A Body At Rest
Susan Petrone
Drinian Press

When I read the back cover of Cleveland writer Susan Petrone's book A Body At Rest and found out it involves two young women going on a road trip after quitting their jobs, I was ready to read it. But when I discovered Nina and Martha were going to be guided by their favorite characters from their favorite books -- Don Quixote and Emma respectively -- I was intrigued. Then I experienced the witty literary-peppered dialogue between these educated women who'd been working on The Ridge, Cleveland’s "bohemian" neighborhood, and I started looking forward to finding out what they had to say while wandering the streets of Cleveland.

The book, an experiment with magical realism, did not disappoint me. The plot moved along well. The blurring of reality and fantasy was pulled off with finesse. I cared about the characters to the point that I felt their pain. I was entertained. And for me, a Cleveland promoter, it is definitely a local victory.

Petrone’s novel, which has been published by Drinian Press of Huron, will officially be released tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, with the reading and release party at Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights. Check out Susan’s reading at Mac’s Backs or order the book online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or special order it at your local bookstore. The release corresponds with Small Press Month.

I just had to ask Petrone how she pulled this book off by asking her questions about the concept and the writing. Cleveland Heights native Susan Petrone wrote A Body at Rest after letting it sit for a number of years. Then she picked it up, found her voice, shaped her characters, and came up with a really interesting book where two young women go on a road trip after quitting their lackluster-go-nowhere jobs.

Petrone says the idea came up while she was working as a volunteer for an international peace organization in the Netherlands, “and Don Quixote just kept turning up. I was reading the book during the three-week orientation for the program. Then I spent a week in New York visiting friends and saw a revival of Man of La Mancha with the late great Raul Julia (and managed to sneak backstage and get his autograph afterwards). After I arrived in Alkmaar, Netherlands, where I would live for the next two years, Don Q. just kept popping up in strange places—in a newspaper article about a Latin American protest artist who used Don Quixote’s image in a series of works on the poor, in a Dutch-subtitled episode of L.A. Law, in conversations with the new people that I met. And, of course, the Netherlands has all those windmills. I inherited the crappy volunteer bicycle, which I dubbed Rocinante. In letters back home, I joked that I was turning into Don Quixote. Then I thought about what would happen if someone actually turned into a fictional character.”

Petrone’s answer displays the quality of her writing and tells you about the writer’s life. The book sat for twelve years and germinated until Petrone was ready to pick it up again.

When she did, she found the voice and direction she’d been waiting for.

Petrone explains, “I found the humor in Martha’s voice and the ironic slacker sense of play that is at the heart of her and Nina’s friendship, and then things started to click. I threw out the old chapters and started writing from scratch—there is maybe a paragraph here or there from the original chapters, but that’s about it.”

She started out writing A Body At Rest by plotting it in a general way but allowed the characters to emerge as the plot carries them along on their journey. She says, “I suppose I add layers to the plot as I try to refine it and develop the characters.” The novel gained depth as scenes were added, characteristics were added, diction was refined. The tightness of the final product came about through editing -- she cut about 10,000 words in the last edit.

She wanted to try and have a fresh take on the character of Don Quixote, who she doesn’t see as a failure. “When I first read the book, I didn’t cry when Don Quixote died, I cried when he apologized to Sancho for leading him to believe that there are still knights errant in the world. Despite age and a certain level of ineptitude, Don Quixote transforms himself into what he most wants to be. Martha and Nina transform themselves into what they most want to be. There are always certain expectations laid upon our lives. How much those expectations influence our choices and whether we can transform ourselves into something else is at the heart of A Body at Rest.”

Petrone skill at handling transformations is at the heart of why this book that was a semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

Petrone grew up in artsy Cleveland Heights, and she started out wanting to be a playwright--that would explain the great dialogue and movie-like feel to the book. She was one of the winners of the Marilyn Bianchi Kids Playwriting Festival and spent much of her adolescence working at Dobama Theater. Her mother was the single mother of six kids but was a playwright and voracious reader so the arts were an integral part of family life. In the novel, University Circle is described as “the intellectual hub of the city from which straggly spokes of intelligent and creative life generate.”

Petrone knows how hard it is to hide in our big-little town, saying, “It’s impossible to get lost in Cleveland if you’ve grown up there. You are continually running into people you went to high school with, who once worked with your mother, or who dated your brother. I love the city. I love its innocence and its honesty—the crooked Cuyahoga River and the deep vein of culture and sophistication that fights daily with a Midwestern homebody view of the planet.”

The only thing I’ll argue with in that is the “Midwestern” part.

During Small Press Month, get a copy of A Body At Rest by our own Susan Petrone (she's also literally one of our own, a Cool Cleveland contributor). It’ll serve you well during the last winter snowstorm, which we know is coming sometime in the next couple weeks. Visit http://www.MacsBacks.com for details on Petrone's reading and other great events at the Coventry landmark.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com

Check out Taller's musings at http://ClaudiaTallerMusings.blogspot.com
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