Sharon Lacour

The Meeting of Air and Water

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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. This novel follows the stories, in alternating chapters, of Dolores Couvillon in the 1920's, and her grandchild, Elaine Landry, sixty years later. It is set in motion by two main events: In 1923 an itinerant photographer (based upon the artist, Theodore Winans) gives thirteen-year-old Dolores a camera, which affects the trajectory of her life; Elaine returns to New Orleans in 1988 after leaving a soulless job and marriage and begins to unravel the mystery of her grandmother's legacy. Dolores spends her first six years in the Cajun town, Cocodrie, on the exotic coast of Louisiana, sequestered with her dying mother. The camera becomes her vehicle to navigate the world. She becomes quite adept at the art of photography, wins a new camera in a Kodak contest, and sets up a darkroom to process her own prints. She and a boy named Earl Rizan become fast friends taking boat transfers to school and fall in love. Earl and Dolores marry and move to New Orleans where she continues to take photos and use her darkroom until the birth and tragic death of their first child causes a major depressive episode. Dolores and Earl have another child, Charlotte, Elaine's mother. Elaine moves in with Earl, who lives on a camp on Lake Pontchartrain where she spent much of her childhood. He has spent much of his life in a wheelchair and decides at age 83 to start a relationship with an engaging Southern belle, Audrey, who offers him advice and wisdom regarding Elaine. Elaine is struggling after her divorce and takes up with an old married flame, an abusive city prosecutor. 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.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Claudia Drive Books
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. September 2024
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 366g
• ISBN-13: 9798991296113
• Artikelnr.: 71742788

Autorenporträt

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 an historical novel set in the late 18th century along Bayou Lafourche.