Trudy Lewis Fiction Reading

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending the fiction reading in Towell Library. Trudy Lewis, who I learned to be an old professor and long-time friend of Professor Varallo, read from the first two chapters of her freshly released novel, The Empire Rolls. My favorite part of the event strangely occurred before her reading began. Trudy Lewis explained how her novel shifts between two characters perspectives and how one is written in first person present tense, while the other is written in third person past. The character of an older woman spoke in the first person present, while the younger male character spoke in third person past. She justified this choice by saying that, in her experience, the young are more nostalgic than the old. She said the older one gets, the more they are forced to live “in the moment.” Proceeding this, she read from her novel which focused on an often forgotten activity, roller derby’s, and some rather raunchy characters. Her sense of humor was evident and shone through her prose style.