Time Stamp

by Emily Meier

A novel that ranges over the subjects of loss, marriage, politics, and art, Time Stamp is a searing depiction of the way parents' lives affect their children through their untold or barely told stories--things that exist in the ether of family life and persist, yet play out differently on the stage of a new generation. Told in alternating narratives that open in 1911 when eleven-year-old Will Wheelock is on the periphery of a South Carolina lynching, and in 1997 when Will's daughter, Maddie, is attending a London retrospective of her photographs of refugee camps, Time Stamp encompasses most of the twentieth century. With the trajectory of two arrows aimed at the same target, Will's story moves forward and Maddie's backward until they collide in 1972 during Richard Nixon's Christmas bombing of Hanoi. It is a pivotal moment when Will's lifetime as a fence-sitting public servant shatters, and Maddie's true personal and artistic quest begins.

244 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2011

About the author

Emily Meier is an award-winning fiction writer, who has just completed a six-book publishing project of previously published and unpublished work through Sky Spinner Press. Her writing, which has been supported with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a Loft-McKnight fiction award, includes stories that have won national fiction contests. The book titles are SUITE HARMONIC: A Civil War Novel of Rediscovery; TIME STAMP: A Novel; IN THE LAND OF THE DINOSAUR: Ten Stories and a Novella; THE SECOND MAGICIAN'S TALE; WATCHING OKSANA and Other Stories AND CLARE, LOVING: A Novel in Three Novellas. Her website, http://emilymeier.com, contains extensive information on all the books including printed and read excerpts and music links. There is also an extensive interview section that covers all aspects of a writing life.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It was quite slow even though so much was going on.