Unforgivable Love

by Sophfronia Scott

  One morning she noticed the calm river’s shimmering surface disturbed intermittently by a dot or two of bubbles.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “The fish,” he replied. “They’re rising.”

  She nodded and hugged Valerie to her. “Me too,” she said. “Me too.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Several years ago my friend, the screenwriter Jenny Lumet, during a conversation about my obsession with Les Liaisons Dangereuses and its various incarnations, said there needed to be a version of the story with an African American cast. I knew I could do it and I knew it had to be set in Harlem in the 1940s. She doesn’t remember the suggestion but I never forgot it. The story finally blossomed for me when I met Leslie Lewis, who became my muse. Her fierce and gorgeous energy fed the streams of my imagination from which Mae and Elizabeth emerged. I would not have embarked on this journey if not for Jenny and Leslie.

  I’m grateful for my family, Darryl and Tain, who have allowed me to shape a world where, when I’m not with them, they know Mama is either writing, reading, sleeping, or exercising. And doing some teaching as well.

  Thanks to my wise and stalwart literary agent, Brettne Bloom, and to my excellent editor, Lucia Macro, who loved this novel from the first. I have endless appreciation for everyone at William Morrow who worked on the book and helped bring it into the world.

  I wrote this book while an MFA student at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) in Montpelier. I’m grateful to Ellen Lesser, the advisor who worked with me when I generated the first draft, and Bret Lott, who oversaw/edited the revisions leading to the manuscript I eventually submitted to Brettne. Mary Ruefle, Clint McCown, and Martha Southgate read excerpts in workshop and provided insightful feedback.

  David Hicks, Raphael Matto, Janet Simmonds, and William R. Smith were my trusted readers who dove into the manuscript and came up with the fresh perspective I needed. I will always appreciate the time they lovingly provided.

  David is also my writing partner, and since 2013 he has sat with me through most days of my writing life. He knows nearly every high and low I experienced in the creation of this book. I am lucky to have him.

  I thank Peyton and David Cooper for sending me postcards from Paris—that’s how I first learned of the Rodin Museum. And I’m grateful to dear Maria and Thea Trotta, whose visit there and gift of a framed image of Rodin’s The Eternal Idol inspired me to put the museum in the book.

  I thank these friends for their ongoing love and support: Katy Kjellgren, Kathi Brown Wright, Vaughn and Gail Buffalo, Anupama Amaran, Yana Syrkin, Heather Jackson, Rob Berkley, Debbie Phillips, and all my Women on Fire sisters. The same goes for my writing allies: Peter Wright, Donald Quist, Michelle Webster-Hein, and Mathieu Cailler. Special thanks to Mathieu for providing the French translations I used in the text.

  Thanks to Pastor Kathie Adams-Shepherd and my faith community at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, Connecticut.

  I thank Vinny, Julie, and Paige Caggianiello for looking after Tain when I needed a few extra hours to write.

  Thanks to the libraries that provided both books and space to write: the Gary Library at VCFA, C. H. Booth Library in Newtown, and Southbury Public Library.

  The following books were particularly helpful: The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene (Mr. Greene’s analysis of the methods used by the original Valmont character informed the strategy I created for my Val), This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900–1950 by Jervis Anderson, and On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker by A’Lelia Bundles.

  Last but not least I’m forever grateful to my dear friend Jane Brady, who helped me see I’m all about redemption, an observation that led me to understand the heart of the book I wanted to write.

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

  About the Author

  * * *

  Meet Sophfronia Scott

  About the Book

  * * *

  Story Behind the Book

  About the Author

  Meet Sophfronia Scott

  SOPHFRONIA SCOTT hails from Lorain, Ohio—a hometown she shares with the author Toni Morrison. She was a writer and editor at Time and People magazines before publishing her first novel, All I Need to Get By (Griffin), in 2004. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Hotel Amerika, The Timberline Review, Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Ruminate Magazine, Saranac Review, Numéro Cinq, Barnstorm, Sleet Magazine, NewYorkTimes.com, and O, the Oprah Magazine. She has an essay collection forthcoming from Ohio State University Press/Mad River Books, and a spiritual memoir, This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Being in a Secular World, cowritten with her son, being published by Paraclete Press.

  Sophfronia teaches creative writing at Regis University’s Mile-High MFA and the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio. She speaks and teaches at literary events such as the Hobart Festival of Women Writers in upstate New York, the Frederick Buechner Writer’s Workshop at the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. She blogs at www.Sophfronia.com, and is a guest blogger at RuminateMagazine.com.

  Sophfronia holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing, fiction, and creative nonfiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where she continues to fight a losing battle against the weeds in her flower beds.

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  About the Book

  Story Behind the Book

  Against the glamorous backdrop of 1940s Harlem, two wealthy people—Mae Malveaux, whose mother built the family fortune through a hair care product business, and Valiant Jackson, whose money comes from sketchier means—play games of sexual intrigue to feed their sense of ego and power. But their amusement takes a poisonous turn when Mae is slighted by a former lover.

  This lover, Frank Washington, is engaged to marry Mae’s young cousin Cecily, recently returned to Harlem after spending time with relatives in North Carolina. Understanding that the girl’s virginity is what Frank values most, Mae orders Val to seduce her.

  The world-weary Val, feeling restless and dissatisfied after witnessing Jackie Robinson cross baseball’s color line, hopes to inject new life into his pursuits by seducing Elizabeth Townsend, the virtuous wife of a civil rights attorney. He lies to Mae about his true focus, and when she discovers his dishonesty, the game crosses the line into war.

  Love, faith, lost innocence, and the nature of each character’s sexual being all drive the narrative as they learn what is most important just when they have to risk it all.

  BACKSTORY

  I can’t do this for most films, but for some reason I can remember the first time I saw Dangerous Liaisons, starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. I remember the theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and I remember the people who were with me, and I remember the film wasn’t my choice and I knew nothing about it. But the story and its characters burned such an impression into my brain that I felt impelled to read the original novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, published in 1782, and in the years to come consumed nearly every version of the story that came down the pike.

  I keep a television in my office and there came this time that the film Cruel Intentions was in rotation on cable, and I found I was watching it over and over again. One day my husband came in and asked, “Why are you watching this again?” I said, “I don’t know. I think I’m going to write something.” When I mentioned this to my friend, the screenwriter Jenny Lumet, she said there needed to be a version of the story with an African American cast. I knew I could do it and I knew it had to be set in Harlem in the 1940s. The idea sparked a flame in me because I recognized it as the perfect vessel to contain the vision of how I see this centuries-old narrative.

  Dangerous Liaisons has always been considered a cautionary tale, but I see it as a love story. As a writer I am obsessed with love—how we want it, fear it, are paraly
zed by it, will go to amazing lengths for it. The Valmont/Val Jackson character fascinates me because at the start of the story, the measure of the man appears to be the measure of his deeds. By the end of the story the measure of the man turns out to be the measure of his love. But why does he fall in love? Elizabeth brings about this change in him. He already has an inkling that there might be good in the world, a good that has nothing to do with money.

  She shocks him by confirming that not only is there good in the world, there is good for him. The woman not only captures his heart—she captures his spirit and he is a stronger, better person for it.

  This is also a story about sexuality and how the way we wield it can be the deepest expression of our human nature. In writing the book I realized I also had an opportunity to articulate some challenging thoughts about sex. I feel as a society we are too disconnected from this important aspect of our humanity and because of that, the potential for trouble is huge. Mae and Val understand this weakness and a lot of what they do is simply a manipulation of people by taking advantage of it. In North Carolina, Cecily is just beginning to learn about and feel more connected to her physical self when she is suddenly whisked back home by her mother. The confusion and sudden disconnect she feels makes her susceptible to Mae’s machinations because no one has been honest with Cecily about her body or helped her learn about it.

  But what happens when we take ownership of our sexuality? Elizabeth is changed when she finally does. And Cecily eventually learns to be awake and aware in her physical being, and it causes her to act accordingly. I found it thrilling to watch Elizabeth and Cecily emerge as actualized women, assertive in both love and sexuality. Cecily especially becomes her own hero in a way I didn’t expect. She became this great representation of the power of sexuality. What does your sexuality reveal about you, and where can your sexuality take you when you claim (or reclaim) it? These questions are why the story of Dangerous Liaisons is still so relevant and captivating today. We are still on this quest when it comes to exploring sexuality.

  I originally wrote the story as a screenplay because my first experience of it had been a film. I had this shimmering image in my head of Val revealing the beautiful baseball field he’s created on the vast lawns of Mercylands. But by structure a screenplay is sparse—you have to leave room for the director and the actors to fill in the spaces. Only about a quarter of my vision made its way to the page. When my agent suggested I write the story as a novel, I was more than happy to do so because I could finally make that journey of discovery that is part of the novel-writing process. Unforgivable Love fulfills my original vision in both scope and story.

  ON THE SETTING

  I wanted to write a story where money obviously wasn’t an issue, and to create settings I wanted to spend time in: lush gardens, large gorgeous rooms filled with sumptuous jazz music. I like having the sounds of Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, and Ella Fitzgerald flowing through the book’s pages. I wanted to relate a vision of elegance, of well-dressed people strolling down the street or through a park. I love such images. So I chose a place—Harlem—where such beauty and art would have existed during a time—the late 1940s—filled with its own inherent glamour. This moment in history was so full of potential. World War II had ended and all of society was still adjusting. People were figuring out who and what they would be in this time of change.

  I also knew Jackie Robinson would be a pivotal figure for Val Jackson, so the date of the novel’s main action had to be 1947—right when Robinson crossed baseball’s color line. I saw Val being present for the event, and having it change him in ways that plant the seeds for what happens to him with Elizabeth.

  An architectural note: I modeled Aunt Rose’s house after The Mount—Edith Wharton’s house in Lenox, Massachusetts. I know I could have used Villa Lewaro, a palatial estate in New York’s Westchester County that really was the home of America’s first black female millionaire, Madame C. J. Walker. In fact Walker’s wealth and hair product business served as inspiration for the character of Mae’s mother. But the Mount has a modesty I felt was more appropriate for Aunt Rose. And I found it easier to imagine my characters moving about through the rooms and on the grounds of Wharton’s beautiful property.

  The author Bret Lott was my advisor during my last semester of graduate school, and I did a lot of writing and revising of the novel with him. He turned out to be the perfect person to work with because he loves baseball and jazz music, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of both. Actually, it was a blessing and a curse: a blessing when he helped me avoid what could have been embarrassing mistakes in my references to baseball history, and a curse when I wanted to reference a song in a scene—it was hard to find music that both fit the scene and existed at the time of the novel—and he would vexingly be able to say, “Well, yes, that song did come out that year, but it didn’t make it to the nightclub circuit until late the following year.” ARRGGGHH!! Can you hear the sound of me banging my head on my desk?

  Ann Petry’s novel The Street plays a role in my book, and I didn’t expect that to happen. I initially read it for research purposes because it was published during the timeframe of my novel, but when I realized how much the dark and sad nature of The Street affected me I knew I should put it in my novel and use the emotions I felt for one of my characters and see where it might take my story.

  I feel there’s a richness to Unforgivable Love in that it can be enjoyed on more than one level. It can be read as a straight story of love and romance. It can also be read on the literary level, as historical fiction, and as social commentary. But at the end of the day I will admit it: this story is for me. I wanted to tell myself a story I could tell myself again and again with the same sort of passion Zora Neale Hurston poured out when she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her passion overflowed and the ensuing waves flooded the world, leaving us forever steeped in that story. I can only hope readers will likewise feel my love and passion for this novel in equal abundance.

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  Praise for Sophfronia Scott

  “In short, jewel-like chapters, Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott, a retelling of the classic Dangerous Liaisons, is the tale of a sexy summer’s intrigue in the world of comfortable, glitteringly fashionable members of African-American high society in Jazz Age Harlem, New York. Scott’s novel is a vivid, vibrant, and panoramic exploration of the hearts and minds of its mostly well-heeled characters and the universal themes of love, sex, and social intrigue. Unforgivable Love offers a delightful opportunity to spend time in the Harlem heyday, a period of post-war optimism and renaissance. Sophfronia Scott takes readers there and lets them wander and discover this exciting, historical time and place.”

  —Breena Clarke, author of the Oprah Book Club selection, River, Cross My Heart

  “Scott’s wonderful, original retelling of Dangerous Liaisons takes readers deep into the lives of her characters; Mae, Val, and Elizabeth are riveting and complex. You won’t be able to stop reading this terrific, absorbing book.”

  —Karen E. Bender, author of Refund, finalist for the National Book Award

  “Unforgivable Love is an unforgettable read. Scott’s reimagining of Dangerous Liaisons into 1940s Harlem society is nothing short of inspired, with all the spice and spite and delight of the original, and more. Nuanced, haunting, elegant, this is a book I can’t wait to read again—and then again.”

  —Robin Black, author of Life Drawing

  “Picasso’s ‘Head of a Bull’ was made simply by attaching a set of handle bars to bicycle seat; simple, yes. But a stunning leap of imagination. This is what Unforgivable Love brings to mind for me: Here is this eighteenth-century French tale remade into a panorama of mid-century Harlem, America—full of brilliant characters, a tale of love and lust and treachery, written with the rhythms of jazz, giving forth beautifully rendered rooms and streets and sounds. The remake is better than the original.”

  —Richard Bausc
h, award-winning author of Before, During, After

  “Unforgivable Love is a fast-paced tale of intrigue, seduction, and betrayal. Sophfronia Scott leaves us breathless.”

  —Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever

  “At once beautiful and ominous, visceral and ethereal, tragic and fulfilling, Unforgivable Love is a genuinely moving novel of love, loss, and the treacherous paths we make for ourselves when we let our passions run away with us. Sophfronia Scott has given us a book that will last—an elegant page turner that transcends time and place.”

  —Bret Lott, New York Times bestselling author of Jewel

  “Complicated characters, unbearable tension, heartbreak, and betrayal make Unforgivable Love an absorbing read. Deeply poignant.”

  —Erika Robuck, national bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl

  “Unforgivable Love is an exquisite, sexy, beautifully imagined novel in which Sophfronia Scott expertly recasts the intrigues and characters of Dangerous Liaisons in Harlem of the late 1940s. It’s evident that Scott was deeply inspired by the spirit and events of Pierre de Laclos’s classic novel, but she has claimed its subjects—romantic love and betrayal—as her own. Both a virtuosic homage and a thrilling retelling—Unforgivable Love is a stunning accomplishment.”