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Valentine: A Read with Jenna Pick Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 31, 2020
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An instant New York Times Bestseller
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
"A thrilling debut that deserves your attention." –Ron Charles, the Washington Post
Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the VCU Cabell First Novel Award.
Mercy is hard in a place like this . . .
It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.
In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2020
- Dimensions6 x 1.05 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100062913263
- ISBN-13978-0062913265
"Layla" by Colleen Hoover for $7.19
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
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Editorial Reviews
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“A thrilling debut. . . . Like Miriam Toews’ Women Talking, Valentine is a story about how women—particularly women without much education or money—negotiate a culture of masculine brutality. This is the story of their lives in a backwater oil town in the mid-1970s, which Wetmore seems to know with empathy so deep it aches. . . . Carefully wrought and emotionally compelling.” — Washington Post
"A monument to a sort of singular grace, and true grit." — Entertainment Weekly
“Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore’s fierce and brilliant debut novel, is set in Odessa, a rough-edged West Texas town built on cattle and oil. It evokes the physicality of the place with a visceral power that recalls Cormac McCarthy, and sets out its cultural ambience and mores with the ironic clarity of Larry McMurtry. This literary landscape has been defined by men as surely as the reality it represents. Wetmore sweeps them to the sidelines, defiantly and confidently claiming West Texas for the women and girls. . . . Valentine joins the best Texas novels ever written.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Excellent. . . . Tense and riveting. . . . D.A. emerges a gritty, welcome addition to American literature’s pantheon of young heroines. . . . Wetmore, a native of West Texas and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, offers with her first novel a harrowing narrative of a region she knows well, described with precision and passion.” — Associated Press
“Exceptional. . . .Wetmore, like Harper Lee before her, has little interest in preserving the illusions of people who believe that justice and love will always prevail. . . . an incredibly moving and emotionally devastating piece of work that heralds great things from Wetmore.” — Houston Chronicle
"Wetmore’s characters offer perspectives that cross generations, socioeconomic classes and races. Yet all characters serve to showcase the resilience of women and the power that comes in deciding the direction of one’s own story." — San Francisco Chronicle
“Gripping and complex. . . . Wetmore’s delight in language enlivens every page. . . . With its deeply realized characters, moral intricacy, brilliant writing and a page-turning plot, Valentine rewards its readers’ generosity with innumerable good things in glorious abundance.” — Chicago Tribune
"Valentine shines with strong characters, some sympathetic, others detestable, and a complex plot with narrative threads smoothly knitted together." — The Missourian
“Fierce and complex, VALENTINE is a novel of moral urgency and breathtaking prose. This is the very definition of a stunning debut.” — Ann Patchett
“It is nearly impossible for me to believe that Elizabeth Wetmore is a first-time novelist. How can a writer burst out of the gate with this much firepower and skill? VALENTINE is brilliant, sharp, tightly wound, and devastating. Wetmore has ripped the brutal, epic landscape of West Texas out of the hands of men, and has handed the stories over (finally!) to the girls and women who have always suffered, survived, and made their mark in such a hostile world. These are some of the most fully realized and unforgettable female characters I’ve ever met. They will stay with me." — Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of City of Girls
“A testament to the resilience of the female spirit. . . .Wetmore’s prose is both beautiful and bone-true, and this mature novel hardly feels like a debut. You’ll wish you had more time with each of these powerful women when it’s over.” — Bookpage (starred review)
“Stirring. . . . Wetmore poetically weaves the landscape of Odessa and the internal lives of her characters, whose presence remains vivid after the last page is turned. This moving portrait of West Texas oil country evokes the work of Larry McMurtry and John Sayles with strong, memorable female voices.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A searing, propulsive debut. . . . Through these alternating narratives, Wetmore tells a powerful story of female anger, a repressed rage against systematic sexism and racism ready to explode. . . . From its chilling opening to its haunting conclusion, this astonishing novel will resonate with many readers.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Drawing comparisons to Barbara Kingsolver and Wallace Stegner, Wetmore writes with an evidently innate wisdom about the human spirit. With deep introspection, she expertly unravels the complexities between men, women, and the land they inhabit. Achingly powerful, this story will resonate with readers long after having finished it.” — Booklist
“My goodness, what a novel. I clutched this book in both hands and by the end I could feel the dust of West Texas on my skin. Elizabeth Wetmore understands the nuances of the human heart better than almost any writer I’ve read in recent years, and I rooted for these women with everything I have. There is violence here, and despair, but in the end the story is a testament to quiet courage, to hope, to love. Every person should read this extraordinary debut.” — Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes
“Elizabeth Wetmore shows us the vivid and complex culture of Odessa, Texas. The women in this book move through their difficult lives with strength and surprising grace. The landscape and characters are rendered with precise and lyric prose. Valentine is a beautiful book written with compassion, understanding, and deep honesty. A remarkable debut.” — Chris Offutt, author of Country Dark
“In Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore cracks open West Texas and lays bare what beats inside: a world at once ferocious, fragile, and furious, where women and girls fight menace from every fanged quarter—land, animal, human. But fight they do, for themselves, for each other, for what’s right. Wondrously, amid the sorrow, Valentine thrums with the most staggering beauty, a compassion and tenderness as vast as the sky. You’ll read this book like a letter from a lost love, clutched in your hands, heart in your throat. You’ll carry it with you forever.” — Bryn Chancellor, author of Sycamore
"In outstanding prose, Wetmore has created a handful of extraordinary women out of the dust of West Texas, 1976. They are all so real, with their hard lives lived with absolute humanity. Valentine is both heartbreaking and thrilling, I loved it." — Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days
About the Author
Elizabeth Wetmore is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in Epoch, Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Baltimore Review, Crab Orchard Review, Iowa Review, and other literary journals. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, as well as a grant from the Barbara Deming Foundation. She was also a Rona Jaffe Scholar in Fiction at Bread Loaf and a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, and one of six Writers in Residence at Hedgebrook. A native of West Texas, she lives and works in Chicago.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper; First Edition (March 31, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062913263
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062913265
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.05 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #410,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,948 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Books)
- #4,917 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #22,571 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Valentine: A Novel
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About the author
Elizabeth Wetmore is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in Epoch, Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Baltimore Review, Crab Orchard Review, Iowa Review, and other literary journals. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council.
Before devoting herself to writing, Elizabeth variously tended bar, waited tables, taught English, drove a cab (for a minute!), temped, and painted silos and cooling towers at a petrochemical plant. For a time, she lived in a one-room cabin in the woods outside of Flagstaff, Arizona while she worked as a classical music announcer. A native of West Texas, she lives and works in Chicago. VALENTINE is her first novel.
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The author’s flowing narrative brings to mind Cormac McCarty, Elmer Kelton, and Larry McMurtry, greats who also brought Texas to life.
It is not for everyone. If jumping points of view or people speaking without quotation marks bothers you, you might find it confusing. Most of the negative reader reviews I have seen have complained of this. I was never confused at all. The author makes clear whose POV she is using before each section. But be warned.
I did not find it depressing. I thought it was tough and realistic, but also poignant and beautiful. It isn’t a cheer you up book, but it can move you and take you deep into a world most of us do not live in
I gave it four stars because I reserve five for truly exceptional novels. This cane close. I read it on kindle, then ordered a copy to revisit, which I do not do often. It certainly was one of the best books I have read in awhile.
I do not believe my second husband, whom I met after moving to Central Texas, understands why I hate to pump gasoline into my own vehicle. If you grew up in Odessa or Midland, you would know why. The cat calls and the disgusting remarks still have left me scarred.
As a was researching the 1983 murder of a friend of mine, along with his older brother and mother, I came across the photographs of all the missing young women during the time, as well. I was so young back then and didn’t realize what was happening. No one spoke about these crimes to children. I never even knew what had happened to man who murdered my friend until a few years ago after I had to retire early as a Senior Crime Scene Specialist because of a brain disease. (If you Google Kenneth Venne, you will find out that a monster can kill 2 teenagers, most probably raping, and killing their mother, and is given a ridiculous sentence and set to be released in 2022.)
I guess parents back then believed that the less you knew, the better off you were. In my case, that didn’t work out too well. I never stopped sleep walking like most children do when they reach a certain age. So, I was at the FBI Academy in Quantico for training when I woke up and found that I had taken all of my clothing out of my dorm room’s dresser and put them into bed with me. When I arrived back at my agency, I started on the long road to dealing with PTSD.
This story has such a familiar, devastatingly honest portrayal of Odessa that I would find my hair standing on end. I even recognized the streets because I lived in the townhomes on either side of the streets where the characters lived when my daughter was born.
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would, and I hope everyone who reads this review purchases it right now and takes what they may from it. As for me, I know I made the right choice in leaving. I have a friend who attended the yearly Pow Wow in Big Springs. She was told by a Native American elder that the land is a proving ground. If you can leave it, and stay away from it, you have proven yourself.
I believe I and Elizabeth Wetmore have done just that. I only wish more would or could…
Top reviews from other countries
They are tough, courageous, angry women, often driven near to despair by their lives and sometimes by their menfolk. These men are largely shadows on the periphery, looming large but never quite coming into focus - with the exception of the dead husband of one of the women. To some extent the men are more part of the background of danger and obstacles in the womens' lives than real characters. Part of a landscape of oil, dust, storms and heat which is vividly and powerfully written. The author has a fabulous gift with words and she doesn't waste a single one in sentimentality or cliche; every sentence drives home her point mercilessly.
It's not for the fainthearted, this book, but I recommend it.