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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us September 15, 2005 Spragg’s ‘An Unfinished Life’ rich with characters By Chris Honoré Tidings reviewer An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg Vintage Books, New York 257 pages It’s pure coincidence that Kent Haruf’s “The Ties that Bind” was recently reviewed in these pages. And now along comes a novel, “An Unfinished Life,” reminiscent not only of “Ties” but of Haruf’s other two well-received and well-written novels, “Plainsong” and “Eventide.” “An Unfinished Life” is a fine example of character-driven fiction. This remarkable book has at its center a wonderful little girl, Griff, who is not only resilient but profoundly perceptive. She has been told little about her past, what happened to her father, and is puzzled, if not disturbed, by the choices her mother, Jean, makes when it comes to men. For some time they have lived off of the goodwill of mean-spirited, abusive boyfriends who hit and lash out, driven by demons and alcohol. It’s a life that is beginning to shape Griff’s view of the world. In a moment of desperation, with a bruised face and heart, Jean tells Griff that they’re leaving Roy (her most recent man), and so they pack their few belongings, heading west. As circumstances would have it, their car dies after just 300 miles and they end up seeking refuge with two old codgers: Einar, her father-in-law, and Mitch, who together ranch ever so sparingly just outside of Ishawooa, Wyo. For Griff, discovering that she has a grandfather, a stoic old man who proves to be the repository of endless information about her father, is revelatory. She wants only to stop drifting, and nurtures the hope that with these two old men, both cantankerous and enigmatic, she will find a place she can call home. Griff is a heartbreaking character who is at the center of the wagon wheel in this novel, and, as it turns out, the glue that holds the ever so tentative new family together. Of course, what she is not prepared for are the abiding uncertainties, especially when it comes to the history shared by Einar and Jean; a history that has to do with the death of Jean’s husband, who was Einar’s son. It is a loss that Einar cannot come to terms with and for which Jean carries a great deal of guilt. There is so much that her mother has left unsaid, and there’s a rip tide that keeps pulling Griff away from her newly constructed moorings. Spragg does a masterful job of creating an ensemble of characters, and the book is written in the best tradition of Cormac McCarthy and Haruf. Like both these novelists, Spragg is superb at capturing people and place, while exploring the true nature of forgiveness, redemption and friendship. He’s also able to use point of view to great effect, shifting voice and thereby adding richness to his fine narrative. “An Unfinished Life” puts the lie to the phrase, “You can’t go home again.” You can, if those who are there, and those who return, are prepared for the changes that are always inevitable and embrace the person, not the memory. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams