: Literature, Fiction
Imprint: Distribution Partners
Paperback : 9781930337923, 192 pages, August 2017

A love story told against the backdrop of “the writing life. ”

Description

Loving Violet is a tight cinematic narrative about conflicting dimensions of love, romantic as well as familial, told against a backdrop of the pleasures and frustrations of "the writing life. " A generational sequel to Lewis's Take This, the book follows the late Robert Tevis's grandson Aaron through his entry into a graduate MFA writing program and the arms of the most drop-jaw gorgeous—and disarmingly untethered—girl he has ever known. From there we follow Aaron and Violet as they travel through the intoxicating, absurd, and confounding stages of erotic love, from a fictional Westchester college to a small loft in Brooklyn, the North Fork of Long Island, and, finally, with their newborn Esmé, to Central America. In Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, Aaron and Esmé establish an unusual extended family life with a unique group of women (his divorced mother, widowed grandmother, his late grandfather's lover, and the grandfather's former hippie caretaker) while Violet travels the globe as a successful writer.

Steven Lewis is a former Mentor at SUNY–Empire State College, a current member of the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute faculty, and longtime freelancer. His work has appeared in many places, including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Ploughshares. His many books include Take This: A Novel, also published by Codhill Press.

Reviews

"Steve Lewis has written one of the most bewitching characters to come along in contemporary literature. Not since Scarlett O'Hara has there been such a lovable vixen. He writes such pleasurable prose, it may take some reflection to realize how much wit and wisdom he shares with his readers. In the end, I was as smitten as his hapless grad student hero. Seasoned with insider's spice on the book business. " — Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements and A Place in the Country

"In Loving Violet, Steve Lewis takes us to a prestigious liberal arts college, New York City, the beaches of Long Island, and Costa Rica with young writers pushed and pulled by extraordinary passion and abiding love. How do we choose—can we really choose—who we love and what we make of this life? Questions of the price of that love and what we invest in the art we make along with that love—heart-wrenching and deeply thought-provoking in this extraordinary novel. " — Jimin Han, author of A Small Revolution

"Loving Violet is an irresistible novel about the powers of love and art. Steve Lewis limns the inevitable progression from the heady infatuation of youth to a more settled love in later years. All the characters are vividly drawn and the writing has the clarity and grace that is characteristic of Lewis's work. " — Angela Davis-Gardner, author of Butterfly's Child: A Novel