Discovering identity. We might try to do it by seeing or developing an ideal, then taking the steps that best match up with the path as we see it. But often — even if the end result is satisfying or liberating — there’s a rougher process. It could be foisted upon us by family or community — which themselves go through changes. It might all take odd turns due to circumstance. Or catastrophe. Or something beyond the pale. Two Kentucky writers are coming to town to talk about their new prose works which range far from the usual coming-of-age.
Tuesday, Mar. 19 at 7 p.m. Carmichael’s Bookstore hosts Lee Mandelo, whose new novella is “The Woods All Black.” This is a tale of post-World War I in the hollers of eastern Kentucky. Protagonist Leslie Bruin, a veteran who nursed the wounded near the trenches, is sent by Frontier Nursing Service to a very different kind of front lines. He arrives at a small tobacco-farming community that’s near-uniformly of pious to the point of treating misfits with viciousness. The gossipers start up immediately because Leslie wears trousers instead of the skirts the locals expected. But they don’t know nearly the whole story, and Mandelo exercises his skills at storytelling that can blend the smooth and the shocking.
Leslie knows the risks of giving vaccinations and contemplating (but never getting around to) teaching birth control in this ever-suspicious small town. And the local patronizing, abusive preacher has already had his fill with an adolescent whom Leslie recognizes as a kindred spirit. Surprises follow, the tale’s pace escalates, and implied threats soon explode… including episodes that leap over the top. The author indulges in queer erotic scenes and celebratory revenge. Layering of carefully-placed but wildly crafted folk-horror might be the line that some readers won’t cross — or maybe they’ve already put the book aside. Or maybe they’ve found it an exciting breath of fresh air. Mandelo is in a mood to challenge here — this is a significant (but not complete) turn from last year’s more-contemplative-than-visceral novella “Feed Them Silence.”
Thursday, Mar. 28 at 7 p.m., Carmichael’s hosts Ellen Birkett Morris, who’ll speak about her just-in-print prize-winning “Beware the Tall Grass.” This is a novel written in alternating chapters, with point-of-view handed off between a young man coming from Montana and ending up in Vietnam of the 1960s; and currently in the D.C. suburbs with a wife who’s a new mother. The mother, Eve, carries some extra narrative weight, as she finds herself considering, “Memory is a tricky thing... I had gotten to the point where I didn’t know if the memories came from dreams or were real.”
The very basic structure of Morris’ chapters and prose belie the power of what’s delivered here. It’s probably not giving away much to say that when the first words of Eve’s child include “napalm,” there’s going to be some confusion and tension. But the Twilight Zone-like considerations of past-life memories — a documented but certainly controversial and very certainly under-understood phenomenon — are only part of this book’s opening up of a wealth of dimensions including generational reckoning, plus parental stresses that might not be exclusive to the current day. We all may be forever reconstructing ourselves through our relationships, over and over. But as we mature, and reflect (and refract) on a past of our minds’ ideal, we might be building on a foundation that is also susceptible to influences beyond our understanding. This author cleanly captures a complex scenario that carries some devastating depth — especially those ready to open their minds to wonder.
Carmichael’s Bookstore (502-896-6950) is at 2720 Frankfort Ave.
