Here is a message I received on Friday from a reader, Marlow Fisher.
Terry
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I read Phyllis Marie, by Terry Row, in three days and I absolutely loved it.
It is a very beautiful, loving, respectful account of his parents, grand-parents and great-grand-parents. He honors them. And he brings them vividly to life.
He describes the full range of human experience. They lived through world wars, floods in Kansas, homestead land runs in Oklahoma, the introduction of the telephone and electricity and indoor plumbing, and there were childhood passions for the printing press, for airplanes, for photography.
It is a love story overall, Terry's love for his family. His affection for his characters warmed me like a crackling fire on a chilly night.
I have visited the Library of Congress website to read the letters of Aaron Copland, both the transcripts and the images of the actual letters in his handwriting. In one of the earliest letters he is on a ship bound for France. He is about twenty years old. Copland's role could be played by Jimmy Stewart in a Capra film. His tone is so sweet, so "aw shucks," "ma and pa," Americana. A few years later when he wrote Appalachian Spring, that gorgeous Americana ambiance was not a stretch for him, that was his true voice.
While reading Phyllis Marie, I was infused with that same beautiful, gorgeous, authentic, affectionate aura of Americana.
I assume the skeleton of the story is true, that those are the author's family members and that they lived in those places and that they led, more or less, those lives: aviation, photography, printing press, Society of Friends, etc. I assume that what is fiction is the particulars of dialogue that he was not present to hear.
In any case, what is important to me is that there is a strong point of view expressed: the characters are loved by their author.
Congratulations! And thank you.
