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Rated: E · Book · Writing · #2044345

Writing about what I have been reading and encountering in the media.

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August 31, 2023 at 1:54pm
August 31, 2023 at 1:54pm
#1054903
Boruch, Marianne, Grace, Fallen from, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2008.

I lived and worked in Middletown at one time for about 5 years. The Connecticut River flows through the town, and the tide from Long Island Sound pushes the river backward to a place south of town twice a day. Perhaps the publication of this book in Middletown is what moved me to buy it. I no longer remember. However, the tone of Ms. Boruch’s writing feels like New England felt to me with its hills and rivers, glorious fall colors, endless traffic, people everywhere and remarkable space all around for imagination to flow into language. This really has nothing to do with this book as it was written in Indiana. I remember rivers in Indiana too….

“The bowl, just a larger spoon for the little spoons to visit…” (p.42) See how she finds life in a thing?

Looking at the title, I expected this to be a book of confession, perhaps, but, perhaps I was mistaken. “…beauty, she thought, or felt in her chest. /Did Eve have language? Did she say that/ out loud? Aren’t words the curse/ that comes later, our daily gruel, mouthful/ by mouthful, a little milk, some sugar/ to please ourselves, to think ourselves so astonishing?” She wanted, says Boruch. She wanted a thought of her own. (p.69) I like thinking of Eve this way, as neither pawn nor sinner, but simply life looking to be itself. No, this is no confession. This book redefines “falling from grace.” …a tide pushing the river backward.



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