October Suite
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The debut novel by the author of Rattlebone. “Told in a melody all its own, this story touches many lovely and unexpected notes.” —Elizabeth Strout, #1 New York Times bestselling author
It is 1950 and October Brown is a twenty-three-year-old first-year teacher thanking her lucky stars that she found a room in the best boardinghouse for Negro women teachers in Wyandotte County, Kansas. During an affair with an unhappily married handyman, October becomes pregnant.
With job in jeopardy and her reputation in tatters, October goes back to Ohio to be with her family: her older sister, Vergie, and her aunts who raised the sisters after their mother was killed by their father. After giving birth, she gives the child to Vergie and her husband to raise as their own, then returns to Kansas City to rebuild her life. But something is missing—and, apparently too late, October realizes what she has done . . .
The Midwest, the flourishing of modern jazz, and the culture of segregation form a compelling historical backdrop for this timeless and universal tale of one person’s battle to understand and master her own desires, and to embrace the responsibilities and promise of mature adulthood. In October Suite, Clair “has skillfully brought lyricism and word-play to her first novel, a family saga filled with secrets, redemption, and rivalry, as two sisters try to reclaim bonds forged in early childhood tragedy” (Library Journal).
“Maxine Clair deserves our admiration for this beautifully written and humane novel.” —The Washington Post
“A beautifully imagined novel that pulses with all the colors and sounds of the lives we live.” —Marita Golden, author of The Wide Circumference of Love
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This first novel by the author of 1994's admired story collection Rattlebonetells a simple story in a sweetly straightforward, lyrical style that builds a surprising amount of power as it moves quietly along. It is the tale of October Brown (she chose her own name); her sister, Vergie; the two elderly aunts who took the girls in when their father murdered their mother; and how they learn to deal with each other and the world. October, an unworldly but determined creature who teaches school in 1950s Missouri, makes a mistake when she falls for a married man and has a baby. Traumatized by little David's birth, she agrees in a weak moment to give him up to Vergie, who has always longed for a child, and the act shadows both their lives. Eventually, October finds a man of her own in jazzman Leon, and the sisters begin tentatively to reach an understanding, assisted by an amazing ghost from their past. Clair tells her story with a pitch-perfect feel for the time and the people African-Americans just beginning to sense the rising tide of the civil rights revolution and her character drawing is uncannily exact, from the anxious Vergie and the kindly but never cloying aunts to the delicately shaded Leon, who moves from brash ambition to calm acceptance. Above all, there is October herself, a heroine full of unostentatious strength who sheds a kind of radiance on the reader.
