Clinging to Water
by Joy Hewitt Mann
Boheme Press,
2000
Reviewed by Jonathan J. Sherer
Memories are more akin to water than we may first
realize. They are all at once real and tangible, but yet they stream in
and out of our consciousness like a bubbling brook over the stones of
our lives. That memories are beautifully tragic and fleeting is deftly
illustrated in Joy Hewitt Mann's short story collection, Clinging To
Water.
Water figures prominently in this collection, and its
life-giving properties are alluded to in each of the stories. Most of
the stories are constructed in a dreamy narrative about the loss of a
loved one. In "Song of the Sea" a young woman confronts her
father and his abandonment for the sea after returning home for the
funeral of her mother. In "The Hand of the Robot" a caregiver
rediscovers his own value after his father's death while caring for an
elderly woman. In "Fly Away Home" a friend comes to terms with
his relationship of a cripple's suicide. In "All About Maggie"
a husband realizes how little he really knew about his departed wife. In
"Butthead and Bea" a young man remembers his tough older
sister.
Most of Mann's stories revolve around the
relationships of our dearly departed, but they are not limited to family
- characters include a raccoon in "Raising the Dead" and a
palsied loner living in the woods in "Peter
Pan in Bedlam." Her stories are fleeting, like our memories
tend to be, but there is a yearning to linger a little longer with these
characters as they begin to heal.
Trying to cling to water, to contain it, is impossible
to do, as is our ability to suppress our memories and feelings of our
fragile life. Clinging To Water will leave you clinging to your
own memories, and cradling your dreams, never allowing you to forget
that you are not alone.
Jonathan J. Sherer is out there
somewhere. |
