Spirits in the Grass
by Bill Meissner
Published by University of Notre Dame Press
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Reviewed by Diane Keyes
I thought I knew what to expect when I picked up Bill Meissner’s Spirits in the Grass. It was easy to assume with a cover that could be used as a promotional poster for movie, Field of Dreams, that it was first a book about baseball. After all, the cover shows a shadowed profile of a young ballplayer in the midst of a field of prairie grass, a bat flung over his shoulder, looking off into the distance and nothing but horizon to stop his ball. I guess I didn’t notice the dark clouds.
It’s a mistake to think Spirits in the Grass is just about baseball, unless, of course, you’re talking about baseball as a larger metaphor for the way we live our lives. It is the beautifully told story of a young man trying to recapture old dreams, discover who he is historically, psychologically and philosophically, come to terms with relationships old and new, and seek justice. Like the clouds on the cover, Meissner has created a beautifully nuanced work—degrees of guilt and innocence, degrees of responsibility, degrees of distance and hate, and degrees of love and connection.
In the end, though, Spirits in the Grass, is all about the words. Like the work itself, the words are all about nuance. With so many beautiful passages, it’s difficult to choose but just let these following words sink into your soul like a cup of hot tea on a cold night.
“Perhaps it’s the voice of Luke’s mother, a voice so far back in his life that he doesn’t really remember hearing it. He pictures her soft words climbing up through the grass blades and tickling his bare ankles, then floating upward like swirls of fragrant incense.” (p. 66)
I wasn’t as attached to the characters as I usually am but I think maybe that is because it’s just so easy to get lost in the words and “float upward like swirls of fragrant incense” so I can’t complain.
Spirits in the Grass is a compelling and haunting book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.
Meissner is a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He also has written books of poetry and short stories.
Armchair Interviews says: A read to savor for the writing’s quality and storytelling.