How to Read an Unwritten Language
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
When Michael Kirby’s mother begins to create strangely unsettling personalities before the private audience of her three children, she bestows upon Michael a double-edged gift: the ability to see past the ordinary surface of the world. After her performances lead to catastrophe, Michael embarks on a redemptive journey to uncover the hidden languages of his family, his lovers, even strangers. Through Michael’s eyes the reader discovers the unsuspected terrors of a bowling alley, the insinuating force of the daily horoscope, the secret poetry of insurance, and the startling revelations that are possible on a carousel ride. Even simple objects at yard sales and auctions contain stories waiting to be revealed, whether it’s a tape recorder holding the contagiously powerful suicide songs of a doomed lover, or the bent plastic arm of a doll that a timid child once waved to ward off imagined dangers. At once exuberantly comic and darkly disturbing, How to Read an Unwritten Language is filled with unforgettable stories, narrated by a man who hopes to save others, and himself, through the telling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Evocative, lyrical prose and a keen eye for unexpected detail hold the reader spellbound through this odd, poignant tale of a sensitive man's quest to understand himself and his loved ones by cracking the code of their lives' elusive symbolism. When Michael Kirby is 11, his bored, emotionally unstable mother begins adopting imaginary personalities in front of her children, forcing them to play along and reverting to herself only when their father returns home from work. Michael, the eldest of the three children, becomes adept at identifying his mother's ``thicket of selves'' and at helping his unsettled siblings through her increasingly bizarre and dangerous charades. ``In this way I grew up bilingually--learning both the... rules of English grammar at school and Mother's secret, impersonating gestures at home. My first language helped me make my way through the world; my second language helped me see through it.'' After his mother's breakdown and death, Michael continues to apply his exegetical skills more and more: to his cold, stoic father; to his sister Laurie, who becomes an actress as a means of controlling her mother's legacy; to his first wife, Kate, a talented artist afraid of revealing her inner self and of drawing people; to his new love, Sylvia, a meteorologist disillusioned with her profession and with life in general; and to himself and the collection of cast-off objects he collects at auctions and yard sales along with their unique stories. Through Michael's gentle voice, first-novelist Graham (author of a short-story collection, The Art of the Knock, and two other books) fashions a resonant narrative that explores the value of storytelling to make life bearable and the unending struggle to make sense of those closest to us.
