Synopses & Reviews
In his breathtaking debut,
The View From Here, Brian Keith Jackson took us inside the heart of black family life in the rural South. Now, in a novel that resonates with pure emotion, he sends photographer Jeremy Bishop back to Elsewhere, Louisiana, for the funeral that marks the end of his father's life -- and the true beginning of his own.
His grandmother, Mama B, called him Patience. Jeremy was, she said, the most agreeable child. He would have liked to tell her that, even while growing up, his hidden wants festered deep inside him. His mother died just hours after his birth, and he was raised by Mama B and his Aunt Jess after his father disappeared. Even after his dad returned one day with his new family, Jeremy kept his distance. But it is a decade later, and Jeremy, now a successful New York photographer, gets a phone call from Louisiana. It is time for Jeremy Bishop to journey the long way home to help bury his father. In the graveyard where his father's body will be laid to rest; in a stranger's appearance at the wake; in a suicide; a murder; and finally inside a cardboard box that had belonged to his father, Jeremy will find himself in ways he never imagined. Conjuring Jeremy's youth in flashbacks as textured as the denim patch on his grandmother's rocking chair, Jackson weaves together past and present in a novel at once astonishing and universally human.
Review
USA Today Subtle...enjoyable...Jackson tells this nicely paced story with compassion and a keen sense of black dialogue.
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Paper magazine Jackson's prose prompts responses from both the head and the heart...via delivery that is clearly thoughtful, yet never contrived.
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Kirkus Reviews Genuinely moving...an intriguing and variant contribution to the theme of the "disintegrating African-American family." A lean and nicely told story.
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Emerge Stunningly fresh imagery, richly drawn characters, and race-transcending circumstances...a satisfying novel about secrets and the price that they extract from us.
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Booklist An excellent story about coming to terms with the past and with one's shortcomings, achievements, and family.
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Publishers Weekly Clever rumination on the difficult, inherent complexities of the father-son relationship.
About the Author
Brian Keith Jackson has received fellowships from Art Matters, the Jerome Foundation, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. His first novel, The View From Here, won the American Library Association Literary Award for First Fiction from the Black Caucus of America. He lives in New York City.
Reading Group Guide
Reading Group Guide DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why did Jeremy's Grandmother call him Patience? Did it fit him as an adult, or was it ironic?
2. The narrator tells how his hometown 'Elsewhere' got its name. How is the naming of the town significant to the story?
3. Jeremy's father acted distant towards Jeremy when he was a child. Why was that? How does the truth that Jeremy discovers as an adult differ from his childhood perception of his father?
4. Aunt Jess told Jeremy that she wasn't surprised that he became a photographer because he was always "looking at the camera like he was trying to figure it out." Why did he become a photographer?
5. How are his memories like photographs?
6. Why did Jeremy fear having his picture taken?
7. What is the significance of the swatches of fabric that Mama B added to the cushion of the rocking chair?
8. When describing New York City, the narrator states, "It's a great place to live -- or at least work. But Elsewhere is what got me there. It prepared me. It's a love -- hate relationship in its most realized form." Is there a place, or a time in your life that prepared you for your present situation?
9. What role did Charles play in Jeremy's life? What did his death illuminate?
10. Jeremy's family was Baptist, so why did he attend a Catholic church? Was this part of a bigger identity crisis'?
11. Why had he not been told the circumstances of his mother's death before?
12. Why was Carol so concerned about how her husband treated his first son? How does the narrator feel about Carol?
13. What is his relationship with his siblings like? Did loss unite them, or was there another precedent?
14. Why is the novel titled Walking through Mirrors? What was Jeremy's father trying trying to tell him?
15. How will Jeremy's life be changed after the funeral?
AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN KEITH JACKSON
Q: Why is the main character a photographer? Do you have any background in that field?
A: In most of my work I attempt to deal with field and perception, which correlates well with photography. We had a darkroom in my childhood home and my father was quite handy with a camera, so I've always had an interest in that art form. Photography is another aspect of story telling. Yes, it may be worth a thousand words, but I take or look at a photo and try to get at least 70,000 words out of it.
Q: The narrator's sexual preference remains ambiguous throughout the novel. Why is that?
A: I wanted to focus on gender roles and issues rather than preference. With The View from Here, I was able to write about a pregnant woman. Of course, I will never know what it is like to be pregnant, but I try to make my work more about the recognition of human emotions that we all share. In that, I also made a conscious effort to make certain that the secondary characters were ambiguous in regard to race. We are often so emphatic about exteriors that it keeps us from acknowledging the person.
Q: You live in New York City yet write about the South, where you grew up. Do you find that separation, or semi-exile, necessary to write your novels?
A: Well, you can take the boy out of the South, but....I have an intense long distance love affair with the South, yet I'm still working on my relationship with New York. I'm sure we'll see more from her [New York] in the future. I attempt to make locale one of the characters, and the South has a long history of character. If you can so easily escape where it is you come from, then it's difficult to appreciate where you are.
Q: Why did you choose the father's death as a catalyst for this novel?
A: In The View from Here I used a birth as the catalyst, so in Walking Through Mirrors it happened to be a death. In a sense, I see them as similar for they have a huge impact on what will or has occurred between the two. I wanted to show that issues should be resolved while people are alive so that there can be some sort of release, yet not of regret. We all have our limitations, but it is never too late to begin that quest for understanding, for renewal.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm working on several projects at the moment -- all of which are in the early stages, so I dare not mention them. I'm rather superstitious about that. I guess you can say that I'm courting new characters right now, waiting for their cooperation. But as my grandmother used to tell me, "Never announce the wedding until both parties say yes."