The Outlines of Our Warm Bodies

Pat Jasper collects memories and transforms them into insights. In The Outlines of Our Warm Bodies, she focuses on the "small close spaces" of the family -- on domestic relationships, crises and patterns, on coming to terms with time and its power to destroy and to heal. Whether inspired by incidents -- a pulled hamstring, breast reduction surgery, the death of a parent -- or by objects infused with emotion -- a grocery list left behind, the outline of angels in the snow -- Jasper demonstrates a remarkably strong narrative voice, excelling as a story-teller who carefully unravels the yarn of a woman's life.