Review: Ephemera
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2011
In "One More Winter," Rebecca K. O'Connor has richly imagined the life of a woman she met briefly, once, and then only on the telephone. A writer's writer, O'Connor possesses a deft hand with both settings and characterizations, instilling vivid imagery or conveying complex personalities with a mere word or phrase.California's ephemeral Mystic Lake is both the setting of this story and a metaphor for her theme--the way all things come and go. We each, inevitably, must let go of people, jobs, dogs, moments in time, life itself: All things are transient. This beautifully-written piece is about both the pain of our own losses and compassion for the suffering of others. It is not a depressing story, however, for with letting go comes the lightness of meeting life on life's terms.Originally published in Phantom Seed, the story is offered here only as "practice" in formatting e-books. That is ironic for, far from being a throwaway, this is a deeply nuanced story well worth the price.