The dust jacket
reveals that Samantha Mabry teaches writing and Latino literature at a
community college in Dallas. All the Wind in the World is her second
novel. My admiration for products of
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill remains strong after reading this interesting
story.
Sara Jac and James
Holt have escaped from what appears to be Chicago in a dystopian
nightmare. Clues are scattered
throughout the novel, indicating some catastrophe. For example, Farrah asks Sara about trees in
Chicago. Maybry writes, “When I was
there last, people from the cities were starting to come in and cut them down,
but yeah, up until then there were lots of trees” (150). Sara had a younger sister, Lane. Mabry writes, “Lane and I had walked out of
the girls’ home […] a couple of weeks earlier and were living on the street as
thieves: always hungry, without home or direction. It was the most alone I’d ever felt”
(184). She also writes of infrequent
mail, the rarity of motor cars, lack of decent foot for the hard-working men,
women, and children who harvest Maguey, a useful desert plant.
The prose is smooth
and wonderfully filled with enough details to keep any reader busy through to
the end. Maybry writes, “People new to
this part of the country sometimes describe it as barren, but that’s just them
not looking hard enough. Under the
cracked surface, the fire ants swarm in a cool, dark empire. Lizards and rattlesnakes emerge from the
depths to warm themselves on hot rocks for the day. The birds here—every last one of them black
with oil-slick feathers—don’t fly so much as soar in perpetual circles,
watching and waiting. The creatures that
live out here are smart and resilient; they have good instincts, they know when
to strike and when to rest. I tell
myself that I should be more like them.
There is a sameness here in the desert, yes, but there are also
treasures” (32-33). The ranch James and
Sarah work on is brutal—from the weather, the sand, the bees, and the ranch
owner who is willing to hang a thief, or burn a murderer at the stake.
The ranch owner has
two daughters, the youngest is Bell.
Sara is trying to teach her to ride a horse. The older sister, Farrah, is ill and needs
medical attention. Mabry writes, “For a
moment, neither of us says anything.
Farrah shifts her gaze over to the mountains and holds it there. That first time I saw [Farrah] out in the
maguey fields on [her horse] Britain I thought the expression on her face could
best be described as haughty, and
that she looked at the landscape like a proud, puffed-up owner would. I thought she admired the desert and the
terrain the same way I admired the small, collected treasures stuffed in my
bandana. Now, I’m not so sure that’s
right. The way she’s watching them, or
looking beyond them, like she’s been
waiting patiently for so long for someone or something to appear from their far
side. All of a sudden, I feel
uncomfortable, as if I’ve stepped into a moment that’s not mine” (150).
--Chiron, 1/9/18
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