Jetta Carleton's posthumous Clair de Lune comes nearly 50 years after the only novel she published during her lifetime, The Moonflower Vine. To read Clair de Lune is to be transported back though time to 1941--and the book is so superbly written it's a real treat to be able to read finally.
Miss Allen Liles is a single college teacher trying to stave off the boredom of her midwestern life. Enter Toby and George, two passionate and intellectual undergrads who are also Allen's students. They strike up a friendship that goes too far and Allen finds herself in a quagmire in which her job, her future and her reputation are all in jeopardy.
Carleton's book is a coming-of-age novel, not for the students with whom Allen dangerously tangos, but for the teacher herself. What are the ramifications of Allen's making a spectacle of herself as her relationship deepens with the two young men? Through Allen's story, Carleton seems to be weighing the bleak alternatives to such free-spiritedness--limited career options or a boring marriage to a humdrum suitor deemed appropriate. The young teacher is held to a different standard than her male counterparts, and when she is taken to task for her behavior, Allen must find a way to survive without sacrificing her very self in the process. The solution Carleton creates for Allen's dilemma shows a true understanding of the margin for human error. --Natalie Papailiou, author of blog MILF: Mother I'd Like to Friend