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Variations on a Theme with Harmonica:
Poet and novelist Cheryl Snell presents interlocking short stories, where harmonicas, Barbie dolls, and facts about science weave in and out of the narrative of how we live now.
Unknown Binding
First published January 10, 2011
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About the author
Cheryl Snell
41 books34 followersReviews of my books: http://cherylsnell.blogspot.com
When I married into a Hindu Brahmin family, I began to write seriously as a way to penetrate the protocol of another culture. My novels, Shiva's Arms and Rescuing Ranu explore South Indian life, particularly the stage referred to as samsara.The term haunted me for awhile— samsara--the sibilance of a word that can connote drowning. I had been reading Indian writers—Lahiri, Desai, Divakaruni-- and was drawn to the stories of immigrant families thrashing in their domestic seas. The plight of characters who straddle two continents, the lives they make here, and the families they leave behind, raised the question: when one belongs to two cultures, which part of a divided self goes, and what stays? It's a recurring question in my work.
Besides my novels, I have written eight other books. Most recently, my poetry was chosen by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best of the Net Anthology, and one of my collections of poetry, Prisoner's Dilemma, won the Lopside Press Chapbook Competition. When I'm not writing, I like to cook in the Indian idiom, and I play a mean classical piano.
When I married into a Hindu Brahmin family, I began to write seriously as a way to penetrate the protocol of another culture. My novels, Shiva's Arms and Rescuing Ranu explore South Indian life, particularly the stage referred to as samsara.The term haunted me for awhile— samsara--the sibilance of a word that can connote drowning. I had been reading Indian writers—Lahiri, Desai, Divakaruni-- and was drawn to the stories of immigrant families thrashing in their domestic seas. The plight of characters who straddle two continents, the lives they make here, and the families they leave behind, raised the question: when one belongs to two cultures, which part of a divided self goes, and what stays? It's a recurring question in my work.
Besides my novels, I have written eight other books. Most recently, my poetry was chosen by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best of the Net Anthology, and one of my collections of poetry, Prisoner's Dilemma, won the Lopside Press Chapbook Competition. When I'm not writing, I like to cook in the Indian idiom, and I play a mean classical piano.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 6, 2011
Some short stories tell simple tales to immediate effect. Others draw the reader deeper, leaving a lingering taste on the tongue or haunting music in the air. Cheryl Snell’s tales in this collection belong to that second type. Bounded at both ends by the song of a harmonica, the author creates vividly real and wounded characters. There’s Roger, falling to twin temptations, beginning a tune but never quite ending it as the heat wave passes through. There’s Zoe, filling her mind with facts and detail like Novocain to hide her pain. A fat sister recalls how she became who she is then finds it isn’t shape that defines her after all. A mother is still a child and another mother’s maybe falling in love.
Cheryl Snell creates scenes and memories like poetry, filling the senses and drawing the reader in. Stories flow through the eyes of her characters, telling truths they’ve failed to see, and blossoming each into singular shapes of honesty. What matters? People matter, a combination of how they see themselves and their relationships, a vivid mixture of different layers of existence.
Hurt birds, popsicles, harmonica’s song—like elements of a well-written tune the refrains repeat through these stories making this truly a collection to savor, not just a random grouping of random tales. If you want short and simple, these stories aren’t for you. But if you want those deep lingering tones, a harmonica’s birdsong haunting the basement’s gloom, this collection’s for you.
Disclosure: I was lucky enough to obtain a free ecopy of this book in a special offer.
Cheryl Snell creates scenes and memories like poetry, filling the senses and drawing the reader in. Stories flow through the eyes of her characters, telling truths they’ve failed to see, and blossoming each into singular shapes of honesty. What matters? People matter, a combination of how they see themselves and their relationships, a vivid mixture of different layers of existence.
Hurt birds, popsicles, harmonica’s song—like elements of a well-written tune the refrains repeat through these stories making this truly a collection to savor, not just a random grouping of random tales. If you want short and simple, these stories aren’t for you. But if you want those deep lingering tones, a harmonica’s birdsong haunting the basement’s gloom, this collection’s for you.
Disclosure: I was lucky enough to obtain a free ecopy of this book in a special offer.
Displaying 1 of 1 review