The Shadow Catcher
In her multi-faceted novel author Marianne Wiggins begins the story in L.A. where an author battles the California freeway traffic on her way to meet a producer who is interested in turning a historical book she has written into a movie. The book explores the life of American photographer and adventurer Edward Curtis, known for his photography of American Indians and the vast lands that they inhabited. An enigmatic man, she finds as she peals away the layers of his life that she vacillates between admiration for his work, disdain at how he achieved his images and their acclaim, and an inquisitive draw to him that transcends his shortcomings. Shortly after her meeting with the producer, she is contacted by a hospital in Las Vegas informing her that her father has been admitted to their ER, is unconscious, and that the contents of his pockets contain her contact information. But her father died 30 years ago-a suicide-after deserting her, her mother and sister.
"Shadow Catchers" gracefully shifts from the author's story of her pursuit for her father's story to the telling of Curtis' life-his marriage to Clara, an engaging tale itself. As a teenager, her parents were killed in a freak accident, she finds herself, her younger brother at her side, sent off to the wilds of the Washington state coastline to become part of a family her mother had been close to. Their oldest son is Edward Curtis, and their eventual marriage and move to Seattle establishes a life that the author sees paralleling that of her own. As Curtis' wanderlust leads him to leave his family for extended amounts of time to explore and photograph the West, the author wonders about the story of her own abandonment by a man-presumed dead-who lies in a hospital bed in Las Vegas.
As the author travels the open road to Las Vegas the similarities between the man she has pursued factually and the man she now pursues physically, become clear.
The novel, enhanced with the actual photographs of Edward Sheriff Curtis, is a fact-based novel that was called the Best Novel of the Year (2007) by The Washington Post, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly and National Book Critics Circle-to name only a few. Marianne Wiggins was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize-and is currently a professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Weird Kentucky
Billing the book as "Your Travel Guide to Kentucky's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets," the Marks, as executive editors Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran are called, began compiling the interesting and unusual aspects of New Jersey in 2003. With the belief that every place has its local legends and tales to tell, they armed themselves with cameras and notebooks and set off to record them all. When they discovered that many of the legends had factual basis, interest in their research blossomed and their next venture was "Weird U.S."
Bringing it back down from there, their belief that Kentucky would be fertile ground for its own book was the beginning of "Weird Kentucky." Author Jeffrey Scott Holland writes in his introduction: "ÖKentucky is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest, wildest, and most wonderful states in the Union. If you're a Kentuckian, you might smile with recognition at some of these unspoken-till-now truths. And if you're from elsewhere, let this tome be your guide to an assortment of puzzling and peculiar people, places and things."
Beginning with an impact crater in Shelby County, to the caverns of Mammoth Cave where the mummy of an American Indian was found with his tools and pack beside him, Holland continues on with the intriguing tale of Herry, the reptilian monster reported to be inhabiting Herrington Lake. He tells of a pair of Bigfoots reported to be seen in a field near Highway 60 in Baskett in 1999, if land creatures are of more interest. Florence's Wildwood Inn offers experiences a little more tangible with 31 fantasy suites that range from an Arctic cave complete with ice-like pillars and igloo-like walls- to the Speedway suite full of racecars where the guests can feel as if they are sleeping on a racetrack. Sleep in the Statue of Liberty, on a pirate ship, or travel back to the '50s in The Happy Days Suite, but without the Fonz, of course.
History buff? Long Run Cemetery holds the remains of Abe Lincoln's grandfather-and is said to be the home of a tree that grew from an acorn that fell from a tree underneath which Abe gave a speech. Outdoorsmen? Sleep in a wigwam-so the sign says-in Cave City, Kentucky.
With tales of the wild and weird to actual sites and scenes to visit, "Weird Kentucky" offers an intriguing glimpse of the uncommon in our Commonwealth.