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    Florida: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Florida: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Florida: A Novel
    Ebook159 pages2 hours

    Florida: A Novel

    By Christine Schutt

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Finalist for the National Book Award: Christine Schutt’s masterful novel—hailed by John Ashbery as “an amazing achievement”—about a remarkable little girl who comes of age, adrift, in the care of a rotating cast of indifferent relatives
    Alice Fivey is seven years old when her father dies, and ten when her mentally fragile mother is institutionalized. So begins the “sleepover life” for Alice. Shuttled among the homes of wealthy relatives, retainers, babysitters, and reluctant caretakers, Alice must learn their habits and adapt if she is to survive. But how is she to remain intact after the loss of her parents, whose troubled pasts are invoked to punish and manipulate her? Books help, as do kindly teachers.
    Set largely in the chilly Midwest, the vision of a life in Florida, first offered up by Alice’s father as a promise of good health and balmy weather, grows in significance for Alice. She is an orphan, and as such she must forge a home and an identity beyond that of her namesake: her unstable mother.
    Alice Fivey, consoled with reading, becomes a storyteller herself, building a home word by word in elegiac, luminous scenes that serve as evidence of the life-giving power of language.
    A finalist for the National Book Award, Florida is an elegant, lyrical, and dreamlike first-person portrait of a young artist in early bloom, and a hauntingly beautiful tale of survival and growth told in a unique and unforgettable voice.  
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateAug 6, 2013
    ISBN9781480438460
    Unavailable
    Florida: A Novel
    Author

    Christine Schutt

    CHRISTINE SCHUTT is the author of the short-story collection Nightwork. Her work, which has garnered an O. Henry Prize and a Pushcart Prize, is published widely in literary journals. Schutt lives and teaches in New York City.

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    Reviews for Florida

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Alice is left with a mother on the edge of insanity when her father is found drowned on his way to work. When she visits the sanatorium Alice is taken in by family. Nonna has a big house, and the will to care for young Alice, but a stroke has rendered her speechless; Arlette has too many children and animals to care for; and Aunt Frances and Uncle Billy prefer their collections of things to the unpredictability of a child in their house. Throughout all her moves between their homes, the one constant is Arthur. He is their handyman and their driver and they depend on him completely. Alice loves him, but her feelings are conflicted. This is an impressive novella where the language is sparse and used very lightly. There are moments while reading when it feels like it is all about to slip into disjointedness, but Schutt’s skills as an author ensures that this never happens. Instead, Florida reads like poetry.
    • 5/5
      Once I started reading, I couldn't stop until I got to the end. Look forward to reading more by Schutt!
    • 4/5
      Despite, the title, this book is not about Florida -- but the idea and allure of Florida permeate this coming-of-age novel set in the Midwest. Schutt creates an almost-stream-of-consciousness, almost poetic voice for Alice Fivey, who goes to live with her Uncle Billy and Aunt Frances after her father is killed in a car accident and her glittery mother breaks down and ends up institutionalized. The fragmented style of the narration fits the fragmented life of Alice as she realizes she must create her own life and her own narration.One winter afternoon --an entire winter-- it was my father who was taking us. Father and Mother and I, we were going to Florida -- who knew for how long? I listened in at the breakfast table whenever I heard talk of sunshine. I asked questions about our living there that made them smile. We ate sectioned fruit capped with bleedy maraschinos -- my favorite!....In the Florida we were headed for the afternoon was swizzled drinks and cherries to eat, stem and all: "Here's to you, here's to me, here's to our new home!" One winter afternoon in our favorite restaurant, there was Florida in our future while I was licking sugar, waiting for what was promised: the maraschino cherry, ever-sweet every time.Although Alice gets far more salt and snow than sweet sunshine, she eventually finds her own path for her life. And Schutt has written an elegant kunstlerroman.