Limestone Wall

by Marlene Lee

Set at the notorious Jefferson City Prison, a novel about loss and healing and unexpected bonds.Evelyn Grant, newly widowed, returns to her hometown of Jefferson City, Missouri, where she rents rooms in her old family home across the street from the Missouri State Penitentiary. Then Evelyn sets about trying to see her mother for the first time in forty years. She knows where to find her - across the street, behind the limestone Mabel Grant is serving a life sentence in the penitentiary for murdering the twin babies of a neighbor. Evelyn makes the acquaintance of Roz Teal, who has befriended a condemned prisoner soon to be executed. Through Roz Evelyn meets Ezekiel, lifetime convict, who leads Evelyn to her mother. A novel about loss and healing and unexpected bonds.

Genres: Fiction

198 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2014

About the author

Marlene Lee has written several novels, short stories, and numerous poems. A 2010 graduate of the Master’s in Fiction Writing program from Brooklyn College, she is published in literary journals, including Other Voices, roger: an art and literary magazine, Calyx, Descant, Indiana Review, Maverick Press, and the newspapers The Christian Science Monitor and Orange County Illustrated.
Her novel The Absent Woman was published by Holland House Books Spring 2013.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. DARK.

The enticing book cover and Missouri setting attracted me to this novella originally published in 2014.

In 1959, Evelyn Grant Williams was only nine years old. Now, 40 years later, she has decided to visit her mother in prison.....the mother who destroyed her family.....the mother who is serving a life sentence.

What goes on behind the LIMESTONE WALL.....What went on in the house across the street, combined with recent tragedy keep Evelyn's mind and actions in constant turmoil as she struggles to remember what really happened on that horrific day in 1962.

LIMESTONE WALL is a slow burn of grief-filled puzzle pieces that alternate between haunted memories of the past and coming to terms with the present; and while an interesting narrative, (for me) the story did not always transition smoothly between thoughts, characters or places depicted at a particular time to the point of making me feel like I missed something.

At less than 200 pages, still a decent read, but DO SKIP the spoiler-filled book summary.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Holland House Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

When she was nine, her mother committed a horrible crime and was sentenced for life in Jefferson Prison. Now forty years has passed, her children moved away and her husband dead, Evelyn returns to her hometown in Jefferson, Missouri, close to the prison, and moves into the second story of her old childhood home. She tries to see her mother, and is devastated when her mother refuses to see her.

Slow moving, introspective, a woman trying to come to come to terms with her past. The prison setting is evocative but maybe somewhat unrealistic. As she find those who can help her get in to see her mother, we learn more about her life in this prison, and the man who prisoner himself, helped make her life her life bearable. Don't think things really happen like this, but I'm far from an expert. Was interesting to see how Evelyn adjust and handles the many setbacks she encounters, as well as the gaps in her memory. What she remembers at mine was far from the full story, and what really happened is the reason I kept reading. That and to see if she would have closure. Sounds like it would be a suspenseful read but it wasn't in any way. The sameness of tone was a bit off putting. So this ended up just being an okay read for me. The prose itself though, was at time noteworthy.

ARC from Netgalley.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded up. Having worked in a prison, everything about the prison setting in this story was bunkus. That admittedly turned me off. Further, what should have felt like the emotional journey to some type of reconciliation with the past felt more like a hormonal tennis match. Not terrible...just flat and disappointing.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Released in 2014, limestone wall is a literary work. The language is evocative and poetic. The author writes beautifully. The prose is haunting and there are a lot of quote-worthy passages.

I'm generally not the target audience for modern literature, so I truly don't want it to seem that I'm damning the book with faint praise. It is so skillfully written and I did enjoy reading it. For me it was very sad and bleak. The wreck and reverberations of many lives by insanity, criminality, tragedy and consequence. The book ended on something of a bleak note, but given the nature of the book, there wasn't room for a happily ever after type ending. There was resolution (we've all read books that make us want to grind our teeth with non-endings; this isn't that at all), but the whole experience just left me feeling melancholy and misty...

Four stars for the amazing writing. Beautifully, hauntingly written.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel that drew me in from the first pages.Evelyn a recent widow returns to her hometown after 40 years.She has come home to see her mother her mother who is incarcerated in the towns prison located behind the lime wall Ironically Evelyn childhood home was right across the street from it.Evelyns mother refuses to see her.As the story unfolds as we follow Evelyn's return to her hometown her memories this multi layered book will keep you turning the pages revealing answers along the way.
Thankyou to Holland House&Net Galley for an advance arc for honest review,

[Signe Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful novel is perhaps the author's best work to date. A middle-aged woman returns to Jefferson City where her mother committed a horrendous and inexplicable crime almost half a century ago. Limestone Wall is a haunting exploration of memory, nostalgia, and the mysteries at the heart of the human condition.

[Aj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for its Jeff City setting. Characters are complex - not intrinsically likable, very flawed. But, the story didn't really go anywhere.