North Carolina Miscellany
in. Maybe Beth Ann’s childless life, albeit not what she pictured, is the safer route for her after all. The story “The Field Glasses” includes twin sisters Eleanor and Clara, “Two nice, oldfashioned storybook spinsters who just happened to live in this wooded neighborhood filled now with young families” (139). The wooded neighborhood, however, isn’t as safe as it seems due to “something in the woods that wanted to eat the children” (137). Eleanor and Clara, “integral to the workings” of their community, are still quite the outsiders – especially Clara, who has always been delicate and fearful, and who cancels their annual summer visit from nephew Peter due to her concerns with the recent child bitings (141), much to Eleanor’s dismay, as the visit is one of the few things she seems to look forward to. Eleanor’s description of Peter with his “little body like warm bread” and “his face glowing at [her] like a small sun” (144) suggests she regrets not being a mother, making these somewhat odd sisters another instance of childless female characters whom society tends to marginalize. As the tale progresses, readers are given a glimpse of Eleanor and Clara’s
past, which hints at their current relationship not being as tight and secure as we often associate with twins, and we question whether the danger is lurking in the woods or a bit closer to home. “Riding” situates readers in the passenger seat of the car with Janet, who is driving to her grandmother’s house during a time of quarantine and masking – calling to mind Little Red Riding Hood and urban legends of hitchhiking, and serving as an early addition of what is likely to be a growing body of literature in response to the Covid pandemic. Janet is rear-ended by a nondescript, tailgating sedan populated by three shady-feeling characters. “The pandemic had brought out an extra skittishness around strangers,” and tension mounts as we learn neither driver nor her passengers are wearing masks (155), a strange detail that inspires wariness in the post-Covid era. What follows is a short and uncomfortable ride for Janet in the car of Crow, Rogue, and Longshot, who does wear a mask, though a “horrifyingly convincing wolf mask” (162). Janet exchanges small talk with her new companions as readers simultaneously learn of Dan, her ex, and their introduction to the commune he left her for, a similar past experience of being picked up by drivers due to car issues. Janet is faced with a decision whether to ride with these strange companions to tonight’s full moon party or to continue on to her grandmother’s, and readers are not sure which the safest trip really is.
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The remaining selections in Pearson’s collection all carry a similar feel of something being off, evoking wariness from the reader but enticing us to continue. She somehow manages to present both her protagonist narrators and the strange situations or characters they encounter with a touch of otherness or outsider tendencies, whether due to their own choices and characteristics or due to those that society expects of them. Altogether, though, they make for a cohesive and certainly entertaining group of personalities and anecdotes. Bright and Tender Dark, Pearson’s first novel, centers around the twenty-year-old murder of a female college student in Chapel Hill. The first half of the book predominately takes place in 2019, two decades after the murder of young Karlie Richards. Joy, Karlie’s former college roommate, is struggling with the aftermath associated with a recent divorce; KC navigates college life and an overnight job; and other players are introduced, including a suspicious college professor, the man behind bars for the murder, and The Weeper (a local urban legend). The narrative then switches to the events of 1999, and readers meet Karlie herself and her acquaintances during the last fateful weeks of her life and glimpse into a western North Carolina cult-like religious group. Pearson’s characters are diverse and somewhat damaged, and all seem to be on the margins of the Chapel Hill community of both 1999 and 2019.
LEFT Joanna Pearson (left) discussing Bright and Tender Dark with poet/
psychiatrist Celeste Lipkes (right) at Malaprop’s in Asheville, NC, 21 Aug. 2024