OK, all of you who have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which is an awful lot of you), and those of you who have enjoyed the two novels from Marina Lewycka, which I certainly did, it is time to come together for your next big read. That would be Bloomsbury debut author Marc Fitten’s hilarious new novel, Valeria’s Last Stand.
Valeria’s Last Stand takes you across the big pond, to Hungary in Eastern Europe. Communism is gone, but, not necessarily forgotten, in the small rural town of Zivatar.
And, rural town may be too generous a description of Zivatar, for this hamlet was so tiny and unimportant that it was ignored by the Germans in WWII, and bypassed by the Soviets during the occupation, and the mayor has to literally give parts of the village away to attract anyone, domestic or international, to invest in the area. Yet, if a train station is build, one day the railway will come, right?
Now, Valeria is a woman of advancing age, who keeps to her self, her priorities, and her standards. She sends terror through the market as she inspects the produce, for none is as good as hers. She is alone. Then, after years of seeing the potter, she “sees” the potter. Unfortunately, the Potter is somewhat of a friend of the barkeep at perhaps the most unique roadhouse in all of Europe. Readers, these are just a few of the wild and intriguing characters that populate Valeria’s Last Stand; wait until you meet the chimney sweep.
Fitten’s book is fun to read; it is the kind of book in which the characters get their due and the reader finds him or herself saying yes, that is the way it should be. I truly look forward to seeing more from Fitten, who is somewhat of an international presence himself as he was born in Brooklyn, NY of Latin American parents, and now resides in Atlanta. -Deal
