Bloody Mary

by Sharon Solwitz

After her debut with the widely praised stories in Blood and Milk, Sharon Solwitz offers us her first, darkly radiant, full-length novel. Bloody Mary, which takes its title from the childhood game, tells the story of socially adept, 12-year-old Hadley and her protective mother. They live a privileged life in the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview, but soon find themselves in a state of chaos and flux.

Writing with her signature, edgy prose and ironic humor, Solwitz demonstrates that happiness "isn’t our birthright" and that "we have to work for it and even then we can’t be sure." We are led to consider our own degree of complicity in the hard times that seem to fall from nowhere.

"A flair for dark comedy and the ability to turn on a dime are prized qualities for these unpredictable characters; time and again, their intrepid investigations lead them into uncharted territory where bizarre dramatic action seems to be the only possible move. Solwitz’s fine-toothed examinations of complex emotional states are dead on…."—The New York Times Book Review

Sharon Solwitz's first collection of stories, Blood and Milk, won the 1998 Carl Sandburg Prize from Friends of the Chicago Public Library, the prize for adult fiction from the Society of Midland Authors, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her short stories, published in such magazines as TriQuarterly, Mademoiselle, and Ploughshares, have won numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize, the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and grants and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council. Currently, along with her husband, poet Barry Silesky, she has worked as fiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine. She teaches fiction at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Sharon Solwitz is a fiction writer and professor based in Chicago, Illinois. She is the author of the short story collection Blood and Milk and the novel Bloody Mary, both of which were published by Sarabande Books. Tom Perotta and Heidi Pitlor selected her story "Alive" for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 2012. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1991, and teaches creative writing at Purdue University. She is married to the poet Barry Silesky.

Reviews

[Brittney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for a novel by Sharon Solwitz because she has this vibrancy in her prose. Her voice is clear, sharp, biting at the consonants, and has character in the words she chooses to craft into succinct sentences.

The novel began with a brilliant formation of ordinary people living typical lives in a not-so-typical story. Told from the perspectives of the mother, Claire, and the youngest daughter, Hadley, the narrative sweeps back and forth. There is tension on page on as Claire is pulling up the carpet on the stairs, but Hadley's scenes lack momentum. Or rather, inspiration toward momentum. She takes pain killers without explanation. She runs off with slight motivation. This rotation between perspectives tells the story from different angles, but it stalls from digging further into the source of character motivation.

I have read Solwitz's short stories, and I was in love. Perhaps, I am more biased toward Blood and Milk, her book of short stories, because I feel like I get more of a sense of her in each of the characters. I can pick out pieces of Solwitz's life in the lives of her characters, and it makes it more enjoyable.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why I read books with infidelity- its a super big trigger for me, and I hate the characters who engage in it. I found this book, while interesting in themes, to have a whole lot of navel gazing.

[Denyece Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was slow at first but once I got into it it was worth it

[vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I did like Lady Bird, this book is kinda like Lady Bird if stuff actually happened.