Some Other Town
A Novel
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3.8 • 10 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Channeling the emotional intensity of Susan Minot and Amy Bloom—and infused with a witty, dream-like surrealism reminiscent of Margaret Atwood—this mesmerizing debut takes us inside the unsettling world of Margaret Lydia Benning, which turns upside down when she falls in love…and then unravels before our eyes.
“What I have to tell Ben is just this. At last I am certain. All the signs, all the dreams are in. And I know now I have made a terrible mistake. I was wrong, it turns out, about us.”
Margaret Lydia Benning lives adrift in the same Midwest town where she went to college. By day, she works at a low-level job for the Project, a university-sponsored educational publisher housed in a former sanatorium. There she shares the fourth floor with a squadron of eccentric editors and a resident ghost from the screamers’ wing. At night, Margaret returns to her small house on Mott Street, resigned to the disturbing overtures of her strange neighbor, Mrs. Eberline.
Emotionally sleepwalking through the days is no way to lead a life. But then Margaret meets Ben Adams, a visiting professor of art at the university. Despite the odds—and their best intentions—Margaret and her professor become lovers, and she glimpses a future she had never before imagined. For the first time, she has hope…until Ben inexplicably vanishes. In the wake of his disappearance, Margaret sets out to find him. Her journey will force her to question everything she believes to be true.
Told through intertwined perspectives, by turns incandescent and haunting, Some Other Town is an unforgettable tale, with a heart-breaking twist, of one woman’s awakening to her own possibility—and her ability to love, and love well.
Customer Reviews
Youngwomanhood
This is a beautifully written debut novel about a single woman named Margaret who lives in a small Midwestern town. Her life has effectively stopped though she is not yet 30. When this moment happens (and it will happen to all of us), what do we do? The story develops when an interested stranger appears.
This is writing of a very high level. Plot is not the main thing here. You read this book for the richness of its language and its exploration of life and if we can really live it the way we want to.
Remarkable and Quirky Midwestern Tale
Some Other Town, Elizabeth Collison's debut novel, is a remarkable and quirky midwestern tale. Margaret Benning, our protagonist, is a seemingly typical mid-to-late twenties woman who's trying to figure out the world, and her place in it. In the midst of that, she encounters some of the liveliest and quirkiest characters I've come across in literature. Bouncing between the incredibly relateable and the wholly surreal, Some Other Town isn't necessarily a page turner, but its beautiful prose will keep you flipping. Even better, the ending will have you re-thinking what you read in the best way possible, and I guarantee you'll want to be talking about it with your friends and family. I love reading stories that are set in my cultural and geographic roots, and this Iowa-set story doesn't disappoint.
Mesmerizing
"Some Other Town" grabs you from the beginning and won't let go. Mysterious, spiritual, funny, and clever, Elizabeth Collison has crafted a cast of characters that are totally quirky, yet somehow real. They come alive through her amazing gift with words and descriptions and the reader just keeps breathing in this wonderful work. The description is so right on,"the emotional intensity of Susan Minot and Amy Bloom ... Witty, dream-like surrealism reminiscent of Margaret Atwood." Fans of those writers will become a fan of Collison as well after reading this book. I can't wait for the next one.