Kyle L. White

Collection of short essays (1-2 pages). Thoughtful, using humorous memories from childhood or daily life as a springboard for musing about life. I like the first section best, where he reflects on his connection with Wisconsin, his homeland. I, too, tried living in another state and found there is no place like home. I read "Speed Bumps for Glaciers" and then gazed at a Rainier Marie Rilke poem posted on my wall with the same message: "How surely gravity's law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the strongest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world." He quotes Annie Dillard. I think a coomparison to Anne LaMott would be apt. I like that I am living in the very area he writes about, that I know Door County shores and Amherst back roads.
His writing style makes good use of images, is colloquial, and uses punctuation to make a point, such as How. Slowly. He. Fell.
He has a pronounced religious bent, but it mostly is not intrusive enough to categorize this book with religious writing. There were a couple of essays in the last section which I would have preferred left with his church ministry group rather than entered in this mix. Also the couple of essays on how hard it is for him to write unfortunately illustrated his lack of skill & the book's lack of editing. However, I can forgive a lot for someone who has given me this image/metaphor/inspiration: "I began to name the animals and plants indigenous to my own heart." (p. 31)… (mehr)