Stonich, Sarah 1958-

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Stonich, Sarah 1958-

PERSONAL:

Born March 9, 1958, in Duluth, MN; daughter of Matthew and Katherine Stonich; married K. Woodrow Smith, February 20, 1987 (divorced, July 30, 2001); children: Joseph-Samuel Stonich-Smith. Ethnicity: "Slovene." Hobbies and other interests: Architecture, historic renovation, gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Paul, MN. Agent—Wendy Sherman, W. Sherman Associates, 450 7th Ave. #3004, New York, NY 10123.

CAREER:

Writer and novelist. Artist-in-residence, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland, Heinrich Boll Foundation Cottage, Achill Island, Ireland, and Centrum, Port Townsend, WA.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Loft-McKnight award for fiction, 1997; Minnesota State Arts Board grant, 1999; Drue Heinze fellowship; Grand Prix de lectrices d'Elle shortlist, for These Granite Islands.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

These Granite Islands, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2001.

The Ice Chorus, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2005.

Author's works have been translated into six languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sarah Stonich's novel These Granite Islands features Isobel, a ninety-nine-year-old woman who is hospitalized with a stroke. Bedridden, she looks back on her life—particularly on her friendship, beginning in 1936, with an unconventional woman named Cathryn—and tells her story to her son, Thomas. The pivotal events in 1936 actually begin the year before, when her husband buys a five-acre island; Isobel is terrified of water, and is not happy with the purchase. When the summer of 1936 arrives, she stays home with their daughter Louisa while her husband and Thomas spend the summer camping on the island.

With more free time, she returns to a dream she had before marrying and having children: starting her own millinery business. She clears a work space, and is not yet open for business when Cathryn Malley walks in. A wealthy newcomer to town, she hits it off with Isobel despite their different backgrounds and financial means. However, the friendship has an uneasy tinge. Cathryn introduces Isobel to Jack Reese, with whom she is having an affair, and they coerce the unwilling Isobel into being their lookout. The romance is doomed to end in tragedy, but the resulting uproar changes Isobel into a stronger, more confident woman.

In the Denver Post, Robin Vidimos wrote that the book is "a finely wrought first novel built on unusually interesting characters … insightful and nicely readable." Michele Slung, in Victoria, called it a "richly textured achievement" and wrote: "There is tension at once suspenseful and poignant in this tale of a friendship that casts its shadow over six decades." A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented: "Stonich unfurls a complex, many-layered and suspenseful story, and … handles flashbacks and contemporary details with equal precision."

Stonich's second novel, The Ice Chorus is a "tender, elegantly told love story," remarked Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist. Liselle is a documentary filmmaker from Canada, aged in her mid-forties. She is also reeling from the acrimonious breakup of her eighteen-year marriage following an ill-advised affair with a homely Mexican painter, Charlie. Stinging from her loss and from the resentment of her seventeen-year-old son, Liselle has taken refuge in a small village on the coast of Ireland. There, she waits for Charlie to join her while she seeks to capture the life stories of the natives on film. She meets Remy, owner of the local hardware store; his wife, Margaret; and his granddaughter, Siobhan, all of whom are willing to talk in front of her camera. As the locals tell their stories, Liselle recounts her scandalous affair with Charlie, how her marriage was cold and loveless, and how experiences with her unfaithful father tainted her approach to love. Slowly, she begins to achieve insight into her personality and why she has been willing to settle for less than she might achieve, or deserve. When she finds that Charlie has mounted an exhibition that includes eight intimate nude portraits of her, she must decide where her life must lead her, and which people she most wants to have in it. The novel is "a story about a woman achieving wholeness on her own terms," observed Library Journal reviewer Christine DeZelar-Tiedman. A Publishers Weekly critic noted: "Midlife renewal and the power of art to transform life are celebrated in this bittersweet tale." Wilkinson concluded that the book is a "subtle, lovely evocation of the transforming power of love."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2000, Bonnie Johnston, review of These Granite Islands, p. 68; January 1, 2005, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Ice Chorus, p. 823.

Denver Post, April 15, 2001, Robin Vidimos, "Tragedy Alters, Not Defines, Woman's Life," p. F04.

Fort Worth Star Tribune, February 4, 2001, Jessie Milligan, "Three Worth Discovering."

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2000, review of These Granite Islands; December 15, 2004, review of The Ice Chorus, p. 1163.

Library Journal, December, 2000, Beth Gibbs, review of These Granite Islands, p. 193; December 1, 2004, Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, review of The Ice Chorus, p. 103.

Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2001, Mark Rozzo, "First Fiction," p. 10.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 18, 2001, Geeta Sharma-Jensen, "In Town," p. 7.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 4, 2001, Carolyn Kuebler, "Woman Recalls Loves of a 1930s Summer."

Publishers Weekly, January 8, 2001, review of These Granite Islands, p. 45; January 10, 2005, review of The Ice Chorus, p. 38.

Victoria, July, 2001, Michele Slung, "New under the Sun," p. 35.