Frances & Bernard by Carlene Bauer

“…she knew me when I was at my most Bernard and I knew her when she was at her most Frances. We'd read each other like books.”

F&B is an epistolary novel loosely based on the correspondence and relationship of writer Flannery O'Connor and poet Robert Lowell. It was written in 2013 but is set in the late 1950s and 60s and Bauer does an incredible job of bringing this time period to life in letters.

F&B meet in 1957 at a writer's colony and strike up a friendship via correspondence. I’ve said before, the epistolary format allows readers a front row seat into the lives of the characters. I felt the depth of their fondness for one another on a very intimate level that is often absent in other books; knowing someone via the thoughts they put into writing is a very different take.

F&B is set predominantly in NYC and that time capsule is so well drawn. As they are both writers, they travel in literary circles and that was an aside I loved as well. Now that I've read two of Bauer's novels, I see a pattern to her writing. It is not grand in scope but instead she zeros in on the minute details within relationships and portrays how her characters relate to one another in a way that is very unique - I can't compare it to any other author. Her characters are normal people amidst normal lives but their discourse about everything from marriage to religion to mental illness makes these novels anything but small.

Readers beware! This is a character study! If you want plot and action, this is not for you. F&B is slow to build and reads like a classic, but for the right reader it's exquisite.