How do we find our way in life when so many things seem to be conspiring against us or limiting our choices? This insightful, sometimes heartbreaking, and often hilarious novel takes up this question from multiple characters’ perspectives. Each of their stories offers a nuanced exploration of a particular existential struggle and where it might lead, for good and for ill.
What if I just stop writing?
Hounded by self-doubt, many writers (including me) carry this question with them like a dark secret, something impossible to dispense with entirely, as much as they might want to. Now and then it surfaces, accompanied by deep anxiety or by a burgeoning sense of relief–perhaps both–depending on the circumstances.
In her equally harrowing and illuminating book–a hybrid of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism–Rebecca van Laer explores why one young woman turned a What if? to a fait accompli, ceasing to write poetry because, in her words, it could “help me no longer.” The result is a fascinating read, one that confronts an uncomfortable reality: although personal traumas can drive, and sometimes become inseparable from, creative work, this relationship isn’t necessarily healthy or sustainable, however productive it might be.
This gracefully written, heartfelt novel examines the risks and rewards of facing doubts and desires concerning the direction of one’s life, and of trying to act according to these feelings. It also considers the power of close friendships, and how these relationships can sustain us in ways that familial, or marital, bonds might not be able to.
In the acknowledgments section of this beautifully crafted, revelatory collection, Tara Lynn Masih mentions her realization, while putting the book together, that many of the stories are connected by the theme of disappearance. Indeed, the collection explores literal and metaphorical disappearances, and how these lead characters to transformative discoveries about themselves and, in some cases, about the spiritual world.
On August first, Jeff Fearnside’s collection of linked essays, Ships in the Desert, will be published by the Santa Fe Writers Project.
From 2002 to 2004, Jeff served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Kazakhstan, and he ended up living there for almost four years. During that time, he worked in Kyrgyzstan as well, and he traveled along the Silk Road throughout Muslim Asia.
In Ships in the Desert, Jeff takes us to the heart of his experiences in Central Asia and considers how they shed light on such universal issues as environmental degradation, and religious and cultural intolerance. To quote a description from the cover of the book:
“Fearnside creates a compelling narrative about this faraway land and soon realizes how the local, personal stories are, in fact, global stories. Fearnside sees firsthand the unnatural disaster of the Aral Sea—a man-made environmental crisis that has devastated the region and impacts the entire world. He examines the sometimes controversial ethics of Western missionaries, and reflects on personal and social change once he returns to the States.”
Recently, Beth Castrodale of Small Press Picks had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff about Ships in the Desert. (In 2017, she reviewed his story collection Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air, praising “its deep explorations of diverse lives and experiences” and “its immersion in place.”)
This searing, emotionally resonant story collection immerses us in the struggles of characters who, in many cases, are trying to make sense of the past, or of murky or troubled relationships–often, when they are at a crossroads in their lives. Haunting virtually all of the stories are traumas from the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Linforth considers how chasms may exist between family members, or between (current or former) lovers–and how it may be possible to never fully connect with, much less understand, those with whom we share blood, or with whom we’ve shared our lives. Yet sometimes, those chasms can be bridged, and he captures such moments with powerful prose.
Through a powerful combination of prose, poetry, and visual art, The Benefits of Eating White Folks explores an enslaved woman’s determination to survive and persist amid a series of traumas that threaten to break her. And it connects her trials to issues of racial injustice that continue to afflict our country. The result is an unforgettable book, one that holds an unforgiving mirror up to American racism, past and present, showing its ineradicable toll.