What better and more appropriate way for me to resume posting with something written about a book... about a story... for books and stories have been a part of my life, a part of what happened in between for, well, for always.
Every once in awhile, a book will, in reading, become such a part of you that it will take your breath away. Last night this happened to me. The book ... Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart.
It involves a mystery and young love, but mostly it spoke to me, personally, as a story about a young girl learning to live with the loss of her mother. I say personally because with every page, I became Katie, and she, me. No matter that I am 49 and she is 16. No matter that Katie's loss is recent while mine happened almost 17 years ago. Katie's words were mine the day I lost my own mother to cancer and at times still are.
Reading my borrowed copy from the library, I found myself breaking my #1 rule. I couldn't help myself. I have so many pages "dog-earred", it will take me quite awhile to copy into my book journal the lines that for me just had to be recorded. There were so many words, and I was afraid I would lose them if I didn't mark them in some way, right as I read them. And I couldn't lose the very things that made me feel as if someone understood...understood the darkness in losing the very center of your life to something so hideous and sinister and yet also understood the light that begins to shine little by little.
There is so much good in this book. So much for young and older readers.
The language is pure poetry and touches in unexpected ways.
I am writing this post as a way to thank the author, Beth Kephart. Thank you for such beautiful prose, prose that speaks directly to the heart. Thank you for sharing this book with others, like myself, young and old. But mostly, thank you for understanding.
I end this post with a quote from the book:
"Things disappear and vanish. That's the fact. Before you're ready for them to go, they go, and after that all you can do is keep the idea of them bright inside yourself."
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
a book and a story
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4 comments:
Barb,
Gosh.
This book came from an authentic place, and yet it was difficult to structure and to make whole. I wrote it many, many times.
I cannot thank you enough for telling me how it reached into your own life.
Your blog and your writing are just beautiful.
I thank you.
b
You are so right - this book is fantastic! The story and the writing are both wonderful.
Arrrighty then! That book sounds like just my cup of tea. Off to the library's holds list - or to Powell's! I have to figure out how to put a Powell's search button on my blog. I've never seen one before.
And thanks for leaving that nice comment on my blog today. I love finding out who's reading.
There is a beautiful timelessness and agelessness to Beth's writing...she speaks to us all with her words.
You expressed your feelings about the book so wonderfully.
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