Rainer Maria Rilke

"Live a while in these books, learn from them what seems to you worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be repaid you a thousand and a thousand times, and however your life may turn,-it will, I am certain of it, run through the fabric of your growth as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys."--Rainer Maia Rilke


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Sunday, September 11, 2011

An Uncomfortable Reality and Bittersweet Truths

Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
(Adult Fiction)

Take a look around your subdivision, or neighborhood, or black.  Peel back the roof and look inside the lives of five random families.  Not the outside personas, the faces put on for the public; but, the real heartbreak and grit of churning out a life.  We all like to think we are unique and independent but do we really know how much we rely on those around us, in healthy or unhealthy ways?  Are our secrets really a secret from those who know exactly when we take our trash out and our papers in?

This is the story of five neighbors in a small town in Canada and how the threads of their lives are connected.  Those threads are not like a smooth running seam in a beautifully wrought blanket, but a messy and dirty knot that takes time and care to unravel on a pair of old and smelly sneakers, the ones we love even though they are past usefulness and are even beginning to smell a little. 

There is Abby, a power lifter pushed past endurance by her father; Patience, a collector who adds a real life baby from Walmart; Collin, a daredevil who flings himself over Niagara Falls; there are demons in boxes a hit man with a soft spot for candy and each one of them is connected in a weird, and mostly bittersweet, way.  This is a story of broken people who are relying upon another broken soul  to prop up their own spirit.
The book is very funny in a dry and dark way.  And, then it is pitiful and then, at times, sweet.  It is a roller-coaster of emotions and circumstances and a joy to read from the first to the last.  It’s one of the books you want to read again and again, just to see what you might have missed the first time.  And, at the exact same time you squirm while reading parts because it is so uncomfortable, like hearing your neighbors arguing again over the backyard fence or hanging out your underwear on the line, the ones with stains that won’t quite come clean.

It was an incredible read and I can’t wait to pick up another by this author.  Welcome to my literary world, Craig Davidson!  I can’t wait to pick up your other books and count myself into what will become a huge fan base.

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