Clarence, MN: Mansfield University

New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jan. 17, 2002
by Susan Larson

Anne Ursu's tender first novel, "Spilling Clarence," is a heartbreaking trip down memory lane with the inhabitants of the small town of Clarence. Thanks to an airborne dispersal or "spill" of a drug called deletrium at the town's pharmaceutical plant, all of the residents are reliving the past.

What do citizens think when the alarm sounds and the men in yellow suits appear? "Yellow guys are not in my life. Yellow guys do not just emerge out of thin air. Yellow guys are in the movies. Yellow guys are not real. Yellow guys are for Chernobyl, not Clarence. Why don't I have a yellow suit? I do not have a yellow suit. Where the hell is my yellow suit? I quite clearly need a yellow suit."

Bennie Singer, a scholar who specializes in personality, and his daughter Sophie are enjoying their weekly date at the Davis and Dean bookstore when the spill takes place, but before long Bennie has retreated into his bedroom and is reliving the car crash that killed his wife. Sophie, having less to remember than her father, will take care of him until her own painful memories return.

Sitting at a bookstore cafe table near Bennie and Sophie is Susannah Korbet, who has followed her boyfriend Todd to Clarence, where he is pursuing academic success in the field of memory studies as a colleague of Bennie Singer. Todd struggles to keep a clear head, having a better sense than most of what's going on, but Susannah becomes lost in her own troubling memories. Susannah eventually moves into a spare bedroom at the retirement community where she has been caring for the elderly residents of Clarence. One of those is Calvin, the town's oldest veteran, who comes face to face with long-suppressed memories of liberating the Nazi prison camps, and Madeline Singer, Bennie's mother, a writer who is just beginning a relationship with Calvin.

(Sunny Shadows sounds like an ideal retirement community to me, because it insists that residents donate all of their books to the community library, although each resident may keep a special shelf with 10 or 12 books "that most define their lives' pursuits to be left on for posterity.")

Eventually, the effects of the drug fade, but lives are changed as a result of the enforced journey into the recesses of memory and regret and long-lost desires. Ursu does a wonderful job in this imaginative and charming novel, a must for fans of such writers as Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman. She knows that the best we can wish for her characters -- and ourselves -- is a life without regret.

	US Weekly "Best of the Week" "This whimsical, bittersweet debut suggests that the stories of our lives are what save us." The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers "a thought-provoking and timely tale, liberally seasoned with charm and good humor. (Winter 2002 Selection)" The Philadelphia Inqirer "No scalpel can touch the truths Ursu locates" USA Today "Reading their stories is better than eavesdropping on a patient's tale to his analyst." New Orleans Times-Picayune "Ursu does a wonderful job in this imaginative and charming novel." The Library Journal "Ursu is a writer who cares deeply about her characters" Bookreporter.com "this book leaves you chuckling, grinning, tearful, thoughtful, warmed, chilled and, not surprisingly, reminiscent... a brilliant first novel." TheBookHaven.net "an impressive first novel. Anne Ursu has a gift for telling tales. Hopefully, this talent will be utilized for many novels to come." MostlyFiction.com "...the success of the book is not only the stories that she finds to tell but also the way she writes about them." StoryCircle.org "Like many good writers, Ursu draws us into her setting - the fictional town of Clarence, Minnesota - by getting the details just right."
		CLARENCE, MINNESOTA New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jan. 17, 2002 by Susan Larson Anne Ursu's tender first novel, "Spilling Clarence," is a heartbreaking trip down memory lane with the inhabitants of the small town of Clarence. Thanks to an airborne dispersal or "spill" of a drug called deletrium at the town's pharmaceutical plant, all of the residents are reliving the past. What do citizens think when the alarm sounds and the men in yellow suits appear? "Yellow guys are not in my life. Yellow guys do not just emerge out of thin air. Yellow guys are in the movies. Yellow guys are not real. Yellow guys are for Chernobyl, not Clarence. Why don't I have a yellow suit? I do not have a yellow suit. Where the hell is my yellow suit? I quite clearly need a yellow suit." Bennie Singer, a scholar who specializes in personality, and his daughter Sophie are enjoying their weekly date at the Davis and Dean bookstore when the spill takes place, but before long Bennie has retreated into his bedroom and is reliving the car crash that killed his wife. Sophie, having less to remember than her father, will take care of him until her own painful memories return. Sitting at a bookstore cafe table near Bennie and Sophie is Susannah Korbet, who has followed her boyfriend Todd to Clarence, where he is pursuing academic success in the field of memory studies as a colleague of Bennie Singer. Todd struggles to keep a clear head, having a better sense than most of what's going on, but Susannah becomes lost in her own troubling memories. Susannah eventually moves into a spare bedroom at the retirement community where she has been caring for the elderly residents of Clarence. One of those is Calvin, the town's oldest veteran, who comes face to face with long-suppressed memories of liberating the Nazi prison camps, and Madeline Singer, Bennie's mother, a writer who is just beginning a relationship with Calvin. (Sunny Shadows sounds like an ideal retirement community to me, because it insists that residents donate all of their books to the community library, although each resident may keep a special shelf with 10 or 12 books "that most define their lives' pursuits to be left on for posterity.") Eventually, the effects of the drug fade, but lives are changed as a result of the enforced journey into the recesses of memory and regret and long-lost desires. Ursu does a wonderful job in this imaginative and charming novel, a must for fans of such writers as Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman. She knows that the best we can wish for her characters -- and ourselves -- is a life without regret.