Lisa Alther is the author of 12 published books. Three of these books were Book-of-the-Month Club selections, and four were New York Times bestsellers. They have been translated into 17 other languages and have appeared on bestseller lists worldwide. Reviewers in the New York Times Book Review and The Nation have written that she possesses “comic genius.”
Below are short descriptions of her books.
“Kinflicks” (1976): Lisa Alther’s first novel is a satire of coming of age in Hullsport (Kingsport), Tennessee, as well as observations about the limited roles of women in the early 1960s. Ginny moves from cheerleader to motorcycle moll, to Madonna — each embodying important truths about the aspirations of the culture that created them.
“Original Sins” (1981): Alther’s second novel continues to mine the social stratifications and racial divisions in Newland (Kingsport), Tennessee, following five kids plotting their futures: the two Prince sisters (daughters of the mill owners); the two Tatro brothers (sons of a foreman); a Donny, the black grandson of Ruby, the Princes’ maid.
“Other Women” (1984): Alther’s next novel explores the lives of two adult women coming to understand themselves. We follow the sometimes raucous events of Caroline as she confronts her past: her parents, her ex-husband, her lovers and herself. Hannah has suffered through great tragedies. Both women learn from each other as they finally grow up.
“Bedrock” (1990): In this novel, Clea has a dream life — a career as a freelance photographer, a handsome husband, two kids, a townhouse in Manhattan, etc. But bored by this existence, she is ready for radical change. On visiting Roches Ridge, Vermont, she thinks she has found a new dream life. She buys an old stone house and starts a new life in this lush green world.
“Five Minutes in Heaven” (1995): From East Tennessee to the swinging New York City of the 1960s, and ultimately to Paris in the 1970s, the book follows a young woman named Jude — haunted by dreams, ghosts and longings — on an epic search for love, intimacy and answers to questions that she cannot allow herself to forget.
“Kinfolks: Falling off the Family Tree” (2007): In this autobiographical journey, Alther goes on a search for her roots. She was always perplexed that her paternal grandparents would never talk about their Dickenson County, Virginia, heritage. Could they have been Melungeons — and just who were Melungeons? Were they stranded Portuguese sailors? Displaced Native Americans? Remnants of the Lost Colony?
“Washed in the Blood” (2011): Alther continues her fascination with Melungeons by writing an epic novel which dramatizes the racial mixing in the American South from the colonial era to today. The novel starts in 1567 with a young hog drover Diego Martin who gets lost from a Spanish exploring party and is taken in by Native Americans.
“Stormy Weather and Other Stories” (2012): Alther’s only collection of stories comes from various periods of her life and the three places she values most: Kingsport and the South, Vermont and Paris. Many were originally published in journals or anthologies, except for “Birdman and Dancer,” a novella inspired by monotypes by the French artist François Gilot.
“Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance” (2012): Continuing her fascination with Appalachian history, Alther uses reminiscences, public records and published accounts to write a balanced version of feud that started with a pig dispute and spawned a spree of killings, raids and abductions that started in 1878 and continued for several decades, becoming part of American folklore.
“About Women: Conversations Between a Writer and a Painter” (with Françoise Gilot) (2015): This work is a conversation between Alther and French painter François Gilot, a mistress of Picasso. The women have known each other for more than 25 years. Gilot was from Paris and Alther from Kingsport, but they have a lot to talk about: a life in art, being women, rearing children, and a variety of other topics.
“Swan Song: An Odyssey” (2020): This new novel follows Jessie, a doctor in her 60s who has recently lost her parents and her partner Kat. In an attempt to escape her grief, she leaves her Vermont town and accepts a job as a doctor on a cruise ship. The novel satirizes various characters aboard the cruise shop but deals seriously with Jessie’s struggles to find direction for the rest of her life.
READ ON: A review of "Swan Song" by Lisa Alther.
