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A Novel
by Michelle Huneven
Michelle Huneven, Richard Russo once wrote, is "a writer of extraordinary and thrilling talent." That talent explodes with her third book, Blame, a spellbinding novel of guilt and love, family and shame, sobriety and the lack of it, and the moral ambiguities that ensnare us all.
The story: Patsy MacLemoore, a history professor in her late twenties with a brand-new Ph.D. from Berkeley and a wild streak, wakes up in jail— yet again—after another epic alcoholic blackout. "Okay, what'd I do?" she asks her lawyer and jailers. "I really don’t remember." She adds, jokingly: "Did I kill someone?"
In fact, two Jehovah's Witnesses, a mother and daughter, are dead, run over in Patsy's driveway. Patsy, who was driving with a revoked license, will spend the rest of her life—in prison, getting sober, finding a new community (and a husband) in AA—trying to atone for this unpardonable act.
Then, decades later, another unimaginable piece of information turns up....
"Starred Review. Huneven's exploration of misdeeds real and imagined is humane, insightful and beautiful." - Publishers Weekly
"Grace, insight and seemingly effortless narration distract from the odd pacing and sometimes meandering progress of this empathetic tale." - Kirkus Reviews
"Recommended to readers who enjoy literary novels like Sue Miller's Lost in the Forest and Laura Moriarty's The Rest of Her Life that examine how a tragic accident irrevocably changes life's course." - Library Journal
This information about Blame was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michelle Huneven is the author of two previous novels, Round Rock and
Jamesland. She has received a General Electric Foundation Award for
Younger Writers and a Whiting Writers' Award for fiction. She lives in Altadena,
California.
A note of caution: the book jacket contains a significant plot spoiler from more than halfway through the book - this has been removed from the description above.
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