The author of the "sparkling dark romance" (Redbook) We Could Be Beautiful brings her "wit and verve" (The New York Times Book Review) to this quirky, feel-good novel about one woman's messy journey from self-delusion to self-acceptance.
At thirty-seven, Stevie Green has had it with binge drinking and sleeping with strange men. She's confused about her sexuality and her purpose in life. When her mother asks her to return to her hometown of La Jolla to help her move into a new house, she's desperate enough to say yes. The move goes so well that Stevie decides to start her own decluttering business. She stops drinking. She hires her formerly estranged sister, Bonnie, to be her business partner. She rekindles a romance with her high school sweetheart, Brad. Things are better than ever-except for the complicated past that Stevie can't seem to outrun.
Who was responsible for the high school scandal that caused her life to take a nosedive twenty years earlier? Why is she so secretive about the circumstances of her father's death? Why are her feelings for her ex-friend, Chris, so mystifying? If she's done drinking, then why can't she seem to declutter the mini wine bottles from her car?
A winsome, fast-paced read, Getting Clean With Stevie Green is about coming to terms with who you are, resolving the pain of your past, and accepting the truth of your life in all its messy glory. Swan Huntley is the author of Getting Clean With Stevie Green, The Goddesses, and We Could Be Beautiful. She earned her MFA at Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, where she was the 2019 recipient of The LeSage-Fullilove Residency. Her writings have appeared on Salon, The Rumpus, and Autostraddle, among others. She lives in Los Angeles.
