“The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers are linked novellas, centering on Sidonie Ross, a writer in the later stages of her career. It is a triumph in terms of elegant language, emotional character analysis, and innovative structure.
In the first few chapters of The Black Leopard’s Kiss, the reader is treated to lyrical prose, elaborate description, and thought-provoking dialogue. Two writers, Sidonie, an acclaimed author, and Martine at the beginning of her writing career, discuss their craft and share ideas in no-holds-barred dialogue. At one point, Martine says to Sidonie, ‘You’re lying to yourself. The characters in your books may be honest, but you’re not honest about who you are. You’ve been making up stories ever since you were small, to hide from everyone but also from yourself.’
After the initial chapters, the story takes a radical turn into magical realism. The women begin taking on physical traits of each other at different ages. The characters themselves discuss magical realism. ‘But in magical realism they don’t need to be thoroughly documented. The rationale for the transformations is assumed, isn’t it? That’s the essence of this type of fiction.’ Martine’s work in progress determines how they will interact. The overall effect of The Black Leopard’s Kiss is an in-depth look at Sidonie’s hurtful past and the people who have been influential in her life.
The Writer Remembers also focuses on Sidonie and weaves in and out of three points of view: the writer Sidonie, talking about being at the peak of her career; eleven-year-old Sidonie just beginning to delve into writing; and seventy-year-old Sidonie, trying to solve a mystery from her past. Many of the characters from the first novella reappear, including Sidonie’s parents and her beloved Alice. Several new characters from her difficult childhood, her tormentors from school, remind her of a traumatic fire that many years later she can’t fully grasp what happened. The Writer Remembers is more straightforward as a mystery about the fire, but also magical realism enters the scene, and we are left with questions how Sidonie will deal with the shocking revelations sixty years after the events surrounding the fire.
For writers or anyone who has ever contemplated writing a book, these novellas are a delight, going deep into the twists and turns of a writer’s imagination. The writer voice in The Writer Remembers says, ‘Being a writer often felt like I was flying through swirling fog, searching for precision in the middle of haziness. Of late, this sensation had intensified.’ But all readers can enjoy the fascinating style and structure, and the superb writing of these stories.”—Vincent Traughber Meis, author of The Long Journey to You
Laury A. Egan 