Surfacing

July 8, 2019
In a lyrical, beautifully rendered collection of essays, poet Jamie (Sightlines) meditates on the natural world, lost cultures, and the passage of time. The book’s title relates most directly to its two longest (and most philosophically engaging) pieces, both about archaeological digs. For “In Quinhagak,” Jamie travels to a small Alaskan village to help with collecting artifacts from the period before the arrival of Europeans. Seeing how “the past can spill out of the earth, become the present,” she immerses herself in the way of life of the local Yup’ik, who are deeply knowledgeable about their natural surroundings and acutely present in the moment. In “Links of Noltland,” she visits the Scottish town of Pierowall, where archaeologists are uncovering Neolithic and Bronze Age dwellings, producing information about “ordinary people’s ordinary lives” from millennia ago. Yet, Jamie insists, “those people’s days were as long and vital as ours.” Later, in “The Wind Horse,” Jamie recalls traveling to Tibet in 1989 and hearing fragmentary reports of the Beijing student protests, distressing information that she juxtaposes against the tranquility of a Buddhist monastery. Jamie’s observations about time and the interconnectedness of human lives, past and present, are insightful, and her language elegant. The result is a stirring collection for poetry and prose readers alike. George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

September 1, 2019

Scottish poet Jamie (creative writing, Univ. Stirling; Sightlines), winner of the John Burroughs Medal, has penned a series of essays that combine memoir, archaeology, natural history, and travelog. The principal pieces chronicle her participation in two archaeological digs and a visit to a Tibetan village in China during the time of the Tiananmen Square protests. Her interest in Inuit objects leads her to Quinhagak, AK, where she participates as a volunteer in a dig to uncover Yup'ik artifacts more than 500 years old. The author explores the tundra and the culture of Yup'ik peoples, both past and present. In Westray, one of the Orkney Islands of Scotland, she helps discover villages of Bronze Age and Neolithic farmers while contemplating the past and present-day lives of the people who live there. As a young woman, she explores Xiahe, an ethnically Tibetan town in China, reflecting on the current events the region is experiencing. VERDICT A fascinating, lyrical, wide-ranging work sharing thoughts on past and present that will appeal to a wide range of readers, including those interested in memoirs and reflections on the world around us.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A dozen artfully written, linguistically delicate essays about the natural world by the acclaimed poet. Jamie (Creative Writing/Univ. of Stirling; Selected Poems, 2019, etc.) isn't quite a traditional essayist, but she's a very fine storyteller. Here, she offers her quiet reflections on travels through her native Scotland, Alaska, and elsewhere. The collection opens with "The Reindeer Cave," which finds the author contemplating the Ice Age. "You realize you haven't a clue," she writes. "We can wait, say the hills. Take your time." And she does, reflecting on things as simple as a train journey toward Aberdeen ("A Reflection") or the barren beauty of Alaska ("In Quinhagak") reflected in her observation of an archaeological dig. It can be something as simple as a glimpse of an eagle, soaring in all its majesty, or as sprawling as "The Links of Noltland," a two-part essay that contains such cheeky observations as, "if seals could watch Netflix, they would." Mostly, though, Jamie is observant, reflective, and poignant in her prose. "The Inevitable Pagoda" might as well be a poem in its own right, while the title essay reflects on the voices we all lose to history over time. Even the memory of being bitten by a dog can contain multitudes: "I had my traveling adventure, came home, a quarter century passed. Partners were met and children were born and grew. Friendships were forged and lost. Jobs, projects, homes, bereavements, the stuff of life--if we're spared. The undammed rush of life. If we're spared." Punctuated by photographs and relatable to any human being who feels a connection to nature, Jamie's writing is complex yet modest, reflecting on generations past and future, the nature of time, and what to hang on to as well as what to let go. A beautiful portrait of a fleeting moment in time on planet Earth.

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