The Perfect Sonya (Contemporary American Fiction) - Softcover

Beverly Lowry is the author of the novels Breaking Gentle, Daddy’s Girl, Emma Blue, and Come Back Lolly Ray, along with the nonfiction Crossed Over and the new Her Dream of Dreams. She has published short stories, essays, and book reviews and received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. She lives in Austin.

Pauline is a self-absorbed sometime actress ("Sonya" in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya ), sometime bar fish-tank swimmer, living in New York, trying to reconcile her memories of childhood in small-town Texas with her adult life. Returning to Texas for her father's final illness, Pauline is forced to confront the uncomfortable memories she thought she had "outgrown." She seeks out and begins an affair with her aunt's ex-husband, a grizzled ex-professor from her college days, and gets trapped by flooding rains at his remote cabin. The trip and its disturbing effect on Pauline lead to the dissolution of her marriage and a long bout with depression. Middling contemporary fiction of the self-discovery variety, not unappealing, not altogether successful. Lowry's previous work includes Daddy's Girl ( LJ 9/15/81). Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
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