In her new novel, The History of Us ($19.99; 384 pages), Cincinnati-based author Leah Stewart examines family feuds, love and commitment.
After her sister dies in a tragic car accident, Eloise Hempel leaves Harvard behind and returns her childhood home in Cincinatti to raise her two nieces and her nephew. Two decades later, Eloise prepares to sell her mother's century-old house and encourages the now-grown children to move out on their own. When the siblings begin to fight over the house and Eloise reveals that her "friend" Heather is actually her girlfriend, their makeshift family grows closer through conflict.
Windy City Times caught up with Stewart during her recent stop in Chicago on her Midwest book tour.
Windy City Times: Location plays a critical role in The History of Us. Why did you choose Cincinnati as the setting for your book?
Leah Stewart: I feel an affection for [Cincinnati] in part because it is a city that once had this heyday when it was "the Queen of the West" and now it's often overlooked in the national imagination. And that's why I set [the book] there, because that type of city has an effect on the characters, especially Eloise, who in her own life feels she had her peak in her late twenties and feels she now has to become who she couldn't become [then].
WCT: Eloise's niece, Theo, says the Midwest is "like quicksand." Why do you think people are drawn to the Midwest?
Leah Stewart: I think people come to places that don't loom as large in our cultural imagination and they think this will be a stepping stone to somewhere else. Then they end up staying there.
WCT: What made you decide to write about siblings?
Leah Stewart: What I'm primarily interested in as both a person and a writer is how we relate to one another. I had written about best friends and I had written about a husband and wife and I had written about being parents of small children, so in some ways I think that this was a relationship I hadn't put into words yet.
WCT: Let's talk about the character Eloise. Despite having a long-term girlfriend, Eloise never explicitly defines her sexual orientation. Why not?
Leah Stewart: Part of that came from the fact that I had an aunt who was married to a man for decades and had children. After [she and her husband] divorced she began to date women and had a parter. She characterized [her orientation] as, "I happened to be married to a man and now I happen to be with a woman." I've always been interested in identity and how we describe ourselves, and so that's part of what informs that aspect of Eloise's character.
WCT: What is the common thread of the relationships in The History of Us?
Leah Stewart: There's a conflict between love and ambition in every relationship. With Eloise, part of the reason she hesitates to fully commit to [her partner] and the reason why she hesitates to identify herself as a lesbian is because part of her just wants to run off, and when she claims that relationship, then she has publicly announced a commitment that is harder to run away from.
WCT: What projects are you working on now?
Leah Stewart: Now I'm working on a novel about a 90-year-old woman who becomes obsessed with her much younger neighbor who has moved to a very small town after being suspected of killing her husband.