This delicate sense of ambiguity and unsteadiness is on display in Parasol Against the Axe, Oyeyemi’s new novel about how we get to know people, places, and books. Just as the novel’s protagonist, a heroine on the run named Hero Tojosoa, finds herself carted around Prague in a wheelbarrow, readers are briskly shuttled through the city in a state of undignified but delighted disorientation, jostling over cobblestones at a pace just slow enough to catch glimpses of a multitude of things they want to investigate, but too fast to get out and take a steady look.
The Pain Project, co-written with Paradis’ wife Kara Stanley, is an account of how this remarkably bright and brave couple lived with the world-transforming pain that continues to torment Paradis. It focuses on their year long pain project, launched a decade into their struggles, and it records journal entries, experts consulted and research, as well as the couple’s often poignant conversations with each other and the friends and family who support them still. The sustaining roles of music, laughter and food are vividly portrayed.
The Folly Cove Designers were a successful community in Rockport, Massachusetts, that, between 1941 and 1969, designed images on linoleum panels and imprinted them on fabric. They were led by Virginia Lee Demetrios, an accomplished artist who was also an exceptionally effective teacher.
Largely forgotten today, they remain important because of their artistic creativity, their commitment to their art form and the beautiful work they create. A new book by South Berwick author Elena Sarni is poised to bring them renewed attention.