In the tree-nestled Northern California town of Mira Flores, writer Rachel ("an aging typist with an unprofitable hobby") and her Scottish husband Neil prepare dinner for a familiar "crew" of guests - among them Neil's best friend, the burly, handsome Mike Spender, an irrepressible heodnist - and Mike's wife Tilda Krall, a hard-bitten figure who carries her dark unknowability like an accusation.
Mike and Tilda have produced an enchanting daughter, Addie - who will also appear, unexpectedly, that night. As they ready the meal, Rae begs Neil to retell her the strange, twisted story of the Spenders - to include Mike's secret life, and what happened once Tilda learned of it. Neil and Rae cannot guess how the shock waves from that story will threaten to destroy their own marriage - after a mysterious catastrophe propels all five individuals into uncharted realities.
Recounting three love stories, Make It Stay explores the vision of an era - and how perception expands, as mortal limits draw near. ~~ summary from Amazon
My thoughts on Make it Stay ~~
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Hmmmm, how do I feel about this book? I will say that it was not what I expected after reading the summary of the book. I can't really say that this was recounting of three love stories. It was more about friendships, life long friendships, that weathered the good times and the bad times.
Mike and Neil have been friends for years and at the beginning of the story, Neil is relating to his wife, Rae, the story of Mike and his wife, Tilda and their daughter, Addie. So, in essence, by way of flashbacks, we come to understand what Mike and Neil mean to each other and how Tilda entered their lives, all before Rae was in the picture.
When one think of love stories, we usually think of men/women love stories. I sort of felt like the author could have been talking about the love between Mike and Neil, friends there for each other all those years, the love between Mike and Tilda, as volatile and strange as it was and then the love between Neil and Rae, a sort of comfortable love.
Joan Frank wrote an amazing story with beautiful descriptions that I had to stop and read over, just to fully enjoy them.
'It was one of those afternoons the townspeople cherish about autumns here: sky a deep, aching blue, motes of gold in the sir - so lovely, Cass allowed to Neil, she had considered taking the day off. Leaves had begun to flush crimson, wine, umber; days filled with a warm-sugar smell. Around and through lazed scents of cola, hot pretzels, smoke from leaf fires (still legal), cut-grass, geraniums. Tips of trees barely stirred. In the hills the vines had given up their precious roe and turned to ridge upon brimming ridge of tarnished gold. Gardens hung heavy with their last great loads, tomatoes, eggplant, green peppers. Light felt spun, the color of whipped honey, hovering over the stillness. The whole town, the county, the whole world seemed briefly suspended inside one of those globe spheres - except instead of crystal, the sphere might be one big, fire opal. A glorious, sad, fire opal time.'
Isn't that beautiful .... and so descriptive ....
And this is Neil talking about his friendship with Mike - this is such a great line ~~
'"When you've known someone that long," he says to the linoleum, "after a point it can't matter anymore how crazy they are." Grandfathered in, he used to say.'
About Joan Frank
Joan Frank was born to New Yorkers in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in Sacramento, Hawaii, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of four books of fiction—a fifth, her new novel
Make It Stay, will be published by The Permanent Press in April. A book of collected essays,
Because You Have To: A Writing Life, will be published by the University of Notre Dame Press in Fall of 2012.
Her recent story collection,
In Envy Country, won the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year award and the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction; it was also named a finalist for the California Book Award.
Joan is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, winner of the Dana Literary Award, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, Emrys Fiction Award and Iowa Writing Award; a Pushcart Prize nominee, two-time nominee for the Northern California Book Award in Fiction, San Francisco Library Literary Laureate, and recipient of grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and Sonoma Arts Council. She has taught creative writing at San Francisco State University and continues to teach and edit in private consultation. (If you have interest in working with Joan, please contact her through her website.) She lives in Northern California with her husband, playwright and English teacher Bob Duxbury.
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