Angela Hallstrom
Bound on Earth
Parables Publishing, February 2008
Softcover, 197 Pages
ISBN: 978-0961496098
$12.95
Angela Hallstrom’s debut novel Bound on Earth fleshes out the fiction and non-fiction of marriage and family. Through a series of vignettes written from the perspective of different members of the Palmer family (mother, daughter, father, grandparents and others), the book allows its reader to discover the texture of being bound to those we love. It describes what happens between “I do” and our final whispers, the price of raising and losing children, the toll of mental and physical illness, and the not-so-black-and-white choice to leave or to remain. Reading the novel was like looking in a fun-house mirror. I recognized a faint double of myself but it was distorted, turned upside down, made shorter, taller, extended through time and tested. This book does what good fiction should do–distort reality just enough to tell the truth.
It is difficult to find an LDS novel that adequately communicates the nuance that fills the dusty corners of our lives–that faces the reality that we must become perfect even in our imperfection. And there were moments in the novel where I thought it might easily descend into trite summaries of belief. It never did.
The most powerful image of the book is found in the concept of ‘being bound.’ At first, I felt like telling the characters to run away from their bonds, quickly and deftly, in an act of self-preservation. However, the book artfully aided my discovery that our bonds can teach us where and how to grow.
It is in this imagery of ‘being bound’ that I found my one critique. The dominance of this theme left me wanting a richer subtext of symbols to decode. I wanted more ambiguity that would keep me returning to the text. But even with this weakness, the author succeeds at articulating intimate truth and helps us uncover a maze of complicated emotions. For instance, when Beth’s mother peeks through a bedroom door and sees her daughter and her daughter’s husband, she comments, “They are curled towards each other, sleeping, their heads almost touching and Beth’s arm slung loosely across Kyle’s side. Seeing them reminds me how difficult it is for two bodies, even sleeping, to face each other and not turn away (187).” The act of facing each other, constantly resisting turning away is what this novel is about, and if that is the lesson to be learned from the book, then that is good enough for a return visit.
As I discovered when I started researching genealogy, a family’s story is never adequately told through a linear genealogical chart. Histories and narratives are needed for elucidation but often lead to other questions waiting to be answered. In a way, Angela Hallstrom’s novel says what most genealogical documents will never say. However, maybe they should because many of these characters seem as real as the paper that I gripped when reading about them, as tangible as the warm hug that I receive from my toddler as he climbs into my bed at dark o’clock, and as vivid as the man I wake up to every morning, ever more a mystery to me especially when I think I have him figured out.
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Thanks for this, Maralise.
I just finished my second read, and enjoyed it even more than the first. I expect I’ll return to it again and again.
Angela, how about a sequel? I haven’t had enough of the Palmers!
Maralise, thanks so much for the review. And thanks for the kind words, Kathy. As of right now, I’m not planning a sequel–but it’s always hard to leave your characters behind. They’ll be rattling around in my head for a long time to come!
I’m excited to read it! I just couldn’t bring myself to fork over the money for overnight shipping. So, in 7-10 days, I’ll have a more informed opinion!
Angela: It really is a superb novel. This week in my senior Contemporary Lit class (high school), we were just finishing “American Pastoral” — a book I appreciated but just couldn’t love. “Things fall apart” so utterly, and the book ends there, in the devastation. Any why so thoroughly eviscerated. To show them a contrasting “Job” story, we read aloud part of Archibald MacLeish’s “J.B.” (love love love) which ends with Sarah returning — in tremendous pain and deeply confused — but holding a flower that persisted in blooming:
J.B.: Why did you leave me alone?
Sarah: I loved you.
I couldn’t help you any more.
You wanted justice and there was none–
only love
J.B. : He does not love. He
Is.
Sarah: But we do. That’s the wonder.
J.B. Yet you left me.
Sarah. Yes, I left you.
I thought there was a way away . . .
I never could! Even the forsythis . . .
Even the forsythia beside the
Stair could stop me.
And I then noted this excerpt from your interview at A Motley Vision:
I also became very interested in the idea of “staying†as a theme in serious literature. So much of the literature I was reading and critiquing in school had to do with leaving—especially when it came to relationships. And I understand why. Leaving is the archetypal launching pad for most good plots, whether it’s leaving the country to go to on an adventure or leaving your husband to take up with a younger man. But I knew there had to be a lot of great drama and conflict in the act of staying, too, because I saw all sorts of drama around me, and most of that drama had to do with the act of staying, of being committed, of pushing through darkness toward hope.
Thought you’d like to know
Deborah, thank you so much. It means a great deal to me that you like my book. I followed the link to the Exponent II blog and saw that you’d mentioned it there as well, and I’m so grateful. I have to rely a lot on word of mouth, and so your willingness to say kind things about the novel is a real help, especially when I think the audience for blogs like Segullah and Exponent II might be particularly interested in the novel. And I love that you used my quote in your course, too! As a first time novelist, it’s quite a thrill to think of someone reading and even quoting me. Really cool. And thank you for the quote above. Beautiful.
[...] of the most unique beliefs in Mormondom, and I think it could make for a great literature. From the buzz I’m hearing about Angela Hallstrom’s Bound on Earth, this novel seems promising in that [...]
[...] Signed copy of Angela Hallstrom’s Bound on Earth . I reviewed the book at Blog Segullah here. Now start [...]