The Melting Season Book

This book was stunning. Absolutely stunning. I kept putting off writing this review because whatever words I found to describe it sounded wrong. What I'm trying to say is that this story is a precious one.
Yes- that is the story - a country girl steals her husband's money and leaves him. Period. She ends up in Las Vegas- where she meets Valka-a fabulous mess of a woman.I have to say that Valka was one of the most
fantastic and beautiful characters that I have ever read. She took my breath away.
At times you understand that Jami Attenberg is using her character to tell the story. Valka listens and Catherine talks but lemme tell you- Valka's listening is just so so punchy - so so active that you just want to reach into the book and hug her.. and hug her again. She is a masterpiece.
I won't go on.
Read it.
I found only one very minor irritant with the style. Here it is: Catherine talks funny. I know there's a literary name for it but this is what she does. She uses the whole verb. Like this; Instead of saying 'I'm' she says 'I am'
or instead of saying 'can't' she says 'cannot'.
I kind of drove me nuts at first. It made me think of all those arty authors that don't use quotation marks to denote a character's speech. With those guys it just seemed effected and frankly stupid.
But in this case I got used to it. I think Jami Attenberg was trying to make Catherine sound 'us folksy' or homey but in the end she came off sounding like a Quaker or a Quaker's wife- which is fine until you hear this Quaker describing penile implants and masturbating techniques for women everywhere.
It's a bit of a jolt but like I said this book was a stunning piece of work. Yes it was a masterpiece. And Valka - she deserves a Pulitzer. Just that beautiful.JM