A 2021 publication by author Elizabeth Letts, The Ride of Her Life begins as Annie sets out for California on a November day with a few saddle bags of canned goods, a few dollars, some camping gear, her dog, and a horse.
Oh, and she’s riding the horse. Continue reading The Ride of Her Life: Maddening and Heartening in its Optimism
Consistency is important. When things begin to change too quickly for humans to adapt, we value what doesn’t shift, even if it’s not very good. In my twenties and thirties, I travelled a lot by car for various jobs. Convenience stores rank high in a short list of life’s inevitabilities among death, taxes, and lines for the lady’s room. They are inevitable. A byproduct of … Continue reading Subversive Conformity: Convenience Store Woman
“This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So, it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.” Anxious People is a 2019 novel by Fredrik Backman. It was originally published in Swedish and translated and released in English in 2020. … Continue reading Anxious People asks, “What’s worse than being an Idiot?”
Remove your shoes in the house. Tomatoes go in the middle of the sandwich before the mayo to keep the bread from getting soggy. A smile means thank you. A dab signifies respect. “…sometimes the heroes of legends have to break the rules in order to save the people they care about.” Zelda is the protagonist of Andrew David MacDonald’s 2020 debut novel, When We … Continue reading Hansel and Gretel in the ‘hood… When We Were Vikings
A brilliant 2017 debut novel by Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine explores the nature of loneliness, resiliency and friendship. “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE.” The title character, Eleanor, is twenty-nine and intelligent, with a degree in Classics and a steady job in a graphic design company. She’s also socially awkward with a vivid imagination and … Continue reading Eleanor is Fine. And dammit, we better be too.
Several years ago, I was home sick with a flu bug. I sat on the couch, an unwashed, huddled and miserable mass, consuming daytime History Channel content. One documentary of that long day was a documentary on The Plague. As I set, achy, feverish and bereft of the hope that I might ever feel something like “good” again, I began to imagine… “it begins like … Continue reading I Can’t Believe It Ended Like That! Themes of Hope and Despair in Seven Novels
First they would stagger, then grow competent, and then forget the difficulty altogether while thinking of other things, and that was survival. Barbara Kingsolver is a Grande Dame of the dual-narrative novel. Unsheltered, published in 2018, moves fluidly from the 1870s to present day and then returns, before diving again. Kingsolver draws parallels between these two eras, their political and social climates and their hostility toward … Continue reading Unsheltered: A Slog Through the Weeds, But Still Worth the Read
Several decades ago, my 70-something year old grandmother determined to quit smoking at New Year’s. She’d taken up the habit in her forties following a life crisis. Everyone around her still smoked excepting my older brother and myself. My grandmother had her last cigarette in late December and never lit up again. Though you could say she certainly inhaled. She kept her resolution. I resolve … Continue reading What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?
Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for. Words have power. For me, the “f” word has always felt like the outfit you pull out on specific occasions. Where nothing else you own is wholly appropriate. It’s not subtle. F*ck is the short red dress of the English language. She grabs and keeps our attention. For as long as it takes to figure … Continue reading Devil in a Red Dress: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
ReDNeT Press 