Leaving Alva - Softcover

Lipman, Victoria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1439183260 ISBN 13: 9781439183267

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009

Synopsis

For Chloe, it was enough. More than enough. So she packs her bags and heads for the bus station, headed for who-knows-where and who-knows-what. Where turns out to be Arizona, and what turns out to be a liberating journey of self discovery and the realization that freedom has as many risks as it does rewards. As Chloe's story unfolds in Victoria Lipman's beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining debut novel, it becomes clear that leaving Alva is not only the best thing Chloe could do, it's the only thing she could do.

After a warped childhood of emotional deprivation, of being lonely, friendless, and motherless, Chloe wants only to feel loved. So when Alva comes along -- steady, kind, approving -- he seems to her a sanctuary, a rock-steady place where she can anchor and feel safe. But marriage proves to be a dead end rather than an escape, a safety net that turns into a trap. Quite simply, Alva loves Chloe too much, with love constant and unqualified -- and suffocating.

So she takes off for the Greyhound bus station, leaving behind a note telling Alva that he deserves better. Her only priorities in picking a destination: no place cold or states with a North or South in their names. She settles on Phoenix, buys a one-way ticket, says good-bye to one life, and anxiously anticipates the new one. Her seatmate is Zeno, an outrageous, impulsive, and hugely selfish woman who charms Chloe with exotic tales of her past, present, and future. After Alva, the freedom Zeno represents is pure intoxication, so she accepts the invitation to stay in Phoenix with Zeno and her aunt Ethel.

Despite the sense of freedom that comes with leaving Alva, Chloe still doesn't feel entirely at home with these two strange women. Ethel, who owns and runs a small flower shop, is the fattest woman Chloe has ever seen. And Zeno -- well, she's just plain odd.

Finally it's enough to send Chloe back on the road, only this time she's more confused than ever about who she is, where she's going, and what she wants to find once she gets there. But at least she is free to take this journey, and what a trip it is -- funny, moving, filled with wonderful characters and stark, stunning insights.

And what does Chloe find? Well, for one thing she comes to realize that in real life you can go home again, but you just may not want to...

About this title

From the Publisher:

Outstanding first novel--fun and engaging
As the editor of LEAVING ALVA I am obviously biased, but from years of reading and editing fiction I know talent and good storytelling when I see it. Normally I would not volunteer my remarks in a forum such as this, but given the misinformation provided by Kirkus and one of its underaged editor wannabes who knows its easier to sound smart if you're negative (and for some perverse reason this negative and totally wrongheaded review was included by the otherwise smart folks at Amazon.com on the catalogue page for this tile, while ignoring an excellent review that ran in Publishers Weekly), I felt I had to add my feelings. So ignore what the Kirkus review had to say and look at the book for yourself--or just simply take my word for it. Victoria Lipman is the real thing--a real writer who has come up with a truly engaging character in Chloe, and who has written a story that not only entertains but informs. When I first read this novel in manuscript form, I sent a copy to a friend in LA who belongs to a small reading club--they meet monthly, report on books they've read, etc. She confirmed my feeling that LEAVING ALVA is a novel that women of all ages and backgrounds can relate to and will respond to, and she is making the novel one that all the other members of her group will read and comment on. What is LEAVING ALVA? It's the story of a woman who never had love in her life until she met Alva, a man who loved her without reservation--and it was driving her absolutely crazy, so she left. Told in chapters that alternate between the present and the past, the reader follows Chloe as she copes with life and the people she meets on the road after leaving Alva, while at the same time coming to an understanding of just what forces have gotten her this far. I'll give you a paragraph that comes toward the end of this short, wonderful novel: "I wasn't moving as my father had, drifting, rootless, always one step ahead of what he knew to always be at his back. And I wasn't running like my mother into the welcoming arms of another man, thinking that in touch I'd find my salvation. I knew that I had needed Alva. But although I'd be leaving without the armor he had afforded me, I wasn't the same person I had been. A sense of my life filled me as never before. I knew that there were certain things I'd never have, like Mama. But I knew too that the wideness of the world and the tincture of time would give me what I needed." Isn't that great? Well the whole book is like that. Finally I should point out that Victoria Lipman is the author and SOLE author of this novel, and that I--Chuck Adams--am the editor, and that Charlotte Sheedy is the agent, and why our names appear along with the author's under the title as it appears today (2/6/98) on the Amazon.com page is a mystery. Read this book; you won't be disappointed.

About the Author:

Victoria Lipman lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and two teenage daughters. This is her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1439183260
• ISBN 13: 9781439183267
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 188