Sharon LaCour

eBook, ePUB

The Meeting of Air and Water (eBook, ePUB)

Beschreibung

The setting is Cocodrie, a small town on the disappearing Louisiana coastline in 1923, where a sensitive young girl receives the gift of a camera that offers her a window into an otherwise frightening world. The haunting, mythical culture of the Acadians feeds her imagination until her move to the volatile city of New Orleans where societal expectations and religious conventions inhibit her artistic yearnings. Motherhood and her misunderstood mental challenges lead to tragic circumstances. Sixty years later, her granddaughter Elaine, reeling from a divorce, returns to New Orleans to care for Dolores's feisty husband, Earl, in a wheelchair, who lives in a fishing camp on Lake Pontchartrain. Earl is dismayed by the similarities between Elaine and his deceased wife, Dolores, as is Elaine's mother, Charlotte, who fears for her daughter's mental health and well-being. Elaine starts out on a path of self-destruction with an abusive city prosecutor while a former lover pursues her. Meanwhile her restless grandfather decides to pursue a love life of his own. When Elaine discovers that her grandmother's gifts and tragic life have been kept secret, she goes on a mission to learn all she can about Dolores and her mysterious photographs. Family wounds that have been deepening for decades come to the surface and must be confronted in light of Elaine's discoveries. Steeped in the exotic atmosphere of southern Louisiana, The Meeting of Air and Water explores the nature and fragility of the human need to create, as well as the complications and struggles that arrive when this need is denied. With insight and humor the novel reveals the dangers of kept family secrets and the healing that can occur when truth comes to light.

Technische Details

• Geräte: eReader
• mit Kopierschutz
• Größe: 1.24MB
• FamilySharing(5)

Barrierefreiheit

• Text-to-Speech

Autor

Sharon LaCour grew up in New Orleans listening to her father and his siblings share stories in their Louisiana French language of their lives as the children of sharecroppers in central Louisiana and their dramatic move to New Orleans during the Depression. Most of Sharon's writing takes place in Louisiana and around the Deep South. Her interest in writing began with her mother narrating a new bedtime story every night, some of which she recorded on a Royal classic typewriter. Sharon went on to study music and completed a master's degree in piano. She began writing fiction in earnest during long winters she spent in Minnesota. Her stories and essays have been published in the Xavier, Sheepshead, Chautauqua and Arkansas Reviews among others. Although her writing is for adults, her stories often feature children and young adults in challenging situations. She also writes about women and the contradictions of motherhood and creativity; historic and current issues of racism and sexism; the influence of spirituality and belief; and the unique spirit of her cultural heritage. Sharon's debut literary novel, The Meeting of Air and Water, was a novel-in-progress finalist in the William Wisdom-William Faulkner novel competition in 2021. The novel was inspired by the photographs of Fonville Winans, a Baton Rouge photographer who documented Louisiana Cajun life in the 1920s. It follows the lives of two women artists, one grandmother to the other, who struggle against societal and cultural expectations that threaten their need to create. The intense atmosphere of the novel functions as a contributing character adding to the compelling narrative. Sharon lives in Lafayette, Louisiana with her husband and pets. She works as a pianist and piano teacher. She is working on a a coming-of-age novel set in rural Mississippi during the Depression and also an historical novel set in the late 18th century along Bayou Lafourche.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Sharon LaCour
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. September 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798991296144
• Artikelnr.: 72408314