Talismans

by Sybil Baker

Fiction. Elise understands her father—a Vietnam vet who abandoned her when she was an infant—about as much as she does her church organist mother and the rest of their suburban Virginia town. When even that thin thread of connection is suddenly severed, Elise is flung across the world, to Southeast Asia. Tracing the steps her father took through the war, Elise searches for a connection—with his ghost, with other travelers, with the foreign culture and environment she experiences. In a series of linked short stories, TALISMANS follows Elise's journey to learn what she must hold onto, and what she must leave behind.

180 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2010

About the author

Sybil Baker’s latest novel is While You Were Gone. Her book of nonfiction Immigration Essays is the 2018-2019 Read2Achieve selection for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is also the author of The Life Plan, Talismans, and Into This World (Foreword Book of the Year finalist, and Eric Hoffer Award Honorable Mention). She was awarded two MakeWork Artist Grants and a 2017 Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. She lives and teaches in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is on faculty at the Yale Writers’ Workshop and VCFA’s low residency International MFA

Reviews

[Terence Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

However big a fan I am of Sybil Baker’s first book, the Life Plan-----and I am-----
Talismans is better. The former is funny, fast paced chick lit; the latter a thoughtful, sharply observed coming of age novel that demonstrates Baker to be a writer of real power.

Talismans takes its protagonist, Elise, from suburban Virginia to Korea to southeast Asia and back to Korea. It’s told in a series of interlocking short stories whose point of view alternates between first person and third, a narrative technique that enables us to watch Elise from without as well as within. She’s driven by the need to understand her father, a Vietnam vet who abandoned the family to return to Asia, only to meet an unexplained death in a river. She carries with her his half-photograph----the other half, presumably showing his Asian wife, torn away---and she wears the pea coat her grandfather wore during the Korean War. She ultimately surrenders each talisman in the place it came from, and in doing so makes peace with the past.

Though the book is propelled by character it’s also worth reading just for its richly described settings. Baker takes us to the expat community in Korea before and after the crash and to a Southeast Asia overrun by Western vagabonds. This is a book not to be missed.

[Cathy Holton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Sybil Baker writes. Elise’s journey from the confines of modern American suburbia, to the chaotic jungles of south east Asia, is good writing at its best; deceptively simple, clear, and compelling. As she struggles to come to terms with the ghosts of her past, Elise finds her connection to the world she knows unraveling, forcing her to choose between the fear of loss and the reawakening of hope. A modern woman’s journey into the mystery of the human heart, Talismans will keep you reading page after page.

[Lavinia Ludlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review here: http://plumbblogdotnet.wordpress.com/...

[Ashely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep, beautiful writing that will leave you haunted and inspired and yearning for more. There should be a slot for Talismans in everyone’s bookcase.

[Sherry Leary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The setting and the format of the stories were a wonderful escape. I am still going over beautifully written sentences in my mind!

[Jodi Paloni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed this book at Contrary Magazine...

http://contrarymagazine.com/2011/tali...