Hilary Leichter's "Terrace Story"

Monday reading #10

Monday Reading is my weekly recommendation of something I’ve found thought-provoking or fascinating. Sometimes it is about food or music or projects I care about supporting. Sometimes I do not send it on Monday. Please share with anyone who might like the vibes!!

My dear Monday readers! I have returned from the wilds of my recovery bed, from which I watched all seven seasons of Shetland while healing from a very last minute rotator cuff surgery. Yes, the surgery was on my dominant arm. Now, though, I am back to work teaching and have finally gotten the hang of dictating emails and lecture notes and newsletters.

I recently finished Hilary Leichter’s new novel Terrace Story and recommend it if you are looking for something new to read. I read her novel Temporary when it came out at the beginning of the pandemic, and I really liked it. Her work is a blend of gently absurdist humor, magical realism, and deep tenderness that works to remarkable effect. Terrace Story is even better. At the book’s center is a woman named Stephanie who can make space in the world with her mind: she can literally enlarge rooms, cups, swimming pools, lawns, terraces. This isn't a gift. How she came to discover this about herself, what it had to do with a central traumas of her life, how it affected the people she met—these are all unspooled across four sections which tell the stories of Stephanie and a handful of characters. It is about love and death and loss and loneliness. Almost everything is, of course. But not all of it is beautiful. This book is.

See you next week!