Water can be as soft as silk, as it is in the Florida springs; as enveloping as a hug, when in a warm bath — or as sharp as a knife, as anyone knows who's seen a waterjet cutter slice through metal or stone. Water is the natural environment of Florida author Kelle Groom, one she returns to again and again, and whose attributes her writing embodies — both the flowing and the keen.
Groom's "memoir in essays" could almost be called a memoir in poems, so lyrical is her language — and so elliptically are events and situations described. It's unusual, but refreshing, to read a memoir that touches this lightly on "plot," unlike most memoirs on bookstore shelves. Those who read Groom's 2011 book, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl, will feel less at sea with some of the references.
While the events are roughly sketched, the emotions are limned in crystalline detail. This book won't appeal to readers who like to delve into the author's mind and motivations; save it for the New Critics, those who focus on close reading and explication de texte. But whatever your literary-critical framework, Groom's evocation of grief and loss (sometimes cloudy, sometimes scalding), and how we learn to live with them, is universally lucid.
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | or sign up for our RSS Feed
