Blueberry Fool [Hardcover]

Description: Is it possible to find the revelatory, to find faith in a tiny blue berry? This is but one of the questions explored in this collection of engaging essays aimed at the intrinsically human intersection of memory and belief. Threaded throughout with an ever-changing cast of meadowland characters, not the least of which is a rambling barren of wild blueberries, these writings offer an intimate chronicle of one man's quest to understand what it means to believe. Again and again the author's words bring the reader from a particular geographical place to a location at once familiar and foreign, universal and unique: the landscape of memory. Whether grappling with the implications of adoption, or grieving over a lost family recipe; recalling a surprise encounter with an equally surprised red fox, or reconsidering the meaning of migration, Blueberry Fool is about the sheer fragility and strength of belief, the idiosyncratic light of memory, and the simple year-round pleasures of a wild meadow. Endorsements: Thom Rock has crafted an enchanting meditation on some of life's urgent questions: What is memory, really? How does belief work in a world full of inevitable loss? When we seek meaning, do we need to look further than a patch of wild blueberries in summer? The language is vivid and beautifully cadenced; the stories tenderly told. Blueberry Fool consoles the distracted mind and opens it to a wondrous natural world, where asking is enough. -Carolyn M. Bardos, author of Yesterday's Daybreak The wild blueberry, sometimes called starberry, is Thom Rock's North Star, which he follows into a deep exploration of faith, family, and identity. Rock's essays shine with the incandescence of the celestial berries themselves. If you've ever tasted the tart sweetness of summer or felt the bittersweet memory of loved ones you've lost, you'll sense kindred spirit in these gentle, powerful meditations. -KRISTEN LAINE, author of American Band Thom Rock's Blueberry Fool´