Place: Part II– Authors and Their Places

Kauai 2013 - The Culture of Place

Author James Michener is known for his sagas that often follow families through generations of history. In many of his stories place is a main character taking shape out of prehistory and becoming known through the fictional characters he writes about. Michener's choice to immerse himself in place and view story through that lens enabled him to weave a rich tapestry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Hawaii, his first published novel when he was forty years old. Many of his books including Texas, Alaska and Chesapeake followed the same relentless pursuit of communicating place with a great sense of intimacy.

Tolstoy’s book Anna Karenina, seen by some as the greatest piece of literature ever written, was not named “Russia” but even so Place figured largely into Tolstoy’s schema. His conflicted relationship with Russia bleeds through the novel and is even more apparent in War and Peace. A quote from Leo Tolstoy: Letters and Papers by J. M. Packham indicates the depth of the conflict: “The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.”

It is relationship in story that intrigue us. The heartbeat of narrative is the driving force of conflict that propels story forward, man verses man, man verses himself, man verses nature, and in all of this there is an umbilical cord connecting the storyteller to place and that relationship which nurtures and challenges is percolating just below the page.

I’m currently reading The Lucuna, by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s the story of young Harrison Shepherd, his turbulent and colorful coming of age. The story’s narrative highlights the 1930’s when Shepherd, as a young man, finds himself in the household of famed artist Diego Rivera and his equally famous wife Frida Kahlo.

The artful weaving of history into narrative is seamless. The intimate look into the tender and personal “boy becomes man” experience of Harrison Shepherd brings a sense of authenticity. The story is rich in character development. And yet what has fastened itself to my memory more than anything else is the beauty I find in Barbara Kingsolver’s descriptions of Mexico, of the floating islands of Xochimilco, the open markets, even La Casa Azul. It is place that pulls me in and holds me in the context of a story I can enter in to and make myself at home.

Much of the research for the manuscript of my memoir had to do with Hawaii. I spent a considerable amount of time in that place and a much greater amount of time researching and reading about its history and culture. Delving deeply into its richness developed in me an unexplainable love and empathy for Hawaii, and a sense of kindred spirit. An un-namable quality, something like sacredness drew me. Eventually I couldn’t deny that Hawaii itself was a strong supporting character in the book.

What authors have made place come alive for you?

Writing Prompt for the Week: Sacredness of Place