Paradoxically, the phenomenon in The Fever has a chilling effect on characters and readers alike. The girls fall to the ground, one after the next; they writhe and tensions rise but blood is chilled. Little Brown & Company, 2014 “As Deenie walked out, a coolness began to sink
May tallies something like this: 24 books (including verse, graphic novels, and kidlit), 2 magazines, assorted stories, 2 cookbooks, and a picture book (Marilyn Nelson’s A Wreath for Emmett Till). (Surely I’m not the only person who has trouble keeping track now that there are notebooks and files to update?)
Jinny has been standing on shifting ground. Expectations are thwarted: these are times of transformation. This was true, too, in "Gravel" and in "Oh What Avails". But there she is: the space in which she is standing shifts both literally and metaphorically. Things have been all-a-shift for some time now.
The story begins with conflict, the televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon. But "Before the Change" considers other conflicts, closer to home, closer to the heart. "What is that expression? It’s as if he’s got a list of offenses both remembered and anticipated and he’s letting it be known how
This year's Massey Lecture text begins with passion and grandiose declarations. "I have had a lifelong obsession with blood, and I'm not the only one. As both substance and symbol, blood reveals us, divides us, and unites us. We care about blood, because it spills literally and figuratively into every
