Sarah Rose Etter
In One Note, Gabriel Blackwell asks writers to talk about the book they are currently reading and why. One Note 021: Sarah Rose Etter, Selah Saterstrom, The Meat and Spirit Plan.
In One Note, I ask writers for just that: one note, a single paragraph, on what they’re reading right now.
Today’s note comes courtesy of Sarah Rose Etter:
We should get this out of the way up front: Any book with Iron Maiden, Anthrax and Danzig lyrics as chapter titles is going straight to the top of my to-read list.
While I read The Meat and Spirit Plan by Selah Saterstrom, I kept thinking the words wrenched iron over and over again, because a coming of age story that follows a girl through college could be so trite, but it becomes a new machine in Saterstrom’s hands. She takes a typical metal and twists it, sculpts it into a shape we’ve never seen before that expands until it looms over everything and begins to churn.
Saterstrom slices and dices short simple vignettes, blends dreams with reality, makes a fever dream, twists words to make them do her bidding. The effect is Southern, desperate, creepy, ghost-like, surreal, entrancing.
I devoured The Meat and Spirit Plan in a few hours. It won’t be the last time I read it. But the next time I read it, I’m going to hear the whole narration in Danzig’s voice.
Sarah Rose Etter‘s chapbook, Tongue Party, was published by Caketrain Press in May 2011. You can find out more at www.sarahroseetter.com.
