Review: Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten
Valeria’s Last Stand
by Marc Fitten
Product Description
A comic romp celebrating late-flowering love in a Hungarian village that will appeal to readers of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
Valeria is a whale in a puddle. She harrumphs her daily way through her backwater Hungarian village, finding equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign, and the familiar. Her decades of universal contempt have turned her into a touchstone of her little community-whatever she scorns the least must be the best, after all. But, on a day like any other, her spinster’s heart is struck by an unlikely arrow: The village potter, long known and little noticed, captures her fancy, and Valeria finds herself suddenly cast in a role she never expected to play. This one deviation from character, this one loose thread, is all it takes for the delicately woven fabric of village life to unravel. And, for the first time in a long time, Valeria couldn’t care less.
A love triangle between three old people (the main characters are all old enough to be my parents) is not a story I would expect to enjoy, and I would be lying if I did not admit that the sex scenes between the principle characters grossed me out. Descriptions of freckles and liver spots on plump bodies = ick. I would never forgive Marc Fitten for the images he created in my imagination, but lucky for the author Valeria’s Last Stand is also quite funny.
Set in a town that time forgot (both WWII soldiers and communists drove past Zivatar without even noticing it) Valeria’s Last Stand takes on the mythical, distant rhythm of a fable. There seems to be little work for the villagers to do - the Mayor constantly takes trips out of town in attempts to seduce foreign investors and their factories to set up in Zivatar - so most of their time is spent watching each other and drinking at the local tavern. Most of the male characters drift through without names - the potter, the mayor, etc. - while the women bicker, gossip, and flirt with anyone who will tolerate them. I never really liked any of the characters, because they’re all a bit too extreme. Valeria’s too mean, Ibolya the bartender is too controlling, and the potter too indecisive. In this isolated society, the villagers’ little quirks have blossomed into full-fledged neurotic behaviors, and it’s just so funny to watch them drive each other bananas.
This is a fun little read that touches your heart in all the right places. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too short. I finished it reading it in about an hour, and was rather disappointed because it ends quite suddenly. It has the effect of a ‘happily ever after’ but it’s right in the middle of an action scene, and I would have liked to see the action wrapped up before the final curtain was dropped.
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