by Galbraith Crump — This beautiful and moving memoir is deceptively simple. It weaves together memories, scenes, characters in a powerful warp and weft across decades. At the center is the enchanting figure of Joan, a woman who ignites each scene just as she provided light and life for her large and far-flung family. Galbraith Crump’s meditations on Joan and their life together are vivid and particular to be sure and breathtakingly powerful but they also evoke larger considerations of meaning and mortality that will touch any reader. — David H. Lynn, Editor, The Kenyon Review