The Blessing: A Memoir
Orr's gripping chronicle of his troubled boyhood is alternately  self-conscious, moving and revelatory. When he was a boy growing  up in New York's Hudson River valley, Gregory accidentally shot  and killed his younger brother Peter during a hunting excursion  with their father, a philandering, amphetamine-addicted country  doctor. Now in his fifties, Orr examines the corrosive effect of  that loss on his parents' marriage, the divine purpose of such  loss, his destiny and the reason for his own survival amid a  series of misadventures, which include the family's sudden  relocation to rural Haiti and Orr's harrowing participation in  civil rights activities in Mississippi in 1965. Upon Orr's  return from the Deep South, where he was imprisoned by local  authorities, his high school English teacher took him for a walk  through the David Smith fields near Lake George. Smith, the  great American sculptor who had just died in a car accident,  filled the fields in Bolton Landing, N.Y., with gigantic metal  sculptures. Orr saw in them images of his own "martyr's cross...  alchemized and shining, metamorphosed... into a hundred  expressive shapes.... Here was my blessing." And there, a writer  was born. Orr's understanding of the tragic events of his life  through the prism of art allows him to find serenity and  stability (a well-published poet, Orr currently edits the  Virginia Quarterly Review). One can only wonder what the next  installment of Orr's life will look like on paper, for this one  never fails to entertain, mystify and surprise. (Sept.)  Forecast: As an independent, Council Oak may not have the  resources to mount a major advertising and promotional campaign,  other than campus and bookstore readings and an author tour. But  strong reviews and word-of-mouth might make the difference in  getting this book the attention it deserves. Look for an  interview with Orr in a September issue of PW.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.