Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Infamous Car-chase of Beacon Hill
by Catherine Graham
If you're an average American, you've probably seen dozens of car chases over the years, dashing across the television or movie screen, wreaking havoc on the streets of New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, et al. But have you ever wondered what a car chase in your neighborhood would look like? Who would be chasing whom? Where would they go? What obstacles would a chase need to overcome if it avoided the city expressways? Well, Ms. Graham has turned her creative talents to those very issues. The Infamous Car-chase is an excerpt that's not really an excerpt. It could have been a chapter of her earlier work, Gathering Seeds, if you didn't mind the plot taking a 90-degree turn and theme collapsing into total silliness. Instead, she's kept it as a separate entity, an untold story, a dream, a hoax, an imaginary tale. What if Elena Meyer, in a fit of rage, drove off in her music teacher's car? What if Sean Reilly commandeered the closest available vehicle to try and catch her? What if Elena's mother chased both the car and the ice cream truck, her fear for her child making her oblivious to the sirens travelling in her wake? What if Catherine Graham so lavishly illustrated and illuminated the manuscript so that each page was a work of art? Ah, then you would have a fine tale to keep on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
If you're an average American, you've probably seen dozens of car chases over the years, dashing across the television or movie screen, wreaking havoc on the streets of New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, et al. But have you ever wondered what a car chase in your neighborhood would look like? Who would be chasing whom? Where would they go? What obstacles would a chase need to overcome if it avoided the city expressways? Well, Ms. Graham has turned her creative talents to those very issues. The Infamous Car-chase is an excerpt that's not really an excerpt. It could have been a chapter of her earlier work, Gathering Seeds, if you didn't mind the plot taking a 90-degree turn and theme collapsing into total silliness. Instead, she's kept it as a separate entity, an untold story, a dream, a hoax, an imaginary tale. What if Elena Meyer, in a fit of rage, drove off in her music teacher's car? What if Sean Reilly commandeered the closest available vehicle to try and catch her? What if Elena's mother chased both the car and the ice cream truck, her fear for her child making her oblivious to the sirens travelling in her wake? What if Catherine Graham so lavishly illustrated and illuminated the manuscript so that each page was a work of art? Ah, then you would have a fine tale to keep on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
Labels: OnMyShelf
// posted by John @ 4:35 PM 
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