Liliane's Balcony

by Kelcey Parker Ervick

Liliane’s Balcony is a multi-voiced novella-in-flash set at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Built for Pittsburgh merchants E.J. and Liliane Kaufmann in 1935, the house is as much a character as it is a setting. One September night in 1952, Liliane Kaufmann—tired of her husband’s infidelities—overdoses on pain pills in her bedroom. From there, Liliane’s Balcony alternates Mrs. Kaufmann’s mostly true story with the fictional narratives of four modern-day tourists who arrive at the historic home in the midst of their own personal crises, all of which culminate on Mrs. Kaufmann’s over-sized, cantilevered balcony. With its ghosts, motorcycles, portraits, Vikings, failed relationships, and many layered voices, Kelcey Parker’s Liliane’s Balcony is as dizzying and intricately beautiful as the architectural wonder in which it is set.

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2013

About the author

Kelcey Ervick is a writer who started drawing. Growing up, she was a goalkeeper in the early years of Title IX. Today she is the author and illustrator of the forthcoming graphic memoir, THE KEEPER (Avery Books/Penguin, Sept. 2022). She lives on the banks of the St. Joseph River and is a professor of English and creative writing at Indiana University South Bend.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parker has woven together a deep, introspective study of the ebb and flow of a complex love story, that moves within the historical frame of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous architectural triumph, Fallingwater. Especially poignant and deftly drawn is the main character, Liliane, whose voice is the anchor to all the minor characters, including Frida Kahlo, that swirl around her. Interspersed with powerful, direct quotes from her husband and Wright.

One of the most beautifully designed books I've ever seen in paperback, too. The attention to detail from the press pays off, as the multiple voices each have their own art deco emblem that starts their sections, to help ground the reader a bit.

Parker is coming out with another hybrid book with Rose Metal, and I can't wait to see what she accomplishes this time around.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Kelcey Parker Ervick tells the story of the often overlooked Liliane Kaufmann in this heartbreaking but fascinating novella. It's too easy for history to forget the women who stood side-by-side with men as they lived extraordinary lives (or, for that matter, ordinary ones). I'm thankful that writers like Ervick are righting that wrong with books like this one. I also adore the different voices in this book—the daughter, Josiah, Janie, Amanda, Liliane, and Edgar being the standouts—and marvel at Ervick's ability to bring so many different types to life in such a believable and compelling way. It's a testament to Ervick's talents that she was able to accomplish such a tremendous feat. It looks like I spent a month reading this book, but in truth it's a fast read, and I read it in two short sittings (once over the holidays and once when I got home). This is a must-read for all those who love literary fiction and especially those who are interested in history or architecture.

[jess sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Liliane's Balcony Kelcey Parker continues in rich stride of her debut collection, For Sale by Owner, with a novella that is pristinely imagined and delicately constructed. This book manages the admirable ambition of balancing a mixture of history and liberties taken with it, taking an already compelling, emotionally complex story of domestic strife as one layered story among others. The cumulative effect feels enjoyably effortless, blending gestures both natural and meticulously constructed that intuit a thundering echo of the architecture of Fallingwater itself. Parker went to great lengths to research the details and moods present throughout, though I personally enjoyed more the array of present-day characters that Parker convincingly offers. Liliane's Balcony is haunted by stories and strange gravities well worth falling into.

[Clemente_in_right · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hit me on so many levels and took me emotionally and mentally and nostalgically to places I rarely purposefully go. It got me. I cried. Heartbreak, heartache, disappointment and disenchantment find everyone - the rich and the regular - no matter where or how they live. The setting of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater serves well as the core of the story and the author does a superb job of delineating the features of the house while interweaving a story that deals with both the past and the present in the form of vignettes. Highly recommended.

[Asma Khadraoui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully sad, poetic, in-flash novella told in different points of view. Loved reading it.
Easy 5 stars. 🙌
Highly recommend. ❤️

[John Vanderslice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book and a great example of how to tell an expansive story in a series of flashes. Liliane's Balcony travels over several decades and about ten characters. Each chapter is quite short, some as short as a few sentences, and yet a whole world is created. The core story is based on real life vents: the marriage of Liliane and Edgar J. Kauffman, who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a weekend house for them in rural Pennsylvania. (They ran a famously successful department store in Pittsburgh.) The house Wright designed was none other than his amazing and celebrated Falling Water house, still probably the most famous private home in the United States. Parker touches on the early relationship of the Kauffmans, the troubled course of their marriage, and how that marriage eventually dissolved. Also what the house meant to them and especially to Liliane. But sections dedicated to Lilian alternate with sections that depict a group of different people who, decades after Liliane's death, visit the house as part of a tour group. Themes from the Liliane sections are echoed and further developed in these sections. All the character hold your attention but none more than Liliane, who in Parker's hands becomes quite the complex and stirring tragic heroine. An interesting side note to this book is that Parker herself was so interested in the Falling Water house that she eventually became a volunteer tour guide there.

[Kristin Czarnecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dual-narrative of this novella-in-flash tells the story of present-day tourists visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house (built for Pittsburgh businessman E. J. Kaufmann and his wife, Liliane) along with Liliane's experience contending with her problematic marriage. Fact and fiction, past and present, and unforgettable characters intermingle in Ervick's unique and beautiful book.

[Rachel Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing with my current fascination with frank lloyd wright, I found this to be a great story about one of his creations…even something as gorgeous as falling water doesn’t guarantee a gorgeous life.

[Laura Zurowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to see Kelcey Parker read sections of Liliane's Balcony at the Modern Formations Gallery in Pittsburgh earlier this year. That preview, combined with my first visit to Falingwater over the summer, was enough to pique my interest in this book - and I was not disappointed.

The story is reminiscent of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in that the narrative contains two sets of characters, in two distinct time periods, but overlapping at the shared location of Fallingwater. The present day cast of characters are an unconnected group of individuals taking a guided tour. There's a family, a few couples, and a few singles. While all appear somewhat ordinary to each other, we learn from their personal thoughts that they range from the emotionally traumatized (Amanda) to the somewhat self-delusional (Josiah), to an intuitive (Daughter) who, in a somewhat dramatic fashion, accesses a subtle connection to the deep unhappiness and sorrow which the home holds.

The personal tragedies held within the home and by its primary resident, Liliane, unfolds through a series of letters, ruminations, and stories told between her and her philandering husband, Edgar. Set throughout the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, their gilded romance - in which wealth, culture, and travel was at their immediate disposal - cannot hide pain, deception, and a lifetime of unfulfilled expectations.

Is it not surprising then that Liliane's spirit reportedly roams Fallingwater? If she cannot find solace in the past, perhaps she finds some amusement and comfort in the personal dramas swirling through the thousands of tourists that come to visit her every year.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Book Riot's 2017 Read Harder Challenge - read a book published by a micropress.

Definitely recommended for folks who have visited Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house Fallingwater in PA.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for so much more so I could recommend this book to relatives who stay and ski near here and have brought me to both the Wright houses in the area. BUT- absolutely not! This is a story about a few people who are in one of the tour groups of the famous house. This book has their reactions as well as short glimpses of the Kauffman Pittsburgh department store wife. The Kauffman family and their servants spent weekends there after her husband planed the house with Wright. Stream of consciousness prattling streams out of each person in the book for a page or two then the next one gets their turn to think aloud and finally the others return. This makes a disjointed novella.

[Melanie Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few key points to know about Parker's new novella: it's told in several different points of view; the sections are written as flash fiction; the center is Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural achievement, Fallingwater; the counterpart to the house is Liliane, the real-life first owner of Fallingwater who also overdosed and died there; and some sections are actual letters Liliane's husband Edgar Kaufmann wrote to her.

Read the rest of the review at Grab the Lapels

[Lori G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always interested in the effect of buildings on people. Parker's book helps us to understand the feelings and reflections triggered by Fallingwater today as well as when it was built. The meaning of Fallingwater is evident for the Kaufman's as well as vistitors today. In addition this novella demonstrates Frank Lloyd Wright's ability to translate his interpretation of the Kaufman's, the setting, the drama, into a timeless masterpiece.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This "novel-in-flash" is a beautiful demonstration of the power of hybridity. Fact/Fiction, Historical document/Figment of Imagination, Novel/Flash Fiction Story, etc. It never claims to inhabit the poetry genre, but the prose here is downright poetic, so add that to the list as well. A beautiful book overall (and beautifully published by Rose Metal Press to boot).

[Carole Nahra · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading Loving Frank by K. Horan about Frank Lloyd Wright, I was interested in reading more about his work. I chose Liliane's Balcony because it was set at Falling Waters, designed by Wright. The book was disjointed and uninteresting to downright boring. I learned nothing more about Wright. Not worth the short time it took to read.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how beautifully Parker interweaves the multiple narratives. I know very little about Fallingwater or Frank Lloyd Wright, but the way the novel is constructed gives me a sense of the home's architecture. Rooms turn to water and it is hard to tell the inside from the outside, just as people flow into structure, making it hard to separate characters from the space they inhabit.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, sad, poetic, and unlike anything I've ever read. 5 stars for creativity. My recommendation: have this book handy and read while looking over at Fallingwater from the designated viewing area on the property.

[Kelly]

LOVED this book.

[Audrey Bauman]

The highest compliment I can pay this book: it makes me want to write.