In Harriet Scott Chessman's arresting first novel, Hallie Greaves comes home to Ohio one hot week in July. She hopes to help her mother, who confines her life wholly to her bedroom. To enter her mother's room, however, is to face her own disappointments and yearnings. At an impasse in her painting and her marriage, Hallie confronts questions of love, memory, and sorrow. Ohio Angels is a moving portrait of the intricacies of marriage and friendship, and of the surprising possibilities for compassion and renewal.
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"I know her style is maybe too associative/elliptical for some, but I cannot get enough of this writer. She tells her stories her way, linking together language and thoughts like a poet, and I for one am hooked. More please. " — Sonja (5 out of 5 stars)
"I know her style is maybe too associative/elliptical for some, but I cannot get enough of this writer. She tells her stories her way, linking together language and thoughts like a poet, and I for one am hooked. More please. "
“Lyrical…Chessman is adept at setting a mood.”
“Norma Lang narrates in an even and introspective tone. Her quiet and steady examination of the corners of Hallie’s past and present is appropriately low-key and well tempered.”
“Chessman captures the inner workings of the mind and the processes by which decisions are made. Her prose, well read by Norma Lana, is thoughtful, and her characters are beautifully constructed.”
“A poetic and moving first novel.”
“A quietly lyrical debut about a young woman coming to terms with family and mortality…A compelling and sensitive portrayal…Chessman’s style is fluid and unobtrusive, and manages to be meditative without being abstract.”
" Somewhat poetic little novel about a woman who suffered 5 miscarrages and who comes home to visit her mother who has attempted suicide. "
" A tiresome read about characters with "issues"...though nothing ever really happens. Although, one of the characters stays in bed for quite some time. Just made me want to stay in bed, too. (Rather than read it.) "
Harriet Scott Chessman is happy to announce her newest novel, The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas, published by Outpost 19 in March 2017. She is the author of the earlier novels The Beauty of Ordinary Things, Someone Not Really Her Mother, Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, and Ohio Angels. In addition, Harriet wrote the opera libretto for MY LAI, commissioned by the Kronos Performing Arts Association. Her fiction has been translated into eight languages, and featured in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, NPR’s All Things Considered, Good Morning America, The Christian Science Monitor, and more. She has taught English and creative writing at Yale University, Bread Loaf School of English, and Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. After twelve years in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives now in Connecticut.
Norma Lana is the founding member of and writer for Girlz on Top, an all-female comedy group. She has starred in numerous theater productions, including The Diviners, Bad Behavior, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Norma has had many roles on film and television, including Arrest & Trial, The Ruth Truth, and Backstreet Dreams. Her voice can also be heard as a computer virus on Hackers.
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