Literary
Fiction
And She Was
Cindy Dyson
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
And She Was intertwines the stories of generations of women
on the Aleutian Islands. The current woman is
Brandy, a
woman who thought she was a free spirit, available to follow her latest
man,
drink the alcohol in front of her, snort the next line of coke or smoke
the
next joint. A life without strings- to herself or to others. But as she
discovers the stories of the women near her- those that live now and
those that
came before- she finds that she is not the empty vessel she
thought.
Brandy goes with her fisherman boyfriend to his home on the
remote, rugged island where he installs her then returns to his life at
sea.
Alone in a small cottage, with few neighbors, Brandy finds the job for
which
she has so much experience, cocktail waitress. It is here at the Elbow
Room,
the bar named by Playboy as the worst, roughest one anywhere, that
Brandy finds
signs of the story that becomes her quest. From the first words
“killing hands”
scrawled on the toilet paper holder, Brandy is caught up in the voices
from the
past and the present that entice her into discovering their secrets.
Brandy meets the women of the island, Little Liz the bar regular “in
the worst
sense of the word”, Bellie whose steady supply of coke is hard earned
and Ida
and Annie whose lined, old women faces may hide an incredible history.
Cindy Dyson alternates the fist person narrative of
Brandy
with chapters telling the stories of the island women who came before.
The
story begins with Aya in1764. All the
men have left the island to finish one last battle with the Russians
who have
destroyed the towns, killing many of the people. As the months pass Aya
and her
friends watch their stores of food dwindle, their children grow
hungrier. At last the women must chose
between the survival
of the remaining tribe members or breaking the long held taboo against
women
hunting. Her hungry baby convinces Aya to take up a spear in pursuit of
seal
meat. But it is when the hunt is not successful and her baby dies that
Aya
chooses to break the ultimate taboo and enter the secret cave of the
men. It is
the ritual that occurs there that alters the destinies of generations
of women
to come and changes the course of Brandy’s life.
The woman who comes last, right before Brandy,
is the woman
she only knows at first as Little Liz, the eternal figure in the corner
booth
of The Elbow Room. But she discovers that Liz too is an integral part
of the puzzle.
She finds that she is living in a cabin that Liz previously owned. “I pushed against the gray planks of my door
and stepped into a cabana that wasn’t as empty as I left it. It seemed
weighted
with the past, with Liz’s presence…She’d sat here. She’d stared out
these
windows. She’d been that other woman then. I could almost see her,
moving about
the cabana, straightening, making dinner. She has all her teeth; her
hair is
sleek, she wears something light colored and wool and cotton,. She hums
as she
works. Maybe she’s preparing for a visitor. But she stops now and then,
She
puts down her broom or her spoon and walks to the windows. She looks
out over
the valley, and the smile leaves her lips. Something heavy is already
growing
in her, something that will soon submerge Liz beneath a torrent of
guilt. And
then a flood of booze.”
One of the strengths of this author is her ability to
create
strong, vivid female characters that grab both the reader’s heart and
minds.
But the setting becomes the platform from which the novel derives its
power.
Even the wind becomes a character that gusts and moves the characters
through
their times and the ages. “And I believe some of them still remember
the power
that lurks in this land. When I first heard their story, I felt as if
the wind
were lifting the veil, revealing something I already knew. And some
part of my
brain stepped back from the edge of extinction and smiled. Their story
takes a
shape our instincts recognize. The whisper under the shout. And in my
mind, I’m
standing again on a cliff overlooking that siren ocean, feeling the
wind
pressing against my lungs. And, I too, remember.”
This book looks at the fine lines between bravery and
cowardice, destiny and fate. “To live with intention, in the full force
of our own
will, is the most essential and the most dangerous thing we will ever
do. It is
the act that makes us fully human.” Set on the weather and history torn
Aleutian Islands, it is a story that explores the role of women as the
givers
and the maintainers of life, even as they are forced to take it
away. Cindy Dyson clearly handles the difficult task of blending
the past and the
present into a seamless novel. She carries the reader with her on a
slow but
breathless journey into discovery of the uncertain role morality plays
in our
lives and our history. A journey all women should take.
Author
Alley
Author Website
Author Interview
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