sharon lACOUR
debut novel, the meeting of Air and water
The Meeting of Air and Water is more than a novel of Cajun family life and hidden history. It’s paced as a long walk through many decades in a dreamy atmosphere and written with a fresh approach to the serendipity and predictability of actual lives unfolding. We learn from LaCour that for this family, time can cover only so much past behavior and invented gossip before it bobs to the present and demands to be reconsidered. The secrets that reveal themselves are sometimes vague assessments of the past — suppressed to protect and not to destroy. The delicate unfolding throughout this exquisite short novel is written with great affection and care. This a complicated story honestly expressed about the human foibles surrounding love, art, acceptance, fear, anger, repression, avoidance, white moods and white lies. Everything in this book is wrapped in love and culture, from the steamy and turbulent air to the ever-present water of the ocean, lakes, rivers, estuaries and bayou. LaCour shows us that we all hover between air and water. It is what all people are made of, but some in rather exceptional combinations. —Windy City Reviews, Chicago Writers Association
