Grace Reading Series

Just got back from the dentist and my lower lip feels as big as a plate and is benumbed. Which makes me think about the numbness and pain of loss (sure it does). I was swept away by Louise Erdrich's beautiful new novel about grieving, The Painted Drum, as you can see in this review on Miss Grace:

The texture, gesture, and innateness of lyrical writing are the blood and bone of The Painted Drum. Erdrich’s metaphors interpret memory through storytelling and therefore inhabit language at its most concrete. She has respect for the way things are. When Faye Travers remarks “Whenever you leave cleared land, or a path, or a road, when you step from someplace carved out, plowed, or traced by a human and pass into the woods, you must leave something of yourself behind. It is that sudden loss, I think, even more than the difficulty of walking through undergrowth that keeps people firmly fixed to paths,” Erdrich tricks us into simple wisdom. Loss is always sudden. Loss means that life must die to create more life. Suffering keeps people firmly fixed to paths.

Apparently, Ms. Erdrich has an independent bookstore in Minneapolis, which I intend to check out when I'm there over the holidays.

And I'll leave you with a few more words of wisdom from the great mother herself before I go off and try to drink cafe au lait without dribbling down the front of my green hoodie, an interview:

Toni Morrison talks about finding a writer who gives one "permission" to write, someone who breaks down the barriers and allows you the self-confidence to write. Did you have any "permission-giving" writers when you first started to write?

Erdrich: Morrison was one of mine. She spoke about being a mother, and she always spoke about it as a great boon to her as a writer. Previous to that I don't think I'd read anything positive. There were few mothers writing, very few mothers who would talk about the benefits. Kay Boyle was one person for whom being a mother and a writer were passionately integral. Grace Paley, she's very funny about it. She claims to have neglected her children, because it was the only way she could get things done.