though not always a requirement to enter the SGP Book Club, this newest entry is certainly Southern and certainly Gothic, but most importantly it's everything i desire in a read.  i give you - Bloodroot by Amy Greene.  

Hilarie passed this book along to me earlier in the year with the holy highest of praises.  i read about 2/5 of it whilst still in the throes of trying to complete The Dying Words of Edison Strange, and so it gave me quite the challenge.  as a confirmed workaholic, i trick myself into feeling guilty for doing such things as reading for enjoyment (though still i recognize its advantage to my craft), and so i would read 5-10 pg. excerpts, and then convince myself i needed to be doing something more productive.  eh.  yet i was still so careful with this book because from the start it held me so close.  i love its language, and the magic it puts forth.  my early fickleness with Bloodroot is one of the reasons i love it so much.  it was like a relationship with a best friend. i didn't have to spend all my time with it to know how much i cared for it, and how much it offered to me. and then, once Edison was finished it was the only thing i wished to spend time with.  until last night, when i finished it in an 80 pg. spread...

i'm not familiar with the author, Amy Greene, though i'm sure to become a private investigator hot on her heels from now on.  she is quite simply, wonderful.  her language is territorial, expansive, and poetic.  i've been known to skim with longer novels, but i dare say i didn't miss a word.  she tells the story in a Faulknerian style akin to As I Lay Dying, as the whole story is told from six different perspectives in different timeframes.  though it's certainly not as quixotic as Faulkner.  what Greene showcases so well, aside from creating a masterful story, is the draw she gives her characters.  i'd say she even shared with me an important technique for giving allure to your characters.  there are two characters, Myra Mayes and John Odom, that are such objects of appeal and desire for multiple others in the book, that the reader becomes equally magnetized to them.  at least i did.  kind of a sensational coup on Greene's part, i'd say.  it's something i remember feeling, but not being able to pinpoint as exactly when i read Louise Erdrich's Tracks last year, with her character Fleur Pillager.  Greene creates obsession for these characters, and i was hypnotized by them, as much as their own friends, family, and suitors.  

Greene is also a wondrous namer, which you know i appreciate.  Myra, Clio, Imogene, Ford, and there's just something so clean and easy, yet magical about John Odom.  it fits so right.

the essence i appreciate most about Bloodroot is that it gave me everything i wanted.  every ding dong thing. by nature, i'm a critic, and i can't find anything wrong with the way this story is told.  i never found myself predicting what would happen, or even projecting what i wanted to happen, but in its way, everything happens the way it should, and that is the result of a fine, fine, fine storyteller.  

find this book.  

oh yeah, i've never cried while reading a book.  until this one.  twice.

and don't forget, the official headquarters of the SGP Book Club is @ Two Sisters Bookery located at 318 Nutt St. in dtown ilm.  say we sent you and you'll get 15% off your purchase of any SGP selection.

it's lovely to read again/n.gray