There is no map of The Middle of Elsewhere. It’s a territory bordered by Far Left Field and Off the Beaten Track, both in exterior and interior ways. The collection begins with a middle-aged couple venturing forth to reclaim their lost youth in the ghost town of Terlingua, Far West Texas. The book continues with a woman in the Ozarks building a doll-house shrine to Elvis as a hedge against time. A woman snakehandler in the Trans-Pecos faces her demons the hard way. A visionary half-breed boy in Nussa Tengarra, Indonesia, commits a sin that brings the wrath of a whale upon his village. A young woman in San Francisco accidentally kills a bicyclist from El Salvador and goes on a journey to learn about him. A musician buries his guitar and his brother in the Mojave Desert. A young chambermaid leaves a letter to the people of the future in a time capsule in Arkansas. The book comes full circle back to Texas with two children riding an Orphan Train past the point of no return.
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Book Description
There is no map of The Middle of Elsewhere. It’s a territory bordered by Far Left Field and Off the Beaten Track, both in exterior and interior ways. The collection begins with a middle-aged couple venturing forth to reclaim their lost youth in the ghost town of Terlingua, Far West Texas. The book continues with a woman in the Ozarks building a doll-house shrine to Elvis as a hedge against time. A woman snakehandler in the Trans-Pecos faces her demons the hard way. A visionary half-breed boy in Nussa Tengarra, Indonesia, commits a sin that brings the wrath of a whale upon his village. A young woman in San Francisco accidentally kills a bicyclist from El Salvador and goes on a journey to learn about him. A musician buries his guitar and his brother in the Mojave Desert. A young chambermaid leaves a letter to the people of the future in a time capsule in Arkansas. The book comes full circle back to Texas with two children riding an Orphan Train past the point of no return.
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Childless parents and parentless children; strangers and family zealously grieving their dead; the ghosts of Elvis and John Lennon--all are among the vividly realized characters populating Moore's exquisite collection of short stories that explore in nuanced and discerning ways the unforgiving landscapes of the psyche as well as those in the physical world. In "Truth or Terlingua," the opening novella, a battered RV and a desolate scrap of land may contain all the mystery a middle-aged couple needs to recapture the magic of their youth. In "West of Rain," a father resolutely tries to rebuild a life for himself and his son on a stark mountainside. Whether the action takes place in a dusty, two-bit bar in the path of a raging tornado in Oklahoma or on the roiling seas near an Indonesian fishing village, Moore's glittering imagery and spirited phrasing turn each intuitive and fiercely perceptive exploration of the human condition into a sumptuous journey of delight and discovery. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Alison Moore has uncommon insights into the lives we lead as wives and husbands and lovers, as children and parents, and the moments of grace that make us believe we are not ordinary but senselessly lucky and blessed.”
—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal Dreams
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Where are you?,
This review is from: The Middle of Elsewhere: a novella and stories (Paperback)
If you truly did what you wanted, where would it take you?
The middle of elsewhere is not on any map, but if you are lucky you will find it. In the place where dreams meet reality, sort of, the only way to get there from here is by following your heart. In her third book, a collection of separate stories, Alison Moore has created mindscapes for the rare creature in all of us. Her cast of survivors escapes the expected and each blooms in ways that ring true, surprising themselves. From an Indonesian beach time forgot to the idea of separation that is America's southern border, wounds and the quest for the spiritual balm that will heal are what her characters have in common. Moore is a keen describer of both human and mother nature. There are no cheap tricks here, no easy outs. Just exquisitely wrought tales of ordinary people encountering their extraordinary selves. "Elsewhere" is a trip to no place you have ever been that is still eerily familiar. Moore is a winner of the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction, 2004. This is a satisfying read.
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