Liliane's Balcony: A Novella of Fallingwater - Softcover

Parker Ervick, Kelcey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0988764539 ISBN 13: 9780988764538

Publisher: Rose Metal Press, 2013

Synopsis

Fiction. LILIANE'S BALCONY is a multi-voiced novella-in-flash set at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Built for Pittsburgh merchants E.J. and Liliane Kaufmann in 1935, the house is as much a character as it is a setting. One September night in 1952, Liliane Kaufmann—tired of her husband's infidelities—overdoses on pain pills in her bedroom. From there, LILIANE'S BALCONY alternates Mrs. Kaufmann's mostly true story with the fictional narratives of four modern-day tourists who arrive at the historic home in the midst of their own personal crises, all of which culminate on Mrs. Kaufmann's over-sized, cantilevered balcony. With its ghosts, motorcycles, portraits, Vikings, failed relationships, and many layered voices, Kelcey Parker's LILIANE'S BALCONY is as dizzying and intricately beautiful as the architectural wonder in which it is set.

"LILIANE'S BALCONY is as layered and audacious as the house at the center of the novella. Parker dances effortlessly between present and past, fact and fiction, nature and interior, lovers and out-of-lovers. The story that emerges is moving and precariously beautiful: a book that in lesser hands might have come toppling down. In Parker's, it's a triumph."—Caitlin Horrocks

"The latest from Parker is an inventive novella hybrid, a mix of prose and poetry, past and present, heartbreak and humor. At the core is Liliane Kaufmann, the wife and first cousin of the philandering Edgar Kaufmann, who commissioned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to create the audacious Fallingwater, a Pennsylvania house built over a waterfall. Rippling out from the couple is a cast of characters spanning centuries. Without introduction or background, a different voice narrates each chapter as the iconic home itself becomes a central character. Interspersing fiction with fact (although fact outweighs fiction in this well-researched story), Parker reveals the tragic life of strong, intelligent Liliane, who is slowly eroded by a complicated marriage gone toxic. Adding dimension to her portrayal are three other women, all at different points of self-discovery, all potentially bound for a similar fate as Liliane. Not unlike Fallingwater's structure, which masterfully balances the man-made with the natural, Parker sculpts and controls myriad, nearly unwieldy elements to construct a driven plot that illuminates the perched house and those who live within it."—Katherine Fronk, Booklist

About this title

About the Author:

Kelcey Parker Ervick has traveled to Prague regularly since 2003 and currently directs an overseas study program to Prague and Berlin, where students create collage journals inspired by artists such as Hannah Höch, Toyen (Marie Čermínová), and Jiří Kolář. She is the author of the story collection FOR SALE BY OWNER (Kore Press) and of LILIANE'S BALCONY (Rose Metal Press), a novella-in-flash set at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and winner of silver medal awards from the IPPY, Foreword, and Eric Hoffer Book Awards. A recipient of grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, she teaches creative writing and literary collage at Indiana University South Bend. Her blog features interviews with contemporary writers and the series, "Letters to Dead Authors."

Review:

Parker dances effortlessly between present and past, fact and fiction, nature and interior, lovers and out-of-lovers. The story that emerges is moving and precariously beautiful: a book that in lesser hands might have come toppling down. In Parker's, it's a triumph. --Caitlin Horrocks

In Liliane's Balcony, Kelcey Parker skillfully interweaves the voices of a wide range of richly drawn characters, each experiencing Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece, in diverse, compelling ways. For anyone who has visited, the vivid descriptions will take you back; for anyone who has not experienced Fallingwater first-hand, this book will conjure the magic out of thin air. But while Fallingwater is at the center of this swirling drama, Liliane's Balcony is at its heart a tale of love--the struggle to imagine it, the struggle to find it, and the struggle to keep it. --Jim Daniels

Liliane's Balcony proves stylishly and poignantly that just as buildings don't have to be huge to be architecturally daring, narratives don't have to be massive in scale to be grand in accomplishment. The story lines here--a contemporary one set on a tour of Fallingwater, a historical one featuring the original owner, the venturesome, conflicted, and fascinating Liliane--are ingeniously designed and expertly joined. The result is a meditation on marriage, architecture, womanhood, ghosts, and the idea of the genius loci that will linger with the reader long after the book is closed. This reminded me of great novels of architecture and psychology like Kathryn Davis's Hell and Joanna Scott's The Manikin, but Kelcey Parker is a unique talent, and Liliane's Balcony is a revelation. --Michael Griffith

About this edition

• Publisher: Rose Metal Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0988764539
• ISBN 13: 9780988764538
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216