Chloe and Olivia

I discovered this book via the recommendation of another author, Barbara Kingsolver. She refers to it as one of the "beautifully written first novels published each year that sell a handful of copies and quietly go out of print." Although the characters in this book did not completely resonate with me, I would still encourage you to purchase an out-of-print copy of this book. Why? I personally found it intriguing that Ms. Chevigny created an entire novel based on a single quote from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," in which she wondered what a novel would be like if the writer had the confidence and art to do justice to the subject of friendship between women:"'Chloe like Olivia,' I read. And then it struck me how immense a change was there. Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature."The story is about a friendship between two women who take different paths in life between 1961 and 1975 but who manage to remain spiritually and emotionally close. How they do so is the essence of the story. And while I found it difficult to relate to these two women personally, I felt that Ms. Chevigny did an excellent job of capturing the ebbs and flows, the sometimes reluctance and tension and struggle to communicate over distance and time between two friends, but how, despite time and distance and different experiences, all the words and emotions can come tumbling out and the essence that binds two people together still remains, and the intensity is recreated again and again.Read this book. It will encourage you to reflect on your own friendships and relationships and how they have grown and endured over time. I myself am eager to read more work by Ms. Chevigny.