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Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
5 posts | 2 read | 3 to read
"Capacious, unsentimental, and yet forgiving, Ultraviolet brings us both the intimacy of women's lives and their trajectories across continents and generations. This is Suzanne Matson at her wisest and deepest—wonderful." —Gish Jen, author of The Girl at the Baggage Claim Suzanne Matson’s engrossing and intimate new novel, Ultraviolet, centers on Kathryn—the daughter of Elsie and mother of Samantha—while illuminating the lives of three generations of women, each more independent than the last. Their stories open in 1930s India, where Elsie lives with her authoritarian missionary husband and their children. Returning to the American Midwest as a teenager, Kathryn feels alienated and restless. When she loses her mother prematurely to a stroke, she escapes to Oregon for a fresh start. Disappointed that her education was cut short by her father, and dreaming of becoming a writer, she supports herself as a waitress in wartime America, dating soldiers, then meeting and marrying Finnish-American Carl. A construction worker sixteen years her senior, he is an unlikely match, though appealing in his care-free ways and stark difference from her Mennonite past. But Kathryn ends up feeling trapped in the marriage, her ambitions thwarted. Samantha, who’s grown up in the atmosphere of her mother’s discontent, follows her own career to teach at a university in faraway Boston, where she maintains a happy family of her own. When Kathryn starts to fail, Samantha moves her mother near her to care for, and then to watch over her deathbed, where “something in the room—the spell, the cord knitting them together—is cut. Or no, that can’t be right, either.” Ultraviolet is a lyrical novel of great emotional depth. Suzanne Matson recognizes both the drama that is within every existence and the strengths and fragilities of our relationships with others. She shines a brilliant light on the complexities of marriage, motherhood, aging, and the end of life.
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DannyOlda
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
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Back to India for a bit with this new novel. I accidentally left a leaking bottle of ink on this book, but I actually rather like the effect.

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Bookalong
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
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Pickpick

4/5🌟 For this Compelling and Epic Generational Novel!
This one slowly drew me in. The writing was lovely, and the plot and characters were good also.
If you like generational novels and or reading about mother-daughter relationships give this one a go.
#bookreview #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookblog

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DannyOlda
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
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Spent way too much on books today but Catapult and Soft Skull presses offered great deals that I couldn't pass up. Consider supporting indie presses this season; you won't be disappointed.

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ElishaLovesBooks
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
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Pickpick

I liked this book despite the fact that I‘m not really sure what it was really about. I know it‘s the story of a family and 3 generations of women but I felt like I kept waiting to get to this greater purpose, which never appeared. But the author does have a way of writing about mundane life that kept me interested. I AM wondering why the book‘s title was called Ultraviolet when that was featured so little in the book?!

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ElishaLovesBooks
Ultraviolet: A Novel | Suzanne Matson
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Started this today. So far it seems interesting!

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