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When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice
When Women Were Birds FiftyFour Variations on Voice Author:Terry Tempest Williams The beloved author of Refuge returns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebrates. — Terry Tempest Williams's mother told her "I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone". — Readers of Williams's iconic and unconventional memoir, ... more »>Refuge, well remember that mother. She was one of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.
"They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books . . . I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty . . . Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother's journals were blank." What did Williams's mother mean by that?
In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. When Women Were Birds is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question "What does it mean to have a voice"? « less