Bridge Work
| UW-L Author: | Annette White-Parks, Ph.D. Emeritus English |
| Copyright: | 2005 |
| Publisher: | Freshcut Press |
White-Parks, Annette. Cuttings from the Viola. Portland, OR: Freshcut Press, 2007.
Set in the landscape of ocean and redwoods on California's north coast, Bridge Work portrays the watershed changes taking place in the 1970s, as the region struggles between a logging community on its way out, and a retirement-tourist bombardment on the horizon. Before either, there were the homesteaders, and earlier yet native Indians, remnants of both rubbing elbows with retirees and tourists and the new breed called hippies, as the drink at the fictitious town of Luenga's two bars. The cataclysmic changes wracking natural and human society parallel those facing Jesse, a mounting man/logger, and Nyx, a city schoolteacher waiting tables for the summer, both seeking escape. The novel builds on their conflicts. Can they get together despite radically different lifestyles and, if so, can it last? Nelson Little, an Irish immigrant living with her cats in a glade by the river, supplies constancy and proves along with the ocean and the redwoods that though bridges may fall, they tend to rebuild, allowing us to pass over both ways. Anyone who has suffered transitions in places they love can relate.
About the Author
Annette White-Parks was born and grew up in Monument, Oregon where she started writing poems when she was big enough to pick wildflowers. She has an MA in English from Sacramento State University and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Washington State University. The idea for Bridge Work came to her when she lived in Mendocino County, California, working as a waitress between teaching jobs. Currently retired and a Professor Emeriti of English from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Dr. White-Parks lives with her husband Bernard Wilbur Parks in Portland, Oregon, dividing her timer between writing, activism and reviving Freshcut, a small press. She has authored various pieces in journals and newspapers as well as several books.