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Servants
of the Map by Andrea Barrett Recommendation: ••• |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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The Past Comes Alive Andrea Barrett presents well-crafted short
stories in her new collection, Servants
of the Map. In the title story, readers are transported to the Himalayas of
the 1860s, and watch the mountains transform scientist Max Vigne, especially
through his letters home to his wife, Clara. Here’s an excerpt from an early
letter: “The
triangulators leap from peak to peak; if they are the grasshoppers, we
plane-tablers are the ants. At their abandoned stations we camp for days,
collecting topographical details and filling in their sketchy outline maps. You
might imagine us as putting muscle and sinew on the bare bones they have
made. Up through the snow we go, a little file of men; and then at the
station I draw and draw until I’ve replicated all I see. I have a new
plane-table, handsome and strong. The drawing-board swivels on its tripod,
the spirit level guides my position; I set the table directly over the point
corresponding to the plotted site of my rough map. Then I rotate the board
with the sheet of paper pinned to it until the other main landscape features I
can see – those the triangulators have already plotted – are positioned
correctly relative to the map.” My other favorite of the six stories
presented is “The Cure” set in the Adirondacks of the early 1900s, where
people with tuberculosis would come for rest and clean, dry air. The
characters Barrett presents in each story are memorable and there are links
between them and characters in other Barrett works. It’s enjoyable to spend a
short while with each story, spellbound by Barrett’s well-written narrative. Steve Hopkins, February 1, 2002 |
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ã 2002 Hopkins and Company, LLC |
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