And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories Of A Family

And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories Of A Family
By Annie Dawid
Published in 2008 by The Litchfield Review Press.
ISBN: 978-1-60702-342-5

Annie Dawid moved to the Wet Mountain Valley, a handful of years ago, after serving as associate professor of English, at Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Oregon. Her novel, York Ferry, is in its second printing, and she has a collection of short stories, Lily in the Desert. Her most recent works have been published in Glimmer Train, Poetica, High Country News, and The Denver Post, where she served as one of their Colorado Voices.

This collection of linked stories, winner of The Litchfield Review Short Fiction Prize for 2007, “re-imagines stories told to [Dawid] by paternal relations at home and abroad.” It begins in 1900, with the recent birth of David, to Lazar and Reizl Solomon, who lost their three oldest sons, eleven years earlier, to diphtheria. With the birth of David, their sixth son, Lazar tells Reizl God has matched their three dead sons with three living ones.

But home life in Bukovina, at least under Lazar, proves too much, or perhaps the world outside is too enticing. In this first story, oldest son Abraham already has planned his escape that very night, to Vienna, nearly convincing his brother Isaac to join him. In time, all three brothers leave. Twenty-some stories later, their scattered descendents come together under one roof, reflecting on and celebrating the lives lived and the lives ahead.

My introduction to Annie Dawid was her Winter 2007 Glimmer Train story, “The Closer You Were, the Less You Knew.” I marveled that such a writer lived “just down the road,” in Westcliffe. When this book was handed me to review, I nearly snatched some of Ed Quillen’s fingers off in my eager delight.

While none of these stories seem quite the caliber of the Glimmer Train one, there are likely and legitimate reasons why. The most obvious is Dawid takes nearly thirty-six pages in Glimmer Train, whereas her longest story here, with the exception of the closing one, is just over twelve. My suspicion Dawid writes better when allowed more space is strengthened in seeing it’s the longer stories from this collection which have been previously published, and one of them being a 2005 prize-winner.

I don’t fault Dawid for writing against her suspected strength. Writing, as does any art, mandates stretching of abilities and coloring outside the lines of comfort. Stories can dictate their length. Honoring those dictates shows integrity to both the stories and one’s art.

The problems I do have fall into the lap of the publisher or printer. One character’s name is continually misspelled, lines of text are frequently broken half-way across the page, jolting punctuation and other spacing errors abide, and the title heading for the penultimate story is missing. I expected The Litchfield Review Press to show more care, this being their own prize winner. Were I the writer, especially of stories based on those of family, I would want better representation. However, if mine is a reviewers’ copy, although it’s not label so, then I apologize.

Keep your reading eyes opened, for the first chapter of Annie Dawid’s forthcoming novel, Paradise Undone, was a semi-finalist in the Penguin Breakthrough Novel Contest. Hopefully we’ll not have long to wait. (For those who understandably can’t wait, an excerpt can be downloaded via ana.com site.)