Joe Siccardi

Interesting but ...

Revisado: 06-23-20

Kya. Kya. Kya.

I found myself saying that repeatedly as I listed to the audio version of Where the Crawdads Sing, a repeated recommendation from friends. The multi-tiered story was a breakout fictional hit for Delia Owens, earning overnight success after it became the September selection for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club.

Kya — Catherine Danielle Clark — was abandoned, first by her mother, then her siblings, and eventually by her abusive, often drunken father. The main story skillfully follows her journey from a six year old “marsh girl” in the North Carolina backwaters to an accomplished ethological writer, illustrator and marsh expert. We learn how she learns how to survive … on her own, and how she became adept at avoiding people — especially truant officers and the law — with minimal contact in a town that looks down on her. The only peace she knows are amid the marshes with its own rhythm, flora, fauna, and ecological structure.

Kya has very limited contact outside the marsh, and no real relationships. Without money and family, she learns self-reliance, including gardening and trading fresh mussels and smoked-fish for money and gas from Jumpin’, a black man who owns a gasoline station for boats. Jumpin’ and his wife Mabel become lifelong good friends — ultimately her only real friends. Tate is introduced by leaving her feathers from rare birds, then teaches her how to read and write. The two form a romantic, yet platonic, relationship. He promised to return to Kya after college, but reneges, rationalizing Kya would never fit into a world outside her familiar marsh. Chase Andrews, Barkley Cove’s star quarterback and playboy, invites her to a picnic, during which he tries to have sex with her. He later apologizes, but the two form a romantic relationship. He shows her an abandoned fire tower, and she gives him a necklace of a shell he found during their picnic, strung on rawhide. Despite her suspicions, she believes Chase’s promises of marriage and consummates their relationship in a cheap motel room in Asheville, NC. After shopping for groceries one day, she reads in the newspaper of Chase’s engagement to another woman, and realizes his promises of marriage were a ruse for sex. She ends their relationship after he attempts to rape her. Her brother Jody, who left her as a child as well, makes a reappearance and a reconnection near the end of the book.

The second story relates to an unexplained death of Chase, who mysteriously fell or was pushed from the abandoned fire tower. The two tales — separated by nearly two decades — become intertwined as the story skips from one story line to the other effortlessly and in a non-intrusive way, each providing background and clues as the timeline narrows.

I enjoyed the narration by Cassandra Campbell, who captured the differences in the characters deftly. I enjoyed the descriptive words penned by Owens, each building a vivid picture in my mind’s eye. I could feel the emotion of Kya’s coming-of age story. I could empathize with Kya and — even as a male — feel her despair as she faced abandonment, disillusionment, and rejection. I knew why Kya felt betrayed. I even enjoyed the intrigue as the story lines merged. Although I won’t share the closing chapters — no use spoiling the book for others — the resolutions of the two stories made sense. The words were rich and deep. And yet …

Something was missing. After listening to the audiobook, I just let the words percolate.

Then it hit me. There was a certain lack of plausibility and stereotyping throughout that dropped my rating from five to four stars.

I found it difficult to go back {one of the perks of a paperback} to refresh my thoughts. But, it didn’t seem plausible a six year old could survive at Kya’s level without killing herself or burning the shack down. While she may have known how to cook grits, what six year old logic would think about digging for mussels to barter? As she got older, how did she care for the house? Cut the grass around the shack? Chop wood for the wood stove? How come no one showed up from the government? How was her property not sold for taxes? We learned she was able to eventually get the deed after paying her back taxes after her book was published. Why did her dilapidated reading shack never fall down completely?

It seemed implausible she was able to go from no reading and writing skills to reeling off complex Latin species names in the matter of just a few years. After 60-plus years of learning, I still have difficulty.

The characters all spoke with a decided North Carolina twang, far removed from the King’s English. All the characters. Even Tate, with his Ph.D., had two voices — his everyday drawl and his scholarly sound.

Finally, I want to know who her publisher was. To receive a $5,000 royalty, even in the 1960s, from a no name first time niche author seems a little far fetched, especially since the book was placed in bookstores up and down the east coast with nary a visit among the editor, publisher, or author.

Where the Crawdads Sing was a good listen with rich, descriptive words. It was an interesting story — or stories. I found myself rooting for Kya throughout. I’m just not sure I always believed it.

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Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Revisado: 06-23-20

We were chatting on the Five Minute Friday Twitter feed a couple of weeks ago about seeing life amid the virus lockdown. I made the comment, “Look for the extraordinary in the ordinary … Every Day. Good days. Bad day. All days.” I’ll often include some version of that mantra when I sign books.

That led to suggestions from my fellow tweeters to read the book Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren. Since I was heading to South Carolina for a long weekend, I downloaded the audio version. It was just over four and a half hours long — a perfect listen for the leg of the journey.

Good choice, ladies. The book is filled with nuggets of information — sermons, really, camouflaged as witty, real life stories you or I can readily relate to. Or, in other words, storytelling with a message.

Warren is an Anglican priest. In this book, she makes the connection between the ordinary and how it illuminates the extraordinary. Chapters follow an ordinary day including such mundane topics as Waking (and how it relates to Baptism and learning to be beloved); Making the Bed (liturgy, ritual, and what forms a life); Brushing Teeth (standing, kneeling, bowing, and living in a body); Losing Keys (especially relevant given my experiences related to confession and the truth about ourselves); Eating Leftovers (word, sacrament, and overlooked nourishment); Fighting with Her Husband (yes, it is that real with the lesson on passing the peace and the everyday work of shalom); Checking E-mail (blessing and sending); Sitting in Traffic (liturgical time and an unhurried God); Calling a Friend (congregation and community); Drinking Tea (sanctuary and savoring); and Sleeping (sabbath, rest, and the work of God).

Often, I was with Tish in spirit, reflecting on my reactions to everyday events. No, I do not like making my bed. Yes, I lost my keys. Yes, I have had fights with my wife. Yes, I do get agitated when I’m forced to sit in traffic. No, I did not look at sleep as God’s means to refresh us.

I can’t share individual phrases that caught my attention because, as an audio book listened while driving, some of my attention was drawn to weaving traffic. Suffice it to say, however, there were enough of them to draw a glance at the radio and a few times when I hit rewind.

I do believe God speaks to us through the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday. And I do believe when He does, that ordinary, mundane, everyday event is transformed into something extraordinary. Tish Harrison Warren believes that as well. And if you listen or read her words, you will, too.

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Time to listen, react

Revisado: 06-23-20

Fellow Higher Ground Books & Media author Nancy Flinchbaugh came up with an intriguing concept for a book. Since I was planning a road trip from Ohio to upstate New York, I decided to load the audio version of Letters from the Earth.

In May 2015, the Earth “wrote” her a letter and told her to start a blog! Since then, she received more periodic letters from the Earth which encouraged, uplifted, and challenged her. The messages provided a fresh voice of Gaia/God, who calls her — and us — to slow down and take time to appreciate the miraculous nature of all, and to awaken to needed changes to avoid environmental destruction. While I don’t personally share her ecological doomsday passion, I do agree we all have a role to play as we strive for proper stewardship of the earth.

I did like the format. Each of the 24 letters in the book was preceded by the circumstances of the day — concerning a garden party; about darkness in winter; at the beach; encouraging her to continue listening; and about a walk in the arboretum, for example. These established the back story for Earth’s letters and Nancy’s response. It was a nice blend.

Nancy’s words — from the messages she received to her response — flow freely with emotion. You can sense her passion without getting hit over the head with it. You can easily recognize her deep relationships with family, friends and Mother Earth, giving you, as a reader, a similar relationship with people and places you do not personally know. Through Nancy, you become vested in them.

The only negative I found — and this is not her fault as much as the medium (audiobook) — was many of the responses blended together. After awhile, the audiobook became white noise in the background while driving. {Actually, that a common complaint I have about audiobooks in general.} I suspect an actual book in hand might remedy this.

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Thinking in reverse

Revisado: 06-16-20

I never read The Screwtape Letters. I knew it was a classic C.S. Lewis tale, but it just never intrigued me enough to buy it or borrow it from the library. For some reason, however, I decided to download it as an audio book for my journey from Kentucky to Ohio. It wasn't a bad decision, although some of Screwtape's correspondence got a little redundant.

If you haven't read the book, it is a fictional Christian apologetic novel Lewis uses to address theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it. The story is simply a one-sided series of letters -- 31 -- from a senior demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter in the "lowerarchy" of hell.  Screwtape responds to his nephew's reports regarding his responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the patient". It was first published in February 1942, thus evoking the fear of war, hatred of the Germans, and war itself.

It took my mind awhile to adjust to dealing with the patient in reverse of my Christian thought. The dominant theme is the perpetual battle between God and Satan, but from Satan's point of view. Once I made the adjustment I could better follow Screwtape's detailed advice to Wormwood on various methods of undermining God's words and of promoting abandonment of God in "the patient" or his observations on human nature and the Bible. In Screwtape's advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good, and neither demon can comprehend God's love for man or acknowledge human virtue. Through the negative I could see the positive. Through the letter I could see the lesson.

The patient converts to Christianity after the second letter so the focus shifts. Wormwood is anxious to tempt his patient into extravagantly wicked and deplorable sins, often recklessly, while Screwtape takes a more subtle stance. Lewis, through Screwtape, describes and discusses sex, love, pride, gluttony, and war in his letters, with a fair number involving attempts to find a licentious woman for the patient. The patient chooses to fall in love with a Christian girl and through her and her family a very Christian way of life. When the patient dies he goes to heaven ... and Wormwood is disgraced among his devilish peers.

Some of the highlighted conversations include Screwtape noting "It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out" (Letter IV); explaining the different purposes God and the devils have for the human race: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons" (Letter VIII); and remarking "... the safest road to hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (Letter XII)

My version also included a short postscript written in 1959 for the Saturday Evening Post, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast". It brought the sequel into the post war and cold war era and thus closer to our contemporary times with indictments on education, unrest, and politics. Here, Screwtape offers an after-dinner speech given at the Tempters' Training College for young demons. I found it more engaging -- albeit in reverse thinking.

Then again, sometimes looking at events through other' -- even enemy -- eyes can be more illuminating.


Thinking in reverse

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