Bodies of Water - Hardcover

Cash, Rosanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786860839 ISBN 13: 9780786860838

Publisher: Hyperion, 1996

Synopsis

A literary collection by a Grammy Award-winning country artist is made up of poetry and autobiographical writings that consider such topics as art, motherhood, spirituality, and performance.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

This tiny first book of stories, with extra-wide margins, is a cut above most celebrity writing, and will even satisfy gossip- seekers with its thinly veiled autobiographical pieces about the pop singer's divorce from Rodney Crowell, her three children, and her own childhood as the daughter of a country music legend. There's a healthy dose of showbiz self-help nostrums and Hollywood mysticism in these often lyrical pieces. To wit, ``The Last Day of the Year'' finds the narrator, by now on the verge of divorce, celebrating New Year's Eve in Manhattan with her children and deciding ``to let go.'' ``The Arc of Loneliness'' meditates further on the topic, post-rehab and post-divorce. Other autobiographical tales include a womanist account of childbirth, a memory of taking acting classes, and a self-serving bit about life on the road (``Under the lights I can face the inconsistencies of my soul''). Cash's pure fictional work varies in quality: ``A Week at the Gore'' is a series of faxes from a middle-aged mother of two girls who understands her destiny (as a mother) while on vacation in England with her children. A divorced English teacher traveling in Paris discovers the meaning of womanhood as ``part girl and part suffering.'' Another female narrator (in the fabulistic ``Shelly's Voices'') flirts with insanity and dreams of previous lives and deaths. And in the best piece, ``Dinner,'' a woman of authority and in control, who's braced herself against surprise, is unhinged by the sight of a bleeding stranger. Occasionally sappy, but sometimes sharp and tough-minded (in a showbiz way): likely to be of interest to fans of the singer and Marianne Williamson. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

Readers may be just a tad skeptical about this slender volume of short fiction by Cash, a singer who topped the country charts for a decade. But if you've followed Cash's career, you know that she has left the country spotlight to record her own heartfelt compositions, and her talent as a lyricist translates beautifully into short fiction. The brief but polished, emotionally resonant tales collected here possess the perfect timing, fluid expressiveness, and subtle circularity of ballads. Several stories reflect Cash's life as a performer as well as the mother of three daughters, but Cash is imaginative and each of her female protagonists has a distinctive persona and uniquely vivid inner life. A young acting student abruptly casts off her crippling self-consciousness; a wonderfully confident mother of teenage daughters exults in their bond; another mother goes to Europe on her own to "give birth to her middle-aged self" ; and in the poignant title story, a woman has nightmares about not being able to save her child from drowning. Yes, motherhood, with all its fears and blissfulness, is the key theme here (Cash has dedicated these stories to her children), but motherhood as seen by a woman who understands loneliness and the price of being yourself. Wise, funny, and eloquent, Cash's stories are as deeply affecting as her songs. Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0786860839
• ISBN 13: 9780786860838
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144