And so here is book number 1.

By the Iowa Sea

This memoir is set during a storm/flood in Iowa (obviously).  It’s an interesting book in that it’s just the story of an ordinary guy and his somewhat ordinary life, but I found the poetic quality of the writing to be exceptional.  He’s got a pretty deft hand with the everyday scenes of life, particularly as they deal with his autistic son.  There is one hilarious section on purchasing a dildo which had me laughing out loud.  Any man who uses commuting as a metaphor for sex certainly has my attention.  His marriage is on the rocks and his description of conversations with his wife will ring true for anyone who has been through tough spots in their relationship.  This book is a quiet gem of a read.

“I especially want to thank my wife.  I looked for a card that said ‘Thank you, I’m sorry. Thank you for letting me publish it and I’m sorry I published it.’  But they didn’t have a card so…”

Live From Prairie Lights – Joe Blair

Here is my response.

Tell me, what books do you recommend?

A tornado will tear a building apart, which isn’t a good thing. But at least it’s easy to understand. “My home,” says the victim, wading through the rubble, “has been completely destroyed.”

Fire has the grace to relieve a structure of the very materials that allow it to exist.

But a flood works differently. A flood infects a building with itself and leaves it standing, to rot and fester and steal away hope from those who venture inside.

Anyway…

I just finished an incredible story written by Joe Blair titled “By the Iowa Sea”.  It was one of those reads where you feel a tinge of sadness when you arrive at the last page and you’re not ready to say goodbye.  Since closing the book I haven’t picked up any of the other 17 partially read books littering my side of the bed or hidden among the myriad titles on my Nook.  Well, that’s not entirely true, I did buy a book on teamwork which is incredibly boring…very much anticipated, but I haven’t picked up a book with any literary substance since.

I ran across this thing during an evening quest for something to read and yes I’m absolutely aware I just mentioned 17 unfinished books in the last paragraph, but I can’t help myself.  My interests change faster than I can read, what can I say?  So, I was perusing the Barnes & Noble website, the Discover Great New Writers section to be exact, when I scrolled down to a book about, of all things, the Iowa Sea.  I was perplexed initially because I’m geographically inclined and I know there’s no fucking sea in Iowa.  But I clicked the book image anyway just to be sure…  Thank you, Mr. Blair, for choosing such an intriguing title, otherwise I would have scrolled onward and probably would have bought a book on teamwork or some other mundane thing instead. I’m not much of a memoir guy, but a particular piece of the synopsis caught my eye.

Joe Blair is a HVAC man who lives in Iowa with his wife and children and believes there’s more to life than what Iowa has to offer.  As soon as I read that, my heart went out to him.  I bet this is another poor sap who’s wife thinks it’s incredibly irresponsible to willingly join the ranks of the unemployed, during a recession, to pursue a change in life. My wife and I argue/discuss this very thing about Ohio from time to time. When it comes right down to it, I’m not sure I’m all that Jack Londonish anyway, but it makes for a good conversation.  Ultimately, I know she’s right about this, but every so often the gypsy in me surfaces and I’m ready to pack it all up and move.  Please do me a favor and don’t let her know I said she was right.

I wanted to learn more about this guy so I pre-ordered the ebook and waited.  I was full aware that I could have jumped in the car and journeyed to Barnes & Noble to purchase the paper and glue version, I just wasn’t  willing to betray my allegiance to my NookColor.  Plus, I was reading 17 other books at the time, remember that?… and felt they could get me through the next 30 days.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking…what about the damn book?  Alright, here I go.

I made a promise to myself when I started blogging that if I were to write about a book I read or a movie I saw, I wouldn’t be one of those people who regurgitates the entire story, spoiling any reason for the reader to explore it for themselves.  With that, I promise not to start here.

I really enjoyed the conversational tone of his writing.  That’s what sucked me in, just a man with a tale to tell and to my surprise it wasn’t preachy or braggadocious. I will say there were some things I could have lived without reading, but hey, brutal honesty I guess isn’t always easy to read.  What’s funny is I read a recent blog of his on his website called “Smut”, which is worth a look if you have a moment, and although I may not agree in entirety with the church lady from the blog, the book does get a little “personal”, if you know what I mean.  If you don’t, read the book.

Visit Joe Blair’s Website

I was also struck by how difficult this must have been for him to write.  I wonder, now, what was the driving force to expose all he chose to expose?  I know every writer must decide what to reveal and to conceal, but was this therapeutic?  An exorcism of demons? An airing out of the proverbial ghosts in the closet?  All I know, is if it were me, I’m not sure that I could have or would have been as honest or forthright as the author.  I tip my hat to him though for baring his soul in the pages between the covers.

Speaking of covers, let me talk about the title that graces the front or at least two of those words “Iowa Sea”.  You know, the words that drew me to this book to begin with.  The story is set during the Iowa floods of 2008 and I really thought there would have been more about the rain, the flooding and the physical and mental struggles of a family trying to contend with it all.  There wasn’t much about it at all.  In hindsight, after a few days to digest this body of work, the philosophical side of me kicked in. Maybe, just maybe, it was…symbolic?  There were storms in his life at the same time Mother Nature was throwing her angst at Iowa.  Storms are unpredictable and moody.  They start out small and on occasion can swell up into agents of incredible devastation.  However, there are storms where we can accurately anticipate the fallout and Joe, I’m sure, knew just how dangerous the storms in his life were becoming.  And I’ll be honest with you, some of the decisions he made, I wasn’t sure if I liked the guy much.

The word “sea” is often related to a person’s wants or desires, freedom, loneliness, death, rebirth.  So in hindsight, maybe, just maybe, Joe never set out to write about the physical storms and floods of Iowa, just the personal ones.  He talks a lot about wants and desires, freedom and rebirth, so the title is fitting, I must say.

I really need to wrap this up and quickly…I’ve bored you enough already.  Obviously, I loved the book and I think you will too.  And just so you know, I ended up liking Joe also.  I think what he went through and wrote about in his book, each of us go through to some extent in life.  I’m very hopeful he’ll write more in the future.  Ideally, a work of fiction.

l have or I will leave you links to the book and to Joe Blair’s website.  Go buy the book, visit his website, you won’t regret it.

But, before I sign off, I would like to know what book or movie you found yourself in?  Or helped define a moment in your life.  Post it in the comments.

Until next time…

Purchase “By the Iowa Sea”

Tweet Joe Blair

Two years later in 1991, Blair meets Deb and they both decide they want to leave Massachusetts so they pack their belongings on his motorcycle and go cross country until they run out of money in Iowa. Iowa is beautiful. Everyone that visits Iowa and sees the black soil, green pastures, and rolling hills walks away thinking Iowa is magnificent and it is. My husband and his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are all from Iowa and every time I go back to Iowa and sit on the porch of his grandmother’s little brown house in that white rocking chair from Cracker Barrel, I look at the rolling fields of corn in front of me and think, “Iowa is God’s country” and then a car passes with an Iowa license tag that says “Life Changing” and I nod and wave.  I digress though.

Blair and his wife, Deb fell under the spell of Iowa and decide to stay. They rent a house, get jobs, have babies (4), buy a house, get other jobs, buy a bigger house and settle into life. But life isn’t easy with four kids, one of whom is profoundly autistic, a house that needs constant maintenance, and a dog that needs to be trained under the guidelines that “everything should be treats and kindness. The same way we’re suppose to raise our kids. And, follow God’s Word.” In Blair’s hilarious and honest style, he also points out that “As far as I know, Jesus was a bachelor. He never had any kids. (Or pets either, for that matter).” So, a sense of failure is felt day-to-day by both Blair and Deb because nothing is as they thought it would be. Their lives become busy and riddled with routine; they react to the crisis of the moment which leaves little time for each other and as the years go by, Blair becomes profoundly unhappy and thinks the key to reclaiming happiness is to leave Iowa:

I didn’t want to be the old guy in the Boston bar who sighs heavily and says “I always wanted to leave.” Little did I know I’d become the guy in the Iowa City bar who sighs heavily and says “I don’t know why the hell I ever left.”

But, Deb won’t leave Iowa so Blair looks elsewhere – to another woman and nearly destroys his marriage. With his marriage crumbling, Blair also chronicles the flood of 2009 that put most of Iowa City and Cedar Rapids under water. When the flood waters subside and time passes, Blair notices that everything seems new and this seems to be a metaphor for his marriage. The crisis came, devastating lives and when it subsided, lives were rebuilt.

Often times, people think a geographic change will fix problems or make things better but what they don’t realize is that the problems will still exist whether they are in Massachusetts or Iowa. Blair doesn’t like the idea of getting older and realizes this on a weekend sojourn to Coney Island where he notices the once vibrant amusement park is no longer vibrant. “The carnival rides are rusting. The steel is growing older. Soon all the rides will break down.” Just like life but Blair doesn’t seem to grasp that where he lives isn’t nearly as important as how he lives his life.

“This is how love works.  It’s belief that brings love into being.  As if from thin air.  Belief.  An ethereal notion.  An idea that has the power to create and destroy.  We need it, this belief.  This prayer.  This hope.  So that, in time, when the future is worn away by the present, the past might show that we have held up some kind of light, however dim, in the darkness of the world.”