Aline Soules

Poet and Fiction Writer

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Carrying Within You What You Choose to Leave Behind: A Review of “If Mother Braids a Waterfall”

December 3, 2020 By Aline Soules

My review of If Mother Braids a Waterfall just went live.  A fascinating look into the world of Mormonism, women in Mormonism, and the struggle to come to terms with Mormonism.  You can find my review at https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/carrying-within-you-what-you-choose-to-leave-behind-a-review-of-if-mother-braids-a-waterfall/ 

The Struggle of Spirit: A Review of “Refusal: Poems”

October 1, 2020 By Aline Soules

 

My review of Refusal: Poems just went live on Tupelo Quarterly.  Such a thrill to have a book review there.  Here’s the link:  

https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/the-struggle-of-spirit-a-review-of-refusal-poems/

1913: The Year Before the Storm

November 20, 2016 By Aline Soules

Friends who give you great books are priceless.  I have savored and just completed 1913: The Year Before the Storm, by Florian Illies.  Sadly, my German language skills are nil, but I read an excellent translation, thanks to the skills of Shaun Whiteside and Jamie Lee Searle.  This amazing book offers a month-by-month description of selected events that took place before “the war to end all wars.”  Henry Ford put a conveyer belt in his car factory, Louis Armstrong picked up a trumpet, Chaplin signed his first movie contract, Proust began his opus, Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring—the list goes on.  Some quotes:

from Thomas Mann:  “And how greatly and severely war is felt as a crisis of moral cleansing, as a grandiose stride of life’s seriousness beyond all sentimental confusions.”  His reference was the war of 1870-71.

from Thomas Mann (again):  “Give us today our daily sheet of paper.”  All writers should relate to that comment. On the same subject:  “I need white, smooth paper, fluid ink and a new, softly gliding pen nib. To prevent myself making a mess of it, I put a sheet of lined paper underneath.  I can work anywhere; all I need is a roof over my head.  The open sky is good for unbridled dreams and outlines, but precise work requires the shelter of a roof.”

Illies shares a story from June 20, 1913, when an unemployed thirty-year old teacher, Ernst Friedrich Schmidt walked into a school “draped in weapons.”  He went on a shooting rampage with loaded revolvers.  Five girls, aged 7-8, died; eighteen children and five adults were severely injured.  A passer-by overpowered him.  His rationale?  He was protesting not finding a teaching position.  It seems that mass shootings are not as new as we think.

And from Illies, talking about Thomas Mann:  “…but only by the sea does one have an uninterrupted view of the soul—and of the mountains before it.”

May we all write with such grace.

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Recent Posts

  • Tupelo Press 30/30 Project
  • Carrying Within You What You Choose to Leave Behind: A Review of “If Mother Braids a Waterfall”
  • Why Historical Fiction? Part II
  • Why Historical Fiction? Pt. 1
  • The Struggle of Spirit: A Review of “Refusal: Poems”

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