By Tyler Gillesie $2.99; Sibling Rivalry Press; 26 pages
The publisher's blurb for Dirty Socks and Pine Needles says Sibling Rivalry Press aims to promote projects that "… inspire people to read, challenge, and ponder the complexities of life…." They welcome manuscripts that "sing sweetly," among other things.
Tyler Gillespie's book is a slender collection of reminiscences that sing of gentle and bittersweet memories of a childhood in the South. It's a helping of sweet potato pie and collard greensa filling meal whipped up by a boy who learned disappointment and betrayal early from his father, buffered by loving grandparents, mother and uncle. These stories, crafted by a gifted young writer, will touch you deeply and haunt you often.
Gillespie's prose drips with sensually alive references that jump off the page. Many of these are found in the descriptions of the family he lovesGrandpa, a mix of "Old Spice, motor oil, and citrus;" Granny Lula, whose skin sagged from her biceps; Mother, with the hands "that smell like bleach and laundry and soap bubbles." Then there's Gillespie's father, who introduced his son to the power of alcohol much too young. The title of Gillespie's book is a reference to smells his sense memory retains of summer nights as a child in Kentucky studying the stars with his father.
Gillespie's connection with his father is tenuous and troubled, from the moment of his birth when his father, sobering up in a jail cell, was not even aware his son had just been born. Aside from the few magical moments he shared with his father under the stars, their relationship hit mostly sour notes from birth on. In one of the most heart-wrenching pieces, Hiding from the Sun, Gillespie repeats the mantra, "I am not my father," desperately trying to assert his connection with the goodness of his loving mother, Granny Lula, and the others who are positive role models in his young life, and to separate himself from the bad influence of his alcoholic father, on whose dark path he fears he may follow.
You will want to wish, like me, that Gillespie has found the missing piece of him that he so eloquently yearns for. Dirty Socks and Pine Needles tugs at your heart and makes you a little misty-eyedit's a good thing. Settle in with a piece of sweet potato pie and enjoy.
Gillespie was a junior editor at Ampersand Books, an independent publishing house. He has been published in outlets such as Creative Loafing, Writer's Digest and Windy City Times. He lives in Chicago.