Surfacing

July 8, 2019
In a lyrical, beautifully rendered collection of essays, poet Jamie (Sightlines) meditates on the natural world, lost cultures, and the passage of time. The book’s title relates most directly to its two longest (and most philosophically engaging) pieces, both about archaeological digs. For “In Quinhagak,” Jamie travels to a small Alaskan village to help with collecting artifacts from the period before the arrival of Europeans. Seeing how “the past can spill out of the earth, become the present,” she immerses herself in the way of life of the local Yup’ik, who are deeply knowledgeable about their natural surroundings and acutely present in the moment. In “Links of Noltland,” she visits the Scottish town of Pierowall, where archaeologists are uncovering Neolithic and Bronze Age dwellings, producing information about “ordinary people’s ordinary lives” from millennia ago. Yet, Jamie insists, “those people’s days were as long and vital as ours.” Later, in “The Wind Horse,” Jamie recalls traveling to Tibet in 1989 and hearing fragmentary reports of the Beijing student protests, distressing information that she juxtaposes against the tranquility of a Buddhist monastery. Jamie’s observations about time and the interconnectedness of human lives, past and present, are insightful, and her language elegant. The result is a stirring collection for poetry and prose readers alike. George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

In this marvelous collection of essays, Kathleen Jamie meditates on time, nature, and family with lyrical prose full of wicked wit. Narrator Cathleen McCarron's performance is a perfect match. Her Scottish accent is appealing, and her timing is akin to musical phrasing that enhances a composer's intent. For example, Jamie's description of Alaskan sockeye salmon swimming as "silk slashes in a Tudor sleeve" sounds like "slashies" in McCarron's lilting voice, and that just adds to the magic of it all. The two longest essays focus on an archaeological discovery in Alaska among the Yupik and another one in the Orkneys. Both highlight the role of warming climates and encroaching seas in the discovery and juxtaposition of history and modernity: One local Yupik resident has an iPhone in one pocket and a traditional ulu knife in the other. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine