Breaking Her Fall

Before I start the new year with a book review, I want to acknowledge the Morrison Public Library and its staff headed by Connie Boonstra. This is not only a wonderful facility, but also a great staff who are willing to find anything for a person. A library is the heart of a community and school. I greatly appreciated the professional aid of Jan Horberg while I was teaching at the high school. I couldn’t have taught without her. Start the new year with thanks to your librarians.

Tucker Jones, a single father living in Washington D.C., receives a phone call on a summer night advising him that his fourteen year old daughter, Kat, is in trouble. With both great anxiety and rage, Tucker rushes to the home of teenager, Jed Vandenbereg. Unfortunately, there is an angry confrontation with Jed concerning both a sexual allegation and the whereabouts of Kat, and Jed is seriously injured. Tucker then finds himself under arrest. Tucker could easily lose his home and business, but is most concerned about losing his daughter who has undergone a debilitating experience. Thus, begins the novel Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin.

Throughout the novel, the Joneses: Kat, Tucker, and son, Will, must repair the damages of this one night. However, this is not the usual story, but one of power and insight as Tucker is made to examine his role as a parent, his role as a single man, and his own inner life. As he struggles to help his daughter and repair her life, he must take apart his own life and struggle to understand it. All lives are changed by this moment on a summer evening: Kat, her brother Will, best friend Abby, Abby’s mom Lily, and Jed Vandenberg like Humpty Dumpty, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.” (at least, not as before) But, although imperfect, there is survival.

Stephen Goodwin intertwines the various characters’ flawed reality and broken dreams so that the novel becomes a page-turner. Breaking Her Fall is the story of lives rearranged by passion, of human frailty, and of emotional courage. I greatly enjoyed this book. I had read a review of it in The Chicago Tribune, recommended it to Connie Boonstra who then ordered it. The book proved the excellent review and I was not disappointed. Although this book begins with physicality, it becomes an emotional and mental struggle for understanding and love.

I promised last time a book for the guys, although I did read this and enjoyed it. Bleachers by John Grisham takes place in Messina, Mississippi, where Friday night high school football reigns supreme. Coach Eddie Rake who built the Messina Spartans into a state football championship dynasty is dying and his former players struggle to confront their memories and feelings of this man they both loved and hated.

Neely Crenshaw, Messina’s “best-ever” quarterback, returns to Messina after fifteen years to join the mourners who meet on the bleachers. The players, now men, reminisce of great games won and of friendships and teamwork. However, central to each of these players is their former coach, Eddie Rake, who is now dying. As the members of various teams hold their vigil on the bleachers, Eddie Rake and his players are fleshed out for the reader.

This is a short book that is easily relatable. It is also a tribute to all those who coached or who have coached: the dedication, tenacity, and labor that are needed to mold “a team.”

(by Anne Frame, Guest Columnist)