Anne Ursu

What if you could suddenly remember everything that ever happened to you, every joy and every sorrow that you had ever endured Would it be a blessing -- or a curse This is the fate of the residents of the town of Clarence, who fall under the spell of a strange and powerful drug that unlocks their memories. The past comes flooding back without the buffer of time, and the townspeople, young and old, find themselves awash in their own reminiscences -- of love and death, of war and childhood, of happiness they've experienced, and sins they've committed. Beautifully rendered with a light comic touch, this bittersweet novel is about more than the sum of its beguiling parts. Spilling Clarence explores our relationship with our histories, the seductive pull of regret, the unreliability of memory, and the bliss of forgetting. A universe peopled by exquisitely drawn characters, Spilling Clarence is a moving introduction to the impressive talents of an exciting new writer.

Spilling Clarence

Abby N. Lewis

I absolutely love this book. It is very much set in the emotional, internal conflicts of the characters, and there were many. I enjoyed switching back and forth between all of their lives, sometimes lingering one one character's story longer than another's, just like flipping through the channels on TV. They were glimpses, snapshots of a life. 

I love this book because Anne Ursu captures the innermost thoughts and feelings of every single character perfectly. I would be stumped trying to describe some of these things, but she describes each and every one as if she had been there, experiencing the same thing her characters experienced. 

I also love the way she writes. When I started this novel, I was a bit overwhelmed. Her writing style was unlike anything I've ever stumbled upon before. She uses words I had never heard of before, and I'm not new to this whole reading thing either. She uses these ( ) frequently to insert little extras or footnotes about the characters, which I would have been terrified to do in my own writing, and she refers to the town of Clarence as a single unit, as if it were a character in and of itself. 

This book is just so unique in so many different way. I loved reading it, and I'm almost sad that it had to end. I wanted to see more than just snapshots of the pasts and little excerpts from their present. I wanted to continued watching little Sophia grow up, I wanted to know if Madeline and Calvin ever finish their story, I wanted to follow Susannah through medical school, and I wanted to watch her find her way back to Todd.

Spilling Clarence

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