Courtesy of Beaverdale Books

Reviewed by Catherine Rihm

By Alexis M. Smith

Tin House Books

01/10/2012

$12.95

112 pp

“Glaciers” offers a glimpse into one day in the life of Isabel. Readers follow her as she wakes up and her day unfolds. As her life unfolds, so does the story.

Since she was very young, Isabel was introduced to old things. Her father taught her, “If you love it, you will treasure it.” She’s collected old photographs, post cards and clothing — echoes of someone else’s life that she cares for like adopted children. The articles represent other people’s stories, yet her own story is told in their things.

Isabel is concerned by loss and holds on to the past, knowing our stories will outlive us. As the glaciers break into icebergs, they reflect her own unmooring as what she knows and loves erodes and drifts away. She mourns the loss of her childhood in Alaska and the natural beauty there, her love interest, even the summer as it fades into autumn.

The slim volume, trim size and sparse text on each page reinforces the poetic quietness of this debut and ensure the reader places intense focus on each moment. “Glaciers” is a prose poem in itself, with its many intimate details — the raspy cough of a bus, the sound of newspaper as it is turned and creased, a slip hanging from a towel bar and black coffee sipped from a mason jar. These details expertly evoke each scene and perfectly relay the mood as we come to know Isabel, facing a changing world and grasping for an anchor to steady herself. CV