What am I suppose to write? If Jayne Anne Phillips gets a bad review for Lark And Termite she should frame it. There must be an odiferous pile of reviewers who have stumbled over themselves looking for ways to praise the book. If you need to draw away from the unrequited obligations of life to a world of even greater tension, a tension that settles somewhere behind your heart, here is your book.
The dying will change your pulse. The sex will change your pulse. You will stop to think over what you’ve read and to put it in a safe place knowing you’ll need it later. Memory, experience, love, violence, kindness cross boundries normally thought impenetrable. North Chungchong Province, South Korea and Winfield, West Virginia share more than you knew possible. Heads up.
If you occasionally like the feeling of having experienced something special denied to others, don’t loan your copy to anyone. If you like the quiet thrill of an anonymous random act of kindness, leave your copy at the laundromat or the bus shelter.
So, Jayne Anne Phillips if we should meet at a bar some late night, I owe you a drink. Charles Marlin
