3-12-10
By LAURA COX
Five years of writing have finally come to fruition for Oneonta author Alice Lichtenstein whose novel “Lost” was published by Scribner on Tuesday, March 9.
“Writing is rewording and intensely enjoyable,” said Lichtenstein, “and it’s wonderful to publish something. But writing itself is what I really enjoy. I can do it whereever I am, in any circumstance.”
“Lost” is Lichtenstein’s first hardcover novel. Her first novel, “Genius of the World,” was printed as a trade paperback by Zoland books in 2000. (Another novel she wrote failed to sell when it hit the New York market just two weeks before 9/11.)
An adjunct lecturer in creative writing at Hartwick College, Lichtenstein and her husband, psy-
Please See chologist Jim Bercovitz, moved here from New York City 20 years ago after a summer spent escaping the city in the peace and quiet of East Meredith. They raised their two daughters in Oneonta: Iris, 16, and Sarah, 12.
“Lost” was inspired by two local news stories that captured Lichtenstein’s attention and stayed with her. The first is about a young boy who set a fire that killed his brother. The second is of a woman who left her husband alone for just a few minutes; suffering from dementia, he wandered off into the cold winter night. A search party finds him, too late to save him.
Both stories haunted Lichtenstein as she reflected on the aftermath, on how those events influenced the boy and woman as they proceeded through their lives. In “Lost,” the stories converged in a third character, a social worker/search-party coordinator.
It took five years for Alice to think through the development of her characters – they almost came alive for the author – and complete the writing.
“Part of the joy of this kind of writing is that it is so rooted in the characters and language. Their voices take over,” said Lichtenstein. “In ‘Lost,’ one of the characters, Susan, is very private and reserved. I honestly felt it took a full year for her to let me tell her story. It felt like she really had to know that I was committed and she needed her time and space. Someday I’m going to write about someone not so uptight.”
Lichtenstein has always thought of herself as a writer. She wrote what she considers her first “novel” in second grade: “Cowgirl on the Plain.” She has always focused on fiction, calling writing her “refuge.”
As a teenager, Lichtenstein kept an “angst journal.” Working in an ice cream shop, she found her guest-check pad was the perfect medium for poetry.
Pre-publication reviews for “Lost” have been very positive.
“Here is a virtuoso novel which manages to be both a nail-biting page-turner and a lyrical meditation on fate and longing,” wrote Rebecca Godfrey, author of “Under the Bridge.” “…The story is intensely suspenseful and achingly beautiful, a masterful exploration of the intricate, heartrending ways we all seek to survive.”
One reviewer called the book a great book group book and a readers guide to the book is available on the Scribner website.
If any local book groups decide to read the book, Lichtenstein said she would be happy to try to arrange to stop by and chat or skype in if her calendar allowed.
To keep up with Alice Lichtenstein’s writing, visit her blog at www.alicelichtenstein.com.
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