JANUARY 2023 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, We Are All The Same in the Dark, Julia Heaberlin

 “Texas is a beautiful poison you drink from your mother’s breast – the older you get the farther you run, the more it pounds in your blood.”

15 trekked to the home of Jane Shaw for this month’s meeting. Bookers has always been a group affair of those who embrace the written word and share perspectives and opinions on literary works (and sometimes other subjects – there are few shrinking violets in this group…HA.)  As I hunkered down with my “uninvited guest” COVID, it was clear that my role in January’s meeting was not going to be anywhere near White Cap Lane. As I pouted, clock-watched, and washed sheets, I knew Bookers was in capable hands and my appreciation goes to all of you who attended and to Jane Shaw for not only hosting but leading the meeting.  Not to be there felt like a piece of my soul took a vacation without me. I hope this scenario doesn’t repeat itself, but if so, I know Bookers will carry on!

My what a tangled web we weave inside a small town in the Lone Star State where secrets are the norm and where the brotherhood between the law and the messenger of the holy word never let each other down even when a badge and God have. In this fast-paced thriller set in a world where women are vulnerable and men are dangerous, the author’s use of imagery, diction, and figurative language provides the texture of the story, the details offering a sensory palette whereby the reader taste the grit from a dust storm, inhales the scent of roses, feels the dampness, fear, and claustrophobia inside a tornado shelter, and senses the warmth and comfort of a child’s hug.

The novel opens with a tutorial on how to properly dig a grave… “You gotta’ go deep enough that folks and animals walking by can’t smell the body rotting.” Talk about foreshadowing!

It's been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Posters remain on the walls of the town’s Baptist Church, the police station, and in the high school, all promising the same thing – we will find you. She had been the protector of her little brother, Wyatt, since their father killed their mother. Frank Branson was physically abusive to them but enjoyed playing mind games more. Tru, as Wyatt called her, could outwit him – her mind was her third hand. Coincidentally or not, Daddy Branson went missing the same night as his daughter.

Wyatt spent years in a mental institution afterward and on the same night as his sister and father disappeared, his girlfriend, Odette, lost her leg in a horrible automobile accident. Wyatt now lives as a pariah in the old family home and although cleared of wrongdoing by the police, he has been tried and sentenced by the court of public opinion and in a recent documentary about the crime.

He rescues a mystery girl with a glittery scarf tied over one eye dumped in a field of dandelions carefully laid out in a circle around her like a ring of protection, seventeen stems piled at her feet – seventeen wishes. He feels she is a sign while the town’s youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. She is desperate to save the lost girl and to dig up the shocking truth about that fateful night in the past – the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town’s dark, violent mythology.

Remember the board game Clue – when you guess whodunnit…was it bow-tied Professor Plum in the Conservatory with a rope or the tiara-wearing Mrs. Peacock with a knife in the Kitchen? This novel tests the readers’ deductive reasoning skills to the max.  We’re given a middle of the book surprise twist and an ending that featured a confession of adultery that led to a confrontation, a couple of murders, a dated picture of a moonlight baptism where the brothers Tucker washed away their sins and one-eyed Angel on a mission to find what thirty-eight cops and CSI missed – where the bodies of Trumanell Branson and Odette Tucker were buried.

“We are all the same in the dark….the little girl in the mirror looking at a hole where her eye should be; the chink of a shovel digging a grave; Rusty hiding behind sunglasses; Odette scribbling her pain under the covers with Betty Crocker; Trumanell whispering stories in a moonlit field of sleeping flowers; Wyatt still sleeping in the Branson place with a ghost; the reverend in the black seconds after he hung himself; dandelions digging in for winter so they can carpet all the graves; so little girls can make wishes; so they can prove resurrection.”

Our discussion:

The summary above was shared with the group and through Jane’s thorough recap, the following is her minutes of the meeting. Most readers liked it though a few found the ending unsatisfactory and felt it jumped around a bit. As usual, it was the discussion that proved the most interesting and we are so fortunate to have this wonderful group of women who share their insights and wounds…helping the rest of us better understand them and the book we’ve come together to discuss. Such was the case today. We spoke about physical limitations and how they’ve affected people we have known and how this book makes us see our own experiences a bit differently, with better understanding. My very favorite observation was that “all of us have parts missing.” Brilliant. That led to talking about trauma and grief and how people deal with it differently, or not at all. How generationally, families have coped differently. Our parents’ generation tucked emotions away at a cost to the remaining siblings for doing so. It was personal, insightful, and touching. Most of us had some experience with “spirits” … positive interaction and no one really thought much about the “Casper the Ghost” approach to intuitive connections.

Please keep Debbie Ellsworth and her family in your prayers as she copes with the death of her beloved husband, Larry. They were fixtures in Pinnacle – members of so many groups – for years. Larry suffered from Lewy Body Dementia, an incurable and cruel progressive disease, that affects movement, thinking skills, mood, memory, and behavior. We will mourn with those left behind but take comfort in that he is finally at peace and hope he has an early tee time with a foursome of friends.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

WHITE:           LIGHT READ

PINK:              MODERATELY CHALLENGING

RED:               CHALLENGING

*FEBRUARY 7 (Date change)      

The Incredible Winston Browne, Sean Dietric

A rich nostalgic tale set in Florida featuring a small-town sheriff, a mysterious little girl, and a good-hearted community pulling together to help her.

                        PINK

Home of: Ann Ireland

Discussion Leader: Jean Alexander

MARCH 14                            

Flight Patterns, Karen White

A woman returns home to an estranged family and the secrets that bind them.

PINK

Home of: Kittie Minick

Discussion Leader: Jane Shaw

APRIL 11

NOTE CHANGE OF TIME – evening meeting          

Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

The remarkable story of J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, a black woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white.

RED

Evening wine & cheese meeting. Bonnie Magee will coordinate our fare.

Home of: Debbie Yarger

Discussion Leader: Debbie Yarger

MAY 9

                        NOTE: CHANGE – 10:00 a.m. start – evening meeting moved up a month.

Horse, Geraldine Brooks

The untold story of a 19^th century racehorse and his caretaker, partially set in antebellum Kentucky.

PINK

Home of: Pat Faherty

Discussion Leader:

SUMMER READ:                  

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

A soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in a world of peril who find resilience, hope, and a book.

RED

Home of:

Discussion Leader:

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023:     Beginning Bookers 20^th year.

                      “Physical scars are part of the architecture of the human story.”

 

Happy Reading

JoDee