Carmel Magazine

C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 4 85 Nell, or the young Kate. One of Jana Richman's strengths is her ability to ascribe equal impor- tance to each woman's unfolding narrative. Even Leona, Nell's sister- in-law, is given ample air time, and serves as an unbiased observer, an ever-present pair of eyes and ears, a heart, a surrogate, a Greek Chorus of commentary on the unfolding drama. We trust her take on things. Whether we are hearing Cassie's voice, from her summer job at the whorehouse, Wild Filly Stables, or her mom Kate's voice, from her high-pow- ered job at Nevada Water Authority, or her Grandma Nell's voice back in Spring Valley, the authorial investment is the same. We're not meant to side with one more than the other. And as unlikable as Kate comes across, as bitter and closed up as a green pine cone, Richman gives her enough tex- ture that we trust she has good reason. But the barbed wire represents more than the ranching life and the sad boundaries fam- ily members erect between themselves. It harkens back to Kate's most potent memor y of her dead father—a day he was tightening a fence and the taut wire snapped and the young Katie was too close, right in its slicing, slingshot path. "I must have stopped screaming as soon as he picked me up. The only sounds I remember are his running footsteps—fast and hard on the packed earth—and his voice—deep and soft. I had no idea what had happened, but I wasn't afraid; my father had hold of me." The scar on her cheek is as indelible as the man himself—Henry Jorgensen, the book's most lovable character. Toward the end of "The Ordinary Truth," after lies and secrets, grievances and resentments have been levied, Cassie expresses that "[t]he ritualis- tic nature of ranch work seemed the most likely path to healing…" This is a fitting conclusion for all three of these books. There are always fences in need of mending. Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert Home Essays by Ellen Waterston I love a book that leaves me altered—that sidles up to my own experience via a terrain and occupation completely foreign to me. After reading such a book, I understand my own life better. I burst into the other room to read some brilliant passage aloud to my husband. In "Where the Crooked River Rises," Ellen Waterston's essays give us por- traits of places and people, while synthesiz- ing a local philosophy. From "PauMau" comes this collective portrait of the women: "…they can open and close the door with a simultaneous pull and swing, with the matter-of-fact agility of someone who has done lots of hard physical work, known hope, and weathered heartbreak, wielded a branding iron or vaccine gun, waved their husband through countless gates, cradled a colicky child, ridden the buck out of a mare, forgiven a drunk spouse…" From "Blue Bucket Gold," this wisdom: "We were young enough to still think a whim was a factual survey…This high desert, it seemed, wasn't much impressed by man's monuments to himself, tended to take itself back." While Waterston mostly focuses on the places and characters of her high desert home, she occasionally reveals her own hopes and heartbreaks. "I never was one for the realistic appraisal of things…fan- tasies about my husband, our marriage, and ranch life together…I never antici- pated, was not prepared for the fact that things could turn out badly… And I came late to realizing that investing my energy in the fact they had in some ways turned out badly was not the best use of my energetic dollar… "I'm now a person of amalgamated faith. Despite everything, my sails are full." Advice from this book that will stay with me: "…go like beautiful, exquisite hell in the time you have. Because in the end…nothing matters except the one hundred percent of the right now." And this motto: "The main thing is to keep your main thing your main thing." Brilliant in its simplicity. Every essay in this collection immortalizes something; as writers, we can't aspire to much more than that. These books can be found locally 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 magazine. She offers courses, writing retreats and editing serv- ices in Carmel-by-the-Sea. For more information, go to www.melaniebishopwriter.wordpress.com

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