On Coventry

by Matthew Schultz

On Coventry traces the very real phenomenon of generational decline by mapping the economic corrosion of Cleveland, Ohio, upon the semi-charmed story of Eliot Hopkins who, on the tragic side of twenty-two, finds himself thoroughly disappointed with life when the foggy hue of a girl in a knee-length pea coat, its collar turned up against the swell of her ale-brown hair, appears before him. The story follows the ill-fated love between Eliot Hopkins and Alice Browne through the seemingly enchanted relationship of his now deceased mother and disabled father, and further back to the charmed life of his great-grandparents–immigrants who escaped Austria-Hungary at the outset of the First World War to find one another in a Minnesota mining camp before moving to Northeast Ohio. Schultz renders a discerning narrative of serendipitous relationships, cruel misfortune, and the entropy of American dreams. One that is a testament to the enduring optimism of every Clevelander who believes in tomorrow, next year, eventually, somewhen.

173 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 19, 2015