The Keepin’ It Real Book Club

Sometimes you pick up a book, and it’s like a song on the radio that you don’t realize you needed until you’re singing along. At the end of this dreary February, that was certainly the case with Jessica Grant’s excellent debut collection Making Light of Tragedy (Porcupine’s Quill, 2004). I’m already a fan of Grant, having loved her Come, Thou Tortoise last year, and this volume only enhanced my admiration.

What makes all of Grant’s writing stand out (and, I dare say, almost immediately identifiable) is her imaginative, playful, slightly off-kilter perspective. Take her wonderful description of the days of the week: “Days are places we inhabit. Tuesday, for instance, is a tower. Friday, a schoolhouse. Saturday, a runway. Sunday, an empty park. The light is different in each. We are different in each.” She also doesn’t shy away from occasional flights of fancy (like a woman who believes time travel is possible if you follow 4 steps ending with “Crying on Television” or a ski-jumper who takes off never to land).

Making Light of Tragedy offers up a collection of irresistibly endearing characters bordering on neurotic, from irascible (not to mention irresponsible) book reviewers to know-it-all roofers. [...]