Hank & Chloe

March 1, 1993
At the heart of this anything-but-typical love story we find 30-something cowgirl Chloe and 40-ish professor Hank, who meet by chance in Southern California canyon country and throw themselves into an earthy, at times painful, romance; the issues of trust, commitment and individuality constantly spark emotional brushfires between them. This first novel by Mapson, author of the story collection Fault Line, opens with Chloe assisting at a difficult foaling, and hints of her two-job days crammed with riding students and diner patrons. When Chloe and Hank actually make each other's acquaintance, he is immediately smitten, she characteristically suspicious; thus begin the chase-surrender-breakup-rapprochement sequences that will carry the novel to its conclusion. Along the way, a court case involving physical injury, faculty cutbacks at the junior college where Hank teaches folklore and mythology, and the serious illness of Chloe's beloved horse Absalom's Dancing Irish create new opportunities for the odd but endearing lovers to lean on each other or pull apart. In addition, Hank's reserved, strained upbringing and Chloe's childhood of foster homes (and the memories of an adolescent affair with a much older alcoholic trainer) send undercurrents of neediness through their day-to-day routine. Mapson delivers a funny, harsh, visceral novel, firmly focused on the center-stage twosome but populated with other memorable characters as well. Sometimes the coincidences here seem too pat, but overall, Mapson's finesse with both detail and the big picture, and her appreciation for the eloquence and explosiveness of silence between lovers, make this novel an engrossing, sensuous, resonant read. First serial to Cosmopolitan; Literary Guild alternate; author tour.