By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Apr 1st, 2024
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235 Views
“Being a Windsor meant working out which truths were timeless, and then banishing them from your mind. It meant absorbing the basic parameters of one’s identity, knowing by instinct who you were, which was forever a byproduct of who you weren’t.” When I requested the Spare’s memoir from the Ouachita...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 29th, 2024
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344 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “The young delude themselves that the music will never stop playing. So it makes sense for them to explore rather than savor; to meet new people rather than to devote time to their nearest and dearest; to learn new skills and soak up information, rather than ponder the mea...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 29th, 2024
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261 Views
“Even in a place of sorrow, time passes. Even in a place of joy. Do not assume that either keeps life from continuing.” I n Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ first novel, the poet blesses readers with a multi-generational saga. The physically heavy text of historical fiction spans the lives of early Native Am...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jan 31st, 2024
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650 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.” Christmas is a time for reading the classics, or so I believe. I kept Betty Smith’s novel on my shelf for the last few years, […...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jan 31st, 2024
0 Comments
231 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Some people were complete in themselves, as if born from the earth or the ocean, like some of the gods. Which was not a compliment. The gods were ruthlessly indifferent to humanity.” Critically-acclaimed author Kate Atkinson had evaded me to this point. I had never heard ...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jan 2nd, 2024
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696 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Who ever thinks, recalling the face of the one they loved who is gone: yes, I looked at you enough, I loved you enough, we had enough time, any of this was enough?” In Cambridge, Massachusetts, 12-year-old Noah Gardner, aka Bird, attends school and comes home to his fathe...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Dec 1st, 2023
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255 Views
review by MEREDITH MCKINNIE “History doesn’t record the intricacies of women’s relationships with one another; they’re not to be uncovered.” The heartbeat of historical fiction palpitates in this novel reminiscent of a murder mystery dinner theater, yet served with a book spine. In 1791, Nella operat...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Sep 29th, 2023
0 Comments
347 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “The shock of the water – there is nothing like it on land. The temporary reprieve from gravity. It’s just like flying. The pure pleasure of being in motion. The dissipation of all want. I’m free.” Julie Otsuka’s novel explores the mundane nature of daily human exist...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Sep 29th, 2023
0 Comments
308 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “I ran my finger along his collarbone and said: I can’t remember if I thought about this at the beginning. How it was doomed to end unhappily. He nodded, looking at me. I did, he said. I just thought it would be worth it.” SallyRooney’s first novel, published in 2017, foll...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Sep 1st, 2023
0 Comments
376 Views
review by MEREDITH MCKINNIE “I guess somewhere in a corner of our hearts, we are always twenty.” Kelly’s sweeping historical fiction novel chronicles the Rabbits – the women confined in the Ravensbruck concentration camp who were subjected to experimental surgical procedures that left survivors...
