Suzzy Roche

The Town Crazy is set in Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in Pennsylvania in 1961, when a single father moves to town with his son Felix. The dads are suspicious, most of the moms are smitten, and Lil O'Brien, one of the town moms, seems to be losing her mind. Felix befriends his classmate, Lil's daughter Alice, but when the town busybody jumps to a conclusion of misbehavior, tragedy follows. Meanwhile, Lil's bottled-up secret is leading to greater emotional collapse. This character-driven, captivating story will keep you engaged from cover to cover.… (mere)

It is 1961 in the Catholic community of Hanzloo in Pennsylvania. All the moms are enjoying their last days of freedom before school starts. All except one, Alice's mom Lil, who is having some kind of breakdown. She is a matter of discussion or gossip, if you will. Clarissa is the lead gossiper and the one that the other mother's try to emulate. Always put together, her twin girls always dressed to the T, her house immaculate. You know the type, mean girl personified.

Things will go from fairly timid, to outright tragic as we get a closer look at the inside of these people. We know how looks can be deceiving. I related to this story in unexpected ways. The atmosphere of the early sixties was spot on, and those who have gone to Catholic school or raised catholic, will identify. Sister Annunciate is the Mother Superior, and it was the same named sister who was the Superior of the Catholic School I attended. This one was much nicer. There was also a Father Aloysius, which was the name of the school I attended. Love these book coincidences.

The story is well told, a story filled with hypocrisy, innocence and sorrow. Life had such a different feel then. It is also a novel of parents, mothers and their children. The terror and bullying of childhood, the blindness of parents towards their own children, and passions for something that goes unfulfilled. Secrets and sin. Guilt and depression. Quite interesting to get a peek back at this bygone time, when things seemed simpler but often wasn't.

ARC from Gibson House Press and Library thing.… (mere)

Such a bittersweet and beautiful book! An excellent depiction of what can happen in a small town when opinion is swayed by a crazy, jealous, and insecure person. Alice O'Brien and Felix Spoon are innocent pawns of not only the "town crazy," but also, in my opinion, their parents. I didn't expect the kindness and generosity of Sister A, but also had no way of anticipating the surprise twist towards the end. Or, I guess I should say twists. Suzzy Roche's book, The Town Crazy, doesn't offer a "and they lived happily ever after" ending, but it does offer what I think is a realistic one and the book is very, very good.… (mere)

A very good book. I searched out WAYWARD SAINTS because I had recently read Suzzy Roche's new novel, THE TOWN CRAZY, and enjoyed it immensely. This one is about ten years old, and I guess it came and went without much fanfare. But yeah, it's a very good read, all about Mary Saint, a girl who didn't fit in growing up in a small town in upstate New York and was abused by her blue collar father. She escaped into the alt-rock, grunge music scene, touring for several years with her band, Sliced Ham, across America and the UK until she inevitably crashed from drugs and alcohol, following the accidental death of her musician lover. There is much here too about Mary's childhood and adolescence in tiny Swallow, NY, including a mystical encounter with the Blessed Mother - "the Other Mary" - which leaves a lasting impression. After hitting bottom and rehab, Mary lives a quiet, anonymous life in San Francisco, and becomes part of an odd quasi-religious congregation that faintly echoed the church group that Anne LaMotte has written so eloquently about. The story centers around a "comeback concert" in Mary's hometown after several years of quiet obscurity , as well as an intimate look into the life of Mary's mother, Jean, a devout Catholic and a battered wife.

Suzzy Roche is, of course, a singer-songwriter herself, one of the Roches, along with her two sisters, so she writes knowledgeably about the music biz and life on the road. She is a rarity, I think, as a musician who also is a talented writer of fiction. I thought of a gem-like story collection, BODIES OF WATER, that I read more than twenty years ago by Rosanne Cash. This book compared well, measures up. Good book. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mere)