A Gracious Plenty - Sheri Reynolds

This is the story of a girl disfigured by a bad burn as a child who becomes the caretaker of the cemetery run by her father and mother after their passing.  She's alone and ostracized by most of the community and realizes at a young age she can talk with and see the dead in her care.  The mediator, guide to the dead, tells a new member:

"In this place, you've moved beyond experiences. It's your stories that keep you down.  You can't leave until you've told them."

"We chose our truths they way we chose our gods, single-sightedly, single-mindedly, no other way to feel or see or think.  We lock ourselves into our ways, and check all the truths to one."

I read this book while taking a creative writing class in Brasstown, NC, at JCC.  It's was a perfect counterpoint to the class, an example of weaving many scenes, dialogue, narrative and reflections into a story arching from an initial conflict between the girl, now a young woman, and the dead, and the families they've left behind. A good read.

 Published: 1997  Read: June 2015  Genre: Fiction