Author Virginia Pye (Photo by Margaret Lampert)
Author Virginia Pye may now reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but her long-term home was Richmond, and it serves as the setting for her latest novel, “Marriage and Other Monuments.” Taking place during a tumultuous 2020 — a reality many readers lived through — it involves breakups and reunions, fractures and fissures, in families and the culture.
Pye will be presenting the book in two places: first, at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. for Author RVA, moderated by the ICA’s Director of Community Media Chioke l’Anson, with a reception following at 6 p.m. The event is free, but registration is required. The second presentation, an Author Discussion With Virginia Pye, will be held on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, including a talk led by author Jon Sealy. Tickets are $15 for the event only and $35 with a copy of the novel.
Virginia Pye’s novel “Marriage and Other Monuments” is available now from Koehler Books. (Image courtesy MB Communications)
Pye’s previous award-winning books (“Dreams of the Red Phoenix” and “River of Dust”) took place at crucial turning points in China and “The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann” concerned the life of a popular late 19th-century novelist in Boston. The short stories of her anthology “The Shelf Life of Happiness” concerned realizations, scenes from marriages and relationships breaking up, and the confrontation of death. The landscape is not dissimilar in “Marriage and Other Monuments”; however, the backdrop is COVID-19 and upheaval following the death of George Floyd and the repercussions for the statues on Monument Avenue.
“I think as a novelist and not an historian,” Pye reflects. “My starting place was about marriage and changes over time that can happen in a married relationship. And then, when there’s change happening all around in the broader society, how does that affect personal change and effect personal growth?”
How people can start seeing themselves in a different light as events whirl around them is shown in the book in parallel, between the lives of sisters and their husbands. Marshall Stone is a Black entrepreneur who has rehabilitated the Metropole, an art deco entertainment venue in the novel’s Jackson Ward, and his white spouse, Melissa, is somewhat recklessly committed to the larger issues of social change. Melissa’s sister, Cynthia, comes across as a class-conscious “influencer,” married to Bobby Powers, ostensible scion of a businessman father; Bobby doesn’t want to inherit the kingdom, but he’s not sure what course to take. Into this mix comes Tyisha Mayfield, a former classmate of Marshall’s who is a combination of New Age mysticism and hard-nosed commercial practicality, and Ralph, a friend of Bobby’s who runs The Shack on the James River, a gathering place of many decades for river enthusiasts and where newcomers first get their paddles wet. The location is threatened by a potential project of Bobby’s father, Preston. Amid this is the tangled old mess of the Powers family colliding with a new emerging culture.
Pye describes, “There’s a definite element of generational change, and not knowing what exactly the change is, or which direction the changes will go.”
Through Pye’s own family lineage, she possesses a personal view of how a cultural landscape can shift. Though raised in the North, she’s also the great-great-great-great-grand-niece of Georgia politician Robert Toombs. “By my generation, Toombs was a persona non grata in our family,” Pye says. “I remember my grandmother cringing at the mention of his name.”
Pye wrote an online essay about Toombs’ service in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Though a slave owner, for most of that time he sought compromises to maintain the Union. He ultimately turned into an ardent proponent of states’ rights and joined the Confederate government as its first secretary of state. Rather than put up with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, he resigned to command troops in battle. When he didn’t receive a promotion, Toombs went home — and he barely escaped capture by Union forces.
“He fled the country unrepentant,” Pye relates. “Instead, he became more emboldened than ever. He traveled the globe espousing his white nationalist beliefs.” When Toombs returned, he remained active in Georgia society and politics and vigorously worked to block the civil liberties of Blacks. “He wasn’t ever held accountable,” Pye emphasizes. Toombs’ views remained within the national culture.
During 2020, Pye was locked down in Cambridge, watching late-night videos of events in Richmond and concerned for friends, family and the city itself. She observes, “I’ve been gone from Richmond for a decade, and I miss it; this is, in my way, a love letter. I tried to capture what makes the place special, and also what’s maddening about it. I tried to capture the charms. I was getting nostalgic about the trumpet vines in the alleys right next to a dumpster. Thing is, when you’re there you can take for granted the better qualities.”
Toward the end of “Marriage and Other Monuments,” the activist Melissa is on her way to another horizon, and she considers, “For if the summer of 2020 had any lessons to impart, it was that Richmond deserved a second look. Like so many smaller cities ... it needed change only love could bring about.”
That is a new chapter being written.
