Valeria's Last Stand

A Novel

By Marc Fitten

A comic romp celebrating late-flowering love in a Hungarian village that will appeal to readers of Absurdistan, The History of Love, and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

When it comes to the sizes of fishes and ponds, Valeria is a whale in a thimble. She harrumphs her daily way through her backwater Hungarian village, finding equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign and the familiar. Her decades of universal contempt have turned her into a touchstone of her little community - whatever she scorns the least must be the best, after all. But, on a day like any other, her spinster's heart is struck by an unlikely arrow: the village potter, long-known and little-noticed, captures her fancy, and Valeria finds herself suddenly cast in a new role she never expected to play. This one deviation from character, this one loose thread, is all it takes for the delicately woven fabric of village life to unravel. And, for the first time in a long time, Valeria couldn't care less.

Valeria's Last Stand is a joyfully wise small-town satire that takes an hilariously honest look at later-in-life romance and the notion that it's never too late to start anew.

Reviews for Valeria's Last Stand:

"Since the days of Hawthorne, Melville and Poe, American authors have had a penchant for sweeping allegory, for tales that examine universal human qualities through the presentation of stylized and generalized characters. This tradition is carried on today by authors such as Cormac McCarthy in his novels "The Road" and "Blood Meridian," Toni Morrison in "A Mercy" and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist M. Glenn Taylor in his novel "The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart." And now by novelist Marc Fitten.

Fitten lived for several years in the Hungarian plains during that nation's conversion from socialism to capitalism, witnessing societal convulsions and dislocations. His debut novel, "Valeria's Last Stand," set in the imaginary post-socialist-era Hungarian village of Zivatar, is an allegory which at first glance is a tale of love and lust but from a distance is clearly a symbolic rendering of the benefits and drawbacks of switching from a socialist to a market economy.

"Nothing was sacrosanct anymore," reflects the 68-year-old title character early in the novel. "Ultimately, that was her problem with this new system. It bred contempt. The masses need the inviolable. Even Stalin knew that. The proper care and feeding of the masses requires and demands opiates! But the capitalists ran roughshod over everything. They left nothing untouched or undefiled." Valeria is the village crone, a woman whose presence at the village market sends shivers up the spines of the sellers as she inspects their foods and wares for imperfections. She's the old lady whom children taunt and who retaliates by throwing rocks at them. Her perpetual scowl is a source of derision and contempt, and no man in his right man approaches her for anything but her prize turnips. Until, that is, she and the village potter lock eyes at the market. The potter, who has been sleeping with the buxom tavern-keeper Ibolya, falls in love with Valeria, and she with him. They have an affair, which inspires the potter to give up his trade and become an artist rather than an artisan. He becomes a maker of fine pottery and sculptures."—Los Angeles Times

“Think "The Canterbury Tales" crossed with Joanne Harris' magical "Chocolat," and you'll get some idea of the goings on in VALERIA’S LAST STAND, the dazzling debut novel by Atlanta author Marc Fitten…. What emerges is the soul of one small place you'll never want to leave.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Read full review.

Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten gets 4 out of 5 starts and a great review in the current issue of Time Out New York!!!!!

“Marc Fitten has fashioned a sweet-as-pie novel, titled Valeria's Last Stand, out of the comings and goings of geriatric busybodies in a backwater Hungarian village…. it's the low-intensity nature of the characters' conflicts and triumphs that gives Fitten's book its fairy-tale charm.” Read full review—Time Out New York

“Evoking Gogol, Kundera, and García Márquez,with a touch of Fellini for good measure, Fitten concocts a shrewdly farcical tale of the endless battle between change and tradition.”—Booklist

“A clever… narrative that emulates the fablelike tone of Calvino and Márquez, adding a heaping helping of Kundera-like sex and satire…. it’s refreshing to see a neophyte author taking seriously the passions and opinions of older people. Fitten has a distinctive voice and a promising future.”—Kirkus Reviews

"In this warmly amusing first novel, true love overtakes a grumpy old woman in Hungary, and her remote village is thrown into an uproar. Feared harridan Valeria falls for the local potter, a hapless widower content to make plates for his local customers. The potter had been seeing the woman who runs the bar where all the local men hang out, and she soon becomes jealous of Valeria and plots to sabotage the budding romance. Initially indecisive, the potter finally realizes that Valeria, for all her contrariness, has inspired him to create artistic masterpieces. Subplots involve the potter's apprentice, who refuses to commit to his own love, and the mayor's efforts to drag the remote village into the modern age. Throughout, the other villagers and bar patrons form a kind of Greek chorus. In the end, true love will conquer all, even though it might be injured a little by a broken beer bottle. Enjoyable and poignant, this work is recommended.-Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta Lib..”—Library Journal