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Show E4 TheSalt Lake Tribune ARTS Sunday, August 6, 1995 Schine Turns Up Heat On Summer Reading ByNicholas A, Basbanes ‘SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE Ah, the memories of summers past, those idle days of romantic interludes that thrive like mayflies in the scorching heat and vanish with the crisp winds of September. When Helen MacFarquar. the savvy, brassy, sexy owner of a small bookstore in a seaside village opens an anonymously written letter, the idea of a tempestu- ous summerfling is the furthest thought from her 40-year-old mind, yet she feels a sudden rush of emotion nonetheless The enigmatic entreaty, ad- dressed coyly to “Goat” and signed “Ram.” begins with a brace of breathless questions. Howdoes one fall in love? Do you trip? Do you stumble. lose walk, graze your knee, graze your heart? Do youcrash to the stony ground?Is there a precipice, from which you float, over the edge. forever?” From this near-farcical begin- ning. there are many directions that Cathleen Schine could have taken with The Love Letter (Houghton Mifflin, $19.95). Hap- pily, the author of Alice in Bed, the Birdhouse and Rameau’s Niece chose the route of those earlier books, which is high comedy. She has produced analtogether satisfying novel of manners and social commentary that is perfectly suited for warm-weather reading. Making this charming book measurably more than a seductive confection are a number of notabie qualities, most prominent among them the element of mystery — who, after all, wrote the letter? — and the leisurely ambience of the quirky bookstore whereso muchofthe action takes place. Determining the author of the letter becomes an obsession for Helen, the divorced mother of an 11-year-old daughter and a respected member of her community. As she ponders the teasing question —- how does one fall in love? — she allowsherself to become “involved” with Johnny Howell, a 20-year-old college student who is working part-time in her store. Such an entanglement is fraught with obvious risks, especially for a respected member of a tight-knit community who is friendly with the lad’s parents. “Watching your characters fall in love is alwaysa thrill,” Schine said, deadpan, in a recent interview. “What I wanted for this book was a kind of love and romancethat is very powerful, even as you realize just how ridiculous it is. The best, most dramatic kind life story by reading between the lines ofhis fiction and his poetry, Learning the Ropes parcels out ued, was that Helen understand that the reiati ip “be with someone with whom she could never have a life. When Helen ByBill Ransom. Utah State University Press; precious little personal information about Ransom. We do learn that he’s been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry and that his novels Burn, Vira Vax and The Ascension Factor (with Frank Herbert) are “acclaimed.” We're informed that he’s been a $19.95. journalist, but told nothing about wakes up in September, what she tion, set perhaps in El Salvador, of love to write about, the intense passion, is forbidden passion.” Equally important, she contin- wakesupto is her own vulnerability. This is one of the things that makes us human. In a way, I think, she discovers weakness.” And while Schine readily acknowledges Helen’s frailties — she’s selfish, tough, smug, bossy, capricious and egotistical — she quickly adds that these are other traits that give her credibility as a character. “One of the great challenges and pleasures [ hadin this book, in all my books really, has been your balance and dropto the side- THE WEST UNDER COVER trying to write about a character whois flawed, but with whom the reader can sympathize.” Indeed, before writing each of her books, Schinesaid she makesit a point to read Madame Bovary, Flaubert’s classic examination of forbidden love that ends tragically with the suicide of thetitle character. “EmmaBovary is the quintessential heroine who is unsympathetic, but completely sympathetic.’ Schine said she chose a fictional town for the setting of The Love Letter for a number of practical reasons. “I wanted the place to be completely imaginary so I could useit as a characterin the book. I didn’t wantto put the wrong kindofflora and fauna in, and be saddled with making a lot of foolish factual mistakes.” She used the name Pequot for the town, she added, because it has a New Engiand r and be- Reviewsof booksof regional interest by Paul Swenson TE Learning the Ropes A Creative Autobiography where or how helives. All we need to know is supposed to be there in his work. The bleak, desperate contours of several of his stories and poems may remind those familiar with Alt- In the title story of this collecor maybe Nicaragua, a sympa- thetic character named Miguelito waves off danger to his own life with a cliche. Heis conversing overtortillas and Rooster beer with a journalist in a stone hutin a remote village. “If you write this people will die. If you don’t, then more will die mann’s Tongue of soon-to-be-ex- patriate Utahn Brian Evenson’s own travels on the underside, the largely unexplored unconscious that disrupts ordinary lives. One thing Ransom has in common with Evenson is black hu- and this killing will never stop.” “What about you?” asks the journalist. “This is a smail country. If I write this, won't they come for you?” Miguelito wipes his eyes and blows his nose on a bandanna. “When you live here a while you learn the ropes,”’ he says. “The ropes” in Bill Ransom's collection of stories, poems and novel excerpts — perversely called a ‘creative autobiography” —often prove to be tne bloody limitations of words in expressing the sheer messiness of existence Miguelito’s flat confession that he and his comradeskilled the same villagers for whom they oncebuilt a community laundryfails to recapitulate the horror of dark deeds committed by sympathetic people. Yetin words are foundthe only salvation we're goingto get, Ransom implies. In a mordant poem called “Instruction at the Gate,” mor. he writes: At the gateway to the beast your arms brim with dead leaves. Words, notfate, put you here. Sweet breath of the beast wets this fall air. A Thatwrist of sunlight snagged in the weeds feel the pulse, yes the beastfeels it too. Bury your face in the leaves, breathe prepare to teach the beast: these. Words put you here, notstars. Listen to its supple flex across the weeds, that cupped palm of sunlight. Words, not God. Words. For a volume that asserts we can get to the heart of a writer's In a story calied “The Goiden Rule Grocery,”the fall-off of customers at the butcher andthe grocer may have something to do with the fact that it’s raining blood. “I hopeit lets up,” the grocer says. his eyes distant and his frown genuine. “Nothing lasts forever,” the butcherreplies “Whatis this weather?” the two ask, turning up their hands. “Bloody awful,” the watchmaker shouts from across the way. Whenthecloudslift, the butcher praises the Lordandraises the price of chicken. ‘When thefirst stunned and blinking customer’ enters the grocer’s shop, the gro- cer gives him a hug and a headof lettuce. He hugged each of his customers as they came in, men women and children, and he gave each of Conn. “But it could just as easily be Nicholas A. Basbanes is a literary critic and columnist based in Paytte et ee ed poet of Ransom’s gifts stumbles into epiphany. In ‘‘Coming Home,” he envisions “‘one dark girl soaked andshining/on a mare in morning drizzle./Double rainbow. And for those who might see Ransom as bereft of faith, consider his story, “The Liberation of Father Free,” in which a dance with a parishioner who has confessed to him on a Hawaiian beach teaches Free more about his own belief system than lifetime of ritual: “... Dances are what everybody already knows. Therealsecrets stay with you, Father, or they go untold.” Paul Swensonis a free-lance writer in Salt Lake City. °°" There Is A World OF Difference With Color Wespecialize in all forms of highlighting coloring & long hair perms. Sa mes Sos ae E SLa STAR - The most unforgettable womea in the world go to David's. g women with the latest in hair d 8 ry FANTASY. : eed rene grest, Mary'sBRIDAL &ie 8° Liquidation Sale Loe 25-65% off Oe Pe psissine® A 5x Imported British Food & Candy Gus 40% off Ribbon IED Pick etc Sausages * Meat Pies * Crumpets ¢ Biscuits Tea «Jam Marmalade Beverages * Sauces Chocolate & Candy * Various Grocery Products English Toiletries ° Gifts & Souvenirs Special Seasonal Items Mon.-Fri. Sat. agelets us see the results when a TheTotal Fall Concept The baby Doll Look seize THE BRITISH PANTRY Sates (801) 532-6802 staining a basket. Let it befresh as the oy itself: hands brushing nipples, the tumble ofthe first berry into a tight clean basket. But if berries tell the story, let them sing from the bushes and blend their thin red voices into a chorus offlesh and baskets left empty in the grass. Love is snatched from loss and despairs Ina poem ealled “The Lost,” he writes, “We bed down hy in this guily/to finger the stops in our thin flute of night.” Sometimesa single startling im- SEPTEMBER + SINGASONG.... Massachusetts. 652 South West Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 ries NOW ISTHE TIME FOR CHANGE! cause she grew up in Westport, some place on Cape Cod or Long Island or the Jersey Shore. In fact, one of my key sources for street names of people’s names wasan old book I found in a used bookstoretitled, believe it or not, More Forgotten Small Towns of Southern New Jersey.” Just as vibrant a character in The Love Letter is Helen’s bookstore. “I spend a lot of time in bookstores, I browse in them, I buy, andI think there’s something very personal about one’s relationship with a small bookstore, evenif you've just comein for the first time. The taste of the owner is immediately apparent, and I thought, what a wonderful little hothouse. with lots of people, and lots of characters walking in off thestreet.” them something to eat, something to sustain them and refresh them from their inhuman ordeal of isolation and bad blood. This is as close as any of Ransom's characters are going to get to absolution. There is, however, a redemptive streak in Ransom’s love poems. In “A Beginning,” he writes: Then let it be flesh or the firm crush of strawber- oft gor & pond 's re? 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