WOW! Women on Writing Presents
American Still Life by Jim Naremore
Check out an author interview at The Muffin!
We are all drowning, and we are all saviors.
Wresting with addiction, guilt, and self-loathing, gifted photojournalist Skade Felsdottir finds herself trapped in a web of her own creation when she is forced by circumstances to return to her hometown—the place that holds her crippling secrets. After screwing up her “big break”, a photo essay book about descansos—roadside memorials to people who have died tragically, Skade tries to salvage the project against a tight deadline. While simultaneously working and keeping her darkest demons at bay, Skade reconnects with an old boyfriend and befriends a unique but broken young woman named Kit. Their burgeoning friendship begins a process of healing for them both, until a devastating sequence of events plunges Skade into darkness, leaving her to decide between redemption and running away; between life and death. Set against a backdrop of the back roads of a forgotten America, American Still Life explores the crossroads of grief and artistic expression, of loneliness and atonement. A journey familiar.
5 out of 5 fairies
This book evokes some powerful imagery as you’re reading, like watching an indie film meant to show how complex life can be, and how sometimes strangers can bring a little light into your life. I will warn you, this can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, and you’ll find yourself very invested in Skade. She’s an interesting character, one that’s easy to feel compassion for, her life just completely turned upside down and struggling to find her way back to some form of normalcy and stability. I got so wrapped up in her story, so invested in the chance of redemption, it was hard to take breaks once I started reading. There were moments, that had my heart breaking for her, when I just wanted to wrap her up in a hug and tell her everyone screws up, and it wasn’t the end of the road, and others when I just wanted to shake some sense into her. If you enjoy contemporary literary fiction, then you need to snag this one!
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With roots in the American deep south and the Midwest grounding his sense of place, Jim Naremore has published an array of short fiction and the award-winning novel The Arts of Legerdemain as Taught by Ghosts (Belle Lutte, 2016). He holds an MFA from the Solstice program at Lasell University in Boston and currently lives with his partner and cat in New York’s Hudson River Valley.
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