GIFTS

One of the many benefits of being a reader is the unexpected stumble into a book that shakes you from your reading doldrums and astounds you with the satisfaction of finding that diamond in the rough, a gem of a book that will be long remembered and regularly recommended. I have come to be grateful for these occasions and have also come to know full well that they cannot be anticipated, but are probable enough to keep me waiting for them. I know that eventually it will happen, simply as a matter of time. I just keep working my way down that ever growing reading list and one day, in a pleasant turn of events that feels like and counts for me as a blessing, one of the small gifts that life seems to grant us from time to time lands in my lap.

Yes, I realize it all sounds rather schmaltzy, but we each have our little things we celebrate quietly and to ourselves -- small joys, slight reminders that there is good in the world. I have my own list of them, as do you. Admit it.

The most significant events are few and far between, sparsely dotting our life's timeline, and that is precisely why they are counted as milestones. But, is not life actually lived in the ordinariness and drudgery of Everyday? We look up and entire decades have passed and slipped away from us, but we are still able to pinpoint the beginnings and the endings. The in-between, however, is a bit jumbled up and cloudy.

And so, you must cling to the little things. Find joy where and when you may and relish the moments when you are surprised by it. I, for one, savor the early morning hours, times when there is a bit of frost on the ground and the sky is clear and the sun is only a faint wish above the treetops and I am steaming and spent from a run and the world is silent and belongs for a little while only to me. Similar is the feeling left by the surprise of an exceptional story or, as in this latest case, a story of stories. I recently finished Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife, which had long languished on my reading list, but was well worth the wait. Just as striking to me as the incredible tale that is masterfully woven by Obreht is that she is as young as she is. A few years still stand between her and the age of thirty. Not that the fact of her age is altogether extraordinary. It is, I confess, simply a matter of envy for me of her accomplishment of being a published author, let alone an award-winning one, at such an age. Obreht was honored for The Tiger's Wife with the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011, which is given each year to the best original novel by a woman and published in the United Kingdom, putting her already in the heady company of the likes of Ann Patchett, Marilynne Robinson, and Barbara Kingsolver, among others.

There is a lot going on in Obreht's book, so much so that I will admit to the regular need as I was reading to flip back chapters at a time to refresh my memory and make sure of certain details and characters. But, this is in large measure part of what makes The Tiger's Wife so impressive. Tea Obreht deftly entwines multiple stories into one interconnected narrative that is stunning in both its separate forms and its entirety. I am struck not only by her abilities as a writer to tell a great story, but also at her sheer skill in bringing so many moving parts together. So, I have found also in her book yet another qualification for me of quality writing, and that is the occasion when a writer will do something in creating the structure of their work that is unique or particularly artful. Not only did Obreht's book give to me one of those unexpected small pleasures that is a memorable read, she also allowed me to think anew about the craft of writing itself.