Empty Journals
The astonishingly imaginative stimulus behind this book is the decision by a mother to leave behind shelves of journals to her daughter under condition that the author not read them until after the mother had died. Upon keeping true to this promise, the author discovers that every single one of the many journals is blank, left behind purposely so in order for her daughter to fill them in herself. At first, the author is taken aback, not really understanding exactly what it was her mother was up to:
“My Mother’s Journals are paper tombstones.”
Reinterpreting Eden
Many sections of the book present the author and members of her family engaging in the type of conversations about religion that move well beyond the merely spiritual and into the sphere of philosophy. These are hearty discussions, filled with passion and ending with an arrival at an understanding which is usually couched in metaphor:
“The snake who tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit was not the Devil, but her own instinctive nature saying, Honor your hunger and feed yourself.”
Writing Supplies
One would perhaps think that the choice of implement the author chooses as her means of filling in the journals would not leave much room for metaphorical contemplation. One would be not just exceedingly wrong, but absurdly short-sighted in sizing up the character of the author:
“I am writing on the blank page of my mother’s journal, not with a pen, but a pencil. I like the idea of erasure. The permanence of ink is an illusion. Ink fades and is absorbed into the paper. Water can smear it. Ink runs out. A pencil can be sharpened repeatedly and then disappear in the process.”
One of Those Teachers
Every writer can look back fondly on being fortunate enough to have at least one of those teachers. You know the type: the teacher they make movies about who are somehow gifted with the ability to not just make class fun, but to help direct the path a few of their students will take. On the subject of Mrs. Jeffs, the author is clear and direct despite the use of metaphor:
“Literature was life, and reading became an open door to a world beyond the familiar.”
Darkness
The central metaphor of the modern age is here in abundance throughout the text. Its first notable appearance also happens to coincide with a direct referencing of the provocative title of the book:
“When women were birds, we knew otherwise. We knew our greatest freedom was in taking flight at night, when we could steal the heavenly darkness for ourselves, navigating through the intelligence of stars and the constellations of our own making in the delight and terror of our uncertainty.”
