River Teeth

"A good essay

must have

this permanent quality about it;

it must draw

its curtain round us,

but it must be

a curtain that shuts us in

not out."

~ Virginia Woolf:

River Teeth: I'll admit that I was drawn to a new online newsletter because of it's title. Now I'm staying for the writing! I was absolutely blown away by McWha's essay earlier this month, and then I did a deeper dive into the previous issues of the River Teeth newsletter and got lost for an hour. Tight, concise, bite-sized essays you can read any time you want a little blast of gorgeous writing - that's something you can't find on traditional social media that's actually worth your brain cells. Here's a sample with their permission:

Rearview, October 7, 2024 by Ainsley McWha

Pulling out of the trailer park, where my passenger—a fourteen-year-old counseling client—lives, I pause by the mailboxes. “Don’t the Grand Tetons look great today?” Their snowcapped silhouette slices the eastern horizon, aglow against the azure sky. “Oh, I’ve never seen those before,” she replies. This is where she waits for the school bus every morning.

Down the road, I point out a mass of branches in the bare limbs of a cottonwood tree, the bald eagle’s nest. “How did you know that was there?” she asks. I almost say, “Because I have eyes,” but stay silent. Still, how could anyone miss something so obvious, so out of place?

One year post escape from the city—with its sharp, steely edges and shadowy tunnels; the collective vibrations, unwelcome grazes, and peering eyes of eight million urgent, shouting strangers—all I do these days is notice: clouds; birdsong; three droplets of morning dew along a blade of grass; the sweet, smoky scent of sagebrush rising from the rain-soaked field; an entire inverted world trapped within a melting icicle’s single drip.

Later, I’ll see: My client understandably thinks only of herself, worries about her siblings, their mother with her inability to provide and her propensity to extend invitations to exactly the wrong kind of men, survival.

Suddenly, I forgive my younger eyes for being blind and hope someday this girl, too, might have the luxury of feeling safe enough to spot the first buttercup of spring, that golden fleck of hope sprouting from the muddied earth.

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Staff Reviews This Week From Julie E.

Playground by Richard Powers from W. W. Norton & Company

Wonder, awe, beauty, mystery, love, betrayal, and a touch of science swirl through this incredible new novel by Richard Powers. Like his bestseller, Overstory, Powers has crafted a fascinating novel that draws the reader deeply into a world they may have only perceived from the surface; in this case, the ocean. Through his enthralling story about the lives of complex characters, Powers offers a deepening appreciation for the majesty and mystery of the ocean, and the threats to its ecosystem and ours.

The novel introduces us to the main characters as children: a young girl pushed into deep water by her father and an unlikely friendship between two brilliant boys. The story is narrated by a man whose brain is being eaten by disease. An artist on a remote island gathers plastic from the gut of a dead albatross. Her island is at the cusp of a dramatic and potentially destructive change. Powers tells each of these stories with deep empathy and compassion. Surrounding all of them is the ocean, always the ocean, teaming with the wondrous life of the deep.

There is another significant player in this novel: AI. Through one of the characters, the reader will glimpse how the developers of computers, the internet, and eventually Artificial Intelligence were driven, unrestrained, to create ever more complex systems with mind-blowing capabilities. Is that a good thing or not? Powers slips a great deal of information and philosophy about this growing field into a novel about mantas and fish. That he pulled it off so seamlessly is a testament to his skill.

Playground left me wanting more. It is a novel that opened my awareness to the incomprehensible beauty of the ocean, the confounding complexity of loving humans and the inconceivable power of AI. Ultimately, this is a story of hope and redemption, as well as the power of friendship that extends across time and ocean. This novel is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and has been nominated for the Booker Prize. Don’t miss it!

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich from Harper Collins

The Mighty Red is absolutely one of the best books I have read in a season of outstanding reads!

I could not put down this atmospheric and emotionally-charged book. Every character was so compelling. There is a dark mystery flowing underneath the people and events, like an undercurrent in the mighty Red River of the North. (Julie, is this a real river or something referred to only in the book?) Tenderness, humor, love and loyalty also run deep throughout this beautiful novel.

Erdrich has crafted a stunning tale out of the lives of very ordinary people. The book opens in 2008, in a North Dakota community dominated by industrial sugar beet farming. Crystal hauls beets from field to plant all night long. Her daughter, Kismet, is a senior in high school. Kismet’s father seems to be the only person in town who doesn’t work hard day in and and day out. He loves the theater and volunteers regularly. The story ripples out from this family to other folks from the town; honest and believable characters that Erdrich describes with empathy and insight.

We learn about an accident that happened last March, leaving the guys on the football team never to be the same again. No one wants to talk about it, but it is always in the shadows of their thoughts, influencing their actions. Farming is not what it used to be. The community is not what it used to be. Where are the birds and insects, the rich moist soil? They know the farm chemicals are dangerous. The challenge of making a living by farming is weighed against the loss of what was once so achingly beautiful. Then the banks begin to fail.

Louise Erdrich is a masterful author, and she hit the mark with this stunning new novel. She deals deftly with the great themes of guilt, forgiveness, personal agency and hope. This novel is so compelling, you will want to read it instead of the news. Isn’t that enough reason to dive into this book now? The Mighty Red is also a Kirkus Prize finalist.