October 8th, 2009 @ 14:45
Review of Perfecting from Maple Tree Literary Supplement
It is nice to see an intelligent review, and especially nice when that review is about your book!
From the review:
Very much a novel of origins, spiritual and familial, Perfecting dispels any belief in the absolute knowability of those beginnings, or their ends. Faith is not linear, nor is it cyclical, but rather a tumult of experience and gut feeling. Similarly, the origins and ends of language, representation, art, are obscure though their force is incontrovertible. Corporal Michael Dama, a vagary of Perfecting’s opening chapters, is an arms dealer of sorts who transports his ammunitions in carpets woven by the women and children of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unrolled and hanging in a New Mexico trailer, the carpets depict grenades, army tanks, the toppling of New York’s twin towers, explosions, and guns. As the artifacts and art of war, these carpets raise the question and problems of artistic representation. One character explains (although not believing it himself), that the carpets are a form of therapy or perhaps a talisman for their creators. From a need to discern art’s intention comes a narrative impulse, an impulse that also manifests itself in Martha’s quest for answers, and in all of the characters’ appraisals of faith. There is a hunger for stories.
The full review can be read here.
If you are curious about the gun rugs stay tuned. Brick will have an interview with me about them in their next issue.