Midstream

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Pub Date Aug 23 2022 | Archive Date Jul 01 2022

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Description

It’s 1974, and America is restless, with the Vietnam War winding to a close, and feminists marching in the streets. Polly Wainwright respects the protesters’ demands for equal pay, but now nearing middle age, won’t risk her security. Her job, being a picture editor at a prestigious publisher, is enviable and too good to lose. Polly is comfortable with her life—her homey Chicago apartment, her war-correspondent boyfriend with the dangerous job that everyone admires, the steady paycheck. Still, she’d once dreamed of making documentary films.

When suddenly her life is thrown off-course, Polly slowly begins to view things differently and with growing dissatisfaction. But she can’t shift gears to imagine a different future—until a mysterious letter arrives, changing how she views the one moment in her past when she might have achieved her dreams.

Lynn Sloan’s second novel, MIDSTREAM, is the engrossing, powerful story of a woman awakening to the power of possibility.


It’s 1974, and America is restless, with the Vietnam War winding to a close, and feminists marching in the streets. Polly Wainwright respects the protesters’ demands for equal pay, but now nearing...


A Note From the Publisher

Lynn Sloan is a writer and photographer. She is the author of the story collection This Far Isn’t Far Enough and the novel Principles of Navigation, which was chosen for Chicago Book Review’s Best Books of 2015. Fortune Cookies, an art book featuring her flash fiction, was produced by Sky Lark Press in 2022. Her new novel, Midstream, comes out from Fomite in August 2022. Her short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Shenandoah, American Literary Fiction, and included in NPR’s Selected Shorts. She graduated from Northwestern University, earned a master’s degree in photography at The Institute of Design, formerly the New Bauhaus, and exhibited her work nationally and internationally. For many years she taught photography in the MFA program of Columbia College Chicago, where she founded Occasional Readings in Photography and contributed to Afterimage, Art Week, and Exposure before turning to fiction writing. She lives near Chicago and serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Midland Authors.

Lynn Sloan is a writer and photographer. She is the author of the story collection This Far Isn’t Far Enough and the novel Principles of Navigation, which was chosen for Chicago Book Review’s Best...


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PRAISE FOR THE WRITING OF LYNN SLOAN

“…well-crafted and thought provoking.”—The Compulsive Reader

"Sloan's characters are rendered with sensitive and realistic detail throughout."—Kirkus Reviews

“poignant”—Books Personally

“…engaging…. the book leaves a flavor that lingers—not sweetness, but the mineral clarity of a deep well. It’s a satisfying swig of human longing and learning.”—Susan Schoch, StoryCircle Book Reviews

“. . . a talented writer who understands that emotions are sometimes indefinable and conflicting, that facing adversity can require more than just courage, and that human feeling is complex and intricate. . . . a layered exploration of both human weakness and strength. . .”—Windy City Reviews


PRAISE FOR THE WRITING OF LYNN SLOAN

“…well-crafted and thought provoking.”—The Compulsive Reader

"Sloan's characters are rendered with sensitive and realistic detail throughout."—Kirkus Reviews

...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781953236661
PRICE $16.00 (USD)

Average rating from 1 member


Featured Reviews

Polly Wainwright has drifted through her twenties and early thirties. She once dreamed of making movies but has settled for a job as a picture editor. She moved from her life in New York back to Chicago when her mother was injured in a car crash and just stayed there. Polly has a partner but he is a war correspondent and has been overseas covering the end of the Vietnam War and his letters are becoming more and more impersonal. She has an apartment she likes and a routine that just a bit too comfortable.
Then Polly's world falls apart. Her steady job is suddenly in jeopardy. Her best friend is facing a serious illness. She realizes that her boyfriend may not come home and resume their relationship. What will she do with the rest of her life which is, she realizes, her responsibility to carve into what she wants?

This is a lovely book. I felt like Polly was one of my best friends as I could relate so totally with her dreams and struggles. When I was her age, I knew women who just drifted into a life that fit other people's expectations of what women should do and I knew women who took charge and made their lives what they had always wanted it to be. The book was set in 1974 and this was the time when the feminist movement was strong and women thought about whether the way things had always been for women was going to be enough for them. Polly is a character that will remain with readers long after the last page is read. This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.

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