Carmel Magazine

Carmel Magazine Spring 2014

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C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 4 43 prayer—please, please, please—a prayer that our loved ones will be safe. "Anthropologies" will make you cherish your family anew and will make you want to hold your children close. The Tender Land: A Family Love Story by Kathleen Finneran T his is the most beautiful and heart- wrenching memoir I've ever read. I have taught the book in my college memoir class half a dozen times, and I reread it every time and appreciate it anew. Finneran has taken such extraordi- nary care to paint all the characters in such detail that the memoir truly lives up to its subtitle: "A Family Love Story." The Finnerans are a Catholic family living in St. Louis — a depressed but loving mother, a devoted though sometimes remote father, and five children: Michael, Mary, Kathleen, Sean and Kelly. Sean, everyone in the family would agree, is the sweetest, the most essentially good, everyone's personal favorite. And therefore, of course, the one who gets sacrificed. Finneran is masterful at scene, and there's not one false note, nor one moment where you don't trust the truths she is painting for you. She just gives you the carefully selected, beautifully rendered scene and you draw your own conclusions. In the writing world, we talk a lot about the effec- tiveness of showing versus telling. Finneran shows us this family and this unthinkable tragedy and we believe. We grieve along with them. While Sean's suicide is keenly felt by every- one, Kathleen is, on the night her beloved younger brother kills himself, losing her virginity. She will never be able to dissociate the one act from the other. Finneran has taken the most painful, most irreversible happening imaginable, and she has elevated it to the level of art. The book is woven from the richest, most lovely portrait of a family—one that loses big, and then, eventually, learns to go on living. First Comes Love by Marion Winik T his memoir chronicles a seemingly ill-con- ceived love affair between a gay man and a straight woman. While they ignore the issue of their shared sexual preference—they both like men—their friendship blossoms and they become inseparable. Their long-term attachment and loyalty to each other leads them eventually to marry, but the book isn't done surprising you yet. Despite the fact that Tony is HIV positive, they decide to have two children together. "We were about to become the most monogamous, joined-at-the-hip, vir tually asexual couple on Earth. In sunny, sexually diverse Austin, Texas." Yes, readers will feel frustrated at times with Marion and Tony's reckless drug use and over- the-top alcohol consumption, but their love story, all the more believable because it tran- scends sexuality, will still get you right in the gut. And when you're finished with this book, and sad that it's over, be consoled: Winik has published nine books since this first one, and they will all make you laugh. All of these books are available at Pilgrim's Way Community Bookstore, in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Melanie Bishop's young adult novel, "My So-Called Ruined Life," was recently released by Torrey House Press. Bishop brings to the Monterey Peninsula 22 years of college-level teaching in creative writing, and 18 years as founding editor of Alligator Juniper, a national literary mag- azine. She offers courses, writing retreats and editing services in Carmel-by-the-Sea. For more information, go to www.melaniebishopwriter.wordpress.com. "The Tender Land," by Kathleen Finneran, examines the tragedy one family must overcome, while "First Comes Love," by Marion Winik, chronicles a very modern couple raising a child together. 042-043 Book Reviews_Layout 4/25/14 4:18 PM Page 2

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