Monday
I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole electronic book phenomenon (which is likely here to stay), but I cannot think of a better book to have begun my e-book journey with than Mary Tabor's soon-to-be-released (Re) Making Love: A Sex After Sixty Story (3ones, Inc.). This book began as a blog--yes it did! This will be Mary Tabor's second book; her first, The Woman Who Never Cooked, is an award-winning collection of linked short stories.
(Re) Making Love: A Sex After Sixty Story is a memoir about loss and love, as well as a journey for both Mary and her husband "D" as they try to maneuver through the muddiness of a separation. It is at times laugh-out-loud hysterical. At other times, it is sad and speaks of desperation. Above all, it is honest and so incredibly intimate, which makes it feel funny to call her Mary Tabor, Ms. Tabor, or even the author. Any of those sound too formal because I feel as if I have sat with Mary in the "chef's kitchen" she so often references, strolled the streets of Paris along side her, cried with her over the inability to cram a lifetime of memories into a storage-lacking flat, or pondered right along with her about unfulfilled desire.
Mary writes in free flowing beautiful prose. She tells her story in a non-linear fashion, dropping in bits and pieces of the real world, literature, including a little T.S. Eliot, a few favorite recipes, occasional links, some photographs, and a number of references to her beloved Rom-Coms (romantic comedies). She draws parallels to the Frog Prince among other fairy tales and thinks often about the Obamas. And while that may seem a tad too eclectic, all I can say, is that it all works. Nothing is out of place. Mary has woven her pain, her desire, and her understanding into a lovely story well worth reading.
Whether you have suffered through a separation or not, please make the time to spend a weekend with Mary and D. Her honesty is refreshing, witty, and full of intimate wisdom. There are lessons for all of us. I'll leave you with this quote from (Re) Making Love: A Sex After Sixty Story: "But I will not 'reach absolute zero' in the telling, let alone in my understanding of why he left me."
Editor's Note: Check in tomorrow for Anne's interview of Mary!
About the Author
Anne Converse Willkomm began writing shortly after the death of her mother. In 2004, she was named a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition Novel-in-Progress category for her fictionalized account of her mother's life. Later in 2006, the completed manuscript Unfinished Business was also named a semi-finalist. Her work has appeared in Sibyl Magazine and in the anthology Memoirs of Meanness. She has just completed a novel, Promises We Keep, set in Boston and the Appalachian Mountains. She is currently working on a YA adventure novel dealing with grief, The Gift. Also, Anne has written a full-length play chronicling the devastating effects of Alzheimer's--Declining. She lives in Bryn Mawr with her husband, three children, their dog, and two cats.
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From Phil
May 29, 2010 at 6:52 am
Anne’s done a great job reviewing this book, and as someone who read the blog as it was unfolding, I fully concur. What’s so stirring about Mary’s work can be seen right in her note here above mine. Unlike most authors who construct characters and plot before really getting to task, Mary made herself completely open and vulnerable, took risk after risk in sharing the truth in all of its fantastical twists, and examined what was really going on in her life and her mind and heart, with a writer’s talents. She chose a topic of some marketable interest, Sex After Sixty, but Mary writes more about self-examination and relationships, allowing both the attractive and awkward aspects of her life to come through, making her story transcendant and connected to ours. The story arc here is more about the way personal growth and evolving insight really operates than it is about hooking the audience and delivering the expected payoff. So much like loving goes, and Mary indeed loves here.