No, this is not a book review! I haven’t even read Let
the Tornado Come yet, but I was invited by
my friend Daren to attend a reading and signing by the author at the Honeoye
Public Library, hosted by the Honeoye Booktalkers Club. Daren and Rita are
long-time friends, and both Daren and her husband raved about the book, so I
was naturally curious.
Rita described her memoir as three journeys (as a runaway,
through panic attacks, and finally in horseback riding), through which she
learned how remarkably stubborn and strong-willed she is. A book is not always
best read by the author, but Rita’s voice is far from a monotone, and it was
wonderful to hear her inflections and pauses matching the visual descriptions
of the almost poetic prose (and she is also a poet). She apologized up front
for being fidgety, which she definitely was, as she squirmed in the chair and
played with her hair (a bit like a spooked horse, with which she clearly
identifies). That just added to her charm.
After she read a passage from each journey, she opened the
floor to questions, and the audience – mostly book club members – were not shy
(Rita loved that, unlike a bookstore promotion, this was the first time the
audience had actually already read the book). There were more compliments than
questions, as people quoted passages from the book to praise the different
voices in which she wrote, the poetic metaphors, and her image-focused writing
style that makes the reader feel very present. She admitted that the book had
not been a healing process, although it had been a vehicle to “give voice to
her runaway self,” and had been the opportunity finally to share this side of
her with her husband, who had until then wanted to be spared those chapters of
her life. And although she tried
to reunite with her mother, that effort failed, and she has let go her “child’s
hope for a mother.”
 |
| Rita, Daren, and my sister-in-law Kathryn |
One reader applauded the short chapter format, because it
allowed her a break from some of the more tortured passages. Apparently, as
Rita, commented, her readers often feel that “I couldn’t put the book down…I
had to put the book down.” She also acknowledged the “generosity of the reader
to go along on the author’s journey.”
I bought three books for her to sign (one for me, another
for a book fiend, and the third for a horse lover/owner). I look forward to
reading it, with some obvious trepidation…
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