by Toni McNaron | Nov 5, 2018 | Uncategorized
Two years after publishing her gripping novel, Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward gave us a memoir entitled Men We Reaped. This arresting and disturbing title comes from the writings of Harriet Tubman who said: “We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and...
by Toni McNaron | Oct 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
That is the first line of a short poem by William Wordsworth, the English romantic poet. What follows is “when I behold/A rainbow in the sky.” Two magical happenings in my life recently have called Wordsworth to mind. A close friend and I have gone...
by Toni McNaron | Oct 20, 2018 | Uncategorized
During the Kavanaugh hearings, much was made of his heavy drinking during high school and college. I am a recovering alcoholic who will mark 44 years of sobriety on October 23rd of this year. My antennae are quick to pick up tell-tale signs of other people’s...
by Toni McNaron | Oct 11, 2018 | Uncategorized
The year I began teaching literature at the University of Minnesota in 1964, Leo Marx published his important book, The Machine in the Garden. Though Marx was teaching literature in the newly minted department of American Studies, I never met him. Because everyone...
by Toni McNaron | Oct 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
When I set out to write about Jesmyn Ward’s novel, Salvage the Bones, I meant to speak about several aspects that have moved me and driven me to deep thought. I became so wrapped up in talking about Skeetah’s relationship with his white pit bull, China,...
