Community literature
â??Four Corners: One Bookâ?? tackles â??Madewell Brownâ??

by Joe Foster

adewell Brown is the second selection in the “Four Corners: One Book” community-wide reading group, sponsored, designed and created by KSUT. Each month a different library and bookstore around the Four Corners will choose a book that will be featured on KSUT and throughout the community with author interviews and community appearances whenever possible. In addition to the physical world stuff, there will be an online community devoted to discussion of each book at www.ksut.org. This is a very cool way to get a lot of folks talking about literature, and a nice way to join a reading group without having to actually deal with the issues of joining a reading group. Please check it out.

Like many great stories, Rick Collignon’s latest novel, Madewell Brown, is about a secret. We all have secrets of course: things that shame us, or that would shame others, secret wishes, secret memories, hidden desires. These things are secret because we are afraid of being judged, or punished, or hurting another. Often, when our secret comes out our fears are made silly and inconsequential, and we smile and breathe a little lighter. Other times, our shame and our fears are justified. For some, this fear or this secret knowledge eats them alive, and they become

There are two stories intertwined here: an old man who befriends a young girl, and another old man who dies, leaving his son with questions, a rotten old house and an old canvas bag containing, among other things, a yellowing unsent letter. In Cairo, Ill., the young woman, Rachael, befriends Obie Poole, a crotchety retired Negro League baseball player. Over the course of years, Rachael hears the same old stories about the same old games and same old baseball players so many times she has them memorized. The name she hears the most is Madewell Brown, and Obie is convinced that Rachael is Madewell’s daughter. This insistence, and Rachael’s friendship with Obie, becomes the focus of her life.

There are two stories intertwined here: an old man who befriends a young girl, and another old man who dies, leaving his son with questions, a rotten old house and an old canvas bag containing, among other things, a yellowing unsent letter. In Cairo, Ill., the young woman, Rachael, befriends Obie Poole, a crotchety retired Negro League baseball player. Over the course of years, Rachael hears the same old stories about the same old games and same old baseball players so many times she has them memorized. The name she hears the most is Madewell Brown, and Obie is convinced that Rachael is Madewell’s daughter. This insistence, and Rachael’s friendship with Obie, becomes the focus of her life.

The old man who dies is Ruffino Trujillo, father of Cipriano and resident of Guadalupe, N.M. Before he dies, Ruffino tells his son a story about a black man who came to Guadalupe some 50 years earlier, when Ruffino was just a boy. Cipriano isn’t sure what to make of the story, much less the canvas bag he finds in his father’s shed inscribed with the name Madewell Brown. The bag contains a hand-carved doll, an old blanket, a faded picture of a Negro League baseball team and an unsent letter. After some consideration, Cipriano simply mails the letter he finds in the bag. The

The story of Madewell Brown is great, but what truly makes this a great book is Collignon’s masterful writing. The dialogue just sizzles, ringing true and unadorned. You can actually hear each voice, each one distinct from the other and embroiled in its own life. The sentences are short and perfect. Collignon’s writing feels gritty and raw but draws little attention to itself. You find yourself lost in the sand and the wind in the world he’s writing about without realizing what he’s done to get you there. Skillfully drawing each portion of the story into the daylight, Madewell Brown leads us into the desert to a moment that forever changed the lives of everybody in the book. Perfectly and beautifully done, each moment screams of authenticity.

Madewell Brown is Rick Collignon’s fourth novel about the small northern New Mexico village of Guadalupe. The previous three – The Journal of Antonio Montoya, Perdido and A Santo in the Image of Cristobal Garcia – will all be re-released over the next year or so, but this one, Madewell Brown, stands strong on its own. Collignon is slowly becoming known as one of the great writers of the West. His stunningly original voice and vision are enough to set him apart, but his skills as a wordsmith and craftsman are what hold him above the rest. A truly unique novel, Madewell Brown is worth checking out. •

 

 

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