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From: Dave Williams
Date: 10 Oct 2008
Time: 14:02:37 -0500
Remote Name: 71.228.93.115
Your excerpts from "Tending to Grace" certainly make want to read the complete novel. Your character Cornelia brings to mind the protagonist of an earlier novel called "The Lizards". by Alessandra Lavagnino, published in the USA in 1972 by Harper & Row. It concerns Marzia, a stuttering girl growing up in Rome during World War II. The descriptions of her thoughts, feelings and stuttering behavior are poignant and sensitive, right on the mark. I used to copy out excerpts from the book and give them to my students in my stuttering courses at Northern Illinois University to help educate them about the problem of stuttering. I am long retired, but I absolutely must read "Tending to Grace." I am sure it wouldo an equal or better job of depicting a stutterer as did "The Lizards." More power to you, and I wish you a long and successful career as a novelist.