Paula Saunders’ voice maintained a steady tone as she read the first two chapters of her debut novel. By the first page, readers found out that in the family the novel follows, three out of the six members have died.  

Saunders, a featured writer in the “Raymond Carver Reading Series” at Syracuse University, conducted a Q&A segment followed by a live reading of her debut novel, “The Distance Home” on Wednesday in HBC Gifford Auditorium.  

At its simplest denominator, “The Distance Home” is an Americana novel about a Midwestern family set in the ‘50s and ‘60s.  

In the novel, siblings Rene and Leon face abuse from their parents. For loving to dance, their father ridicules Leon, sometimes escalating to violence. Their mother works to defend her son, but as she does so, develops an estranged relationship with Rene. 

Though Rene is able to overcome the abuse and fights with their parents, her brother develops post-traumatic stress disorder and battles addiction 

Saunders, who grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, said the novel has elements based from her own life. Like Rene and Leon, she also studied dance and was the daughter of cattle brokers.  

Embedded in her own personal experience, Saunders said she had to work on the voice in the novel, especially to develop the emotion that drives Rene because she felt affinity with the fictional sister. The novel was originally to be written in first person. 

“When I changed it to third person and put myself outside of myself and saw her more as a character, then I could do it,” Saunders said.  

It was the intimate scenes between the family members that grabbed the attention of SU psychology sophomore student, Isabella Martinez. She said that while it may have been hard for Saunders to write about these kind of hardships in the novel, it proved to her that despite Rene not having the best upbringing, it is possible to be kind and successful. 

Sophomore Troyesha Parks, who minors in addiction studies, said reading how Saunders humanized Leon resonated with him because she maintained parts of Leon’s character, rather than diminishing him.  

“He was still a caring person. Especially in my minor, people think that people with addictions aren’t human. He was still sensitive,” she said. 

While the novel brings forth how Leon and Rene ultimately end up in their lives despite their environment, Saunders hopes readers take away the idea that nothing is permanent and there are always choices in life.  

“I have a choice in how I act so I don’t have to act in a violent way,” Saunders said. “When it’s simple, it’s not violent.”  

Published on September 26, 2019 at 8:07 am

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