After days of drought and watering restrictions, the lawn is as hard as iron, and the perennials are drooping, with only the hardiest persisting. But, last night, the metal roof chimed with plump raindrops. Finally, a welcome storm.
WATERMARKED
This month’s short story installment is “Saving Things.”
It’s the story of Lucie, the graduate student, with whom Michael had an affair. It explores the enduring effects of her exploitation by one of her professors. The story is set in Halifax, and I learned a bit about East Coast whales while I was writing it. I hope you enjoy it.
What am I reading:
Who doesn’t love reading Ann Patchett. I’ve written about her book The Dutch House, before. Her latest book, Whistler has similar charms—family disruption, grudges, regrets, and misunderstandings. Accidents and scars, physical and emotional. Secrets revealed or not. Forgiveness. I loved it. I think it is a perfectly balanced read, but some say it is too sweet. Keep writing Ann.
What I am listening to:
I’m listening to Angel Down, the 2026 Pulitzer Prize winner. “Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.”
Kirby Heyborne, the narrator, does an excellent job of navigating the single, cumulative-sentence work. He is also one of the 166 voices in the audio production of George Saunders ‘, Lincoln in the Bardo.
I can’t remember how I stumbled on this work—possibly from an NYT review or why I chose the audio format. But the truth is, it is so bizarre (over-the-top) that I think I would have found it unreadable in print format. It’s All Quiet on the Western Front meets distorted metaphysical speculative fiction. The vivid descriptions of the carnality of World War I ( and I suppose any war—I’m thinking of the deliberate ongoing destruction of Gaza, Ukraine and Iran) are laced with alliteration, obtuse, improbable and fantastic similes, metaphors and symbolism.
An unlikely degenerate band of five anti-heroes, one of whom is a young boy, and all that means in terms of caring and needing to be cared for, has the common purpose of surviving the craziness. But can they overcome their own desires to protect the angel they have found tangled in barbed wire in no-man’s land?
You may recognize the author, Daniel Kraus, who coauthored The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, which was made into the Oscar–winning film starring Sally Hawkins.
I’m listening to Angel Down in small batches as I drive around town. It’s so powerful, it’s all I can take. Like all strange and extraordinary things, this novel won’t be for everybody.
What I’m Watching:
Sports media have saturated my life for the last several weeks—The FIFA World Cup, Roland Garros in Paris and then Wimbledon. It’s a good job I’m retired and was able to attend a few FIFA daytime watch parties to wave the Canadian flag. It was agonizing to see the wonderful Felix Auger-Aliassime being eventually defeated by the wily Djokovic after playing a nail-biting five-setter at the Wimbledon Quarterfinal.
What’s Coming Up:
The Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival opens next week with another outstanding line-up of authors and workshops. Seems like it gets better and better each year. I’m looking forward to Maria Reva’s workshop, “Creating Tension through Character Networks.” Maria Reva is the Canadian Ukrainian author of Endling and Good Citizens Need Not Fear. (reviewed here in previous posts)
I’m off now to inspect the garden for signs of recovery after that fabulous and much-needed rainstorm last night.
Thanks for reading
Carolyne
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