Miel - Back Cover
Genres
Mainstream
Tags
Drama, Humor, Small town, Vignettes
Summary
A Spoon River Anthology in novel form, Miel exists in vignettes, small stories and scenes that come together to describe a larger whole. At times troubled, humorous, light-hearted, or violent, Miel spans three months in a small, coastal town, while closely following the story of a mute man and his inability to communicate or experience longstanding emotion in a life that demands much of both.
Writer’s Note
Miel is a novel that consists of dozens of interconnected and yet self-contained sequences involving the small, fictional town of Van Allen Bay, on the Oregon Coast. Miel takes place in over a hundred short vignettes, all of which intertwine with the setting and themes of the book. They play upon one another in better showing small town life and the effects people have on one another, even at a distance, and especially with regards season. Through all of these vignettes, there is one recurring story that carries throughout the book, and outlines a major protagonist in Miguel, a man who is both mute and recently troubled by a sudden inability to control his emotions, and his willingness to do almost anything to predictably feel again; we return to his story often in the book. There is much humor contained in these stories and the whole story they tell, and a slow-burning sense of melancholy, as well. The tension is broken often by new characters and scenes that exacerbate previous ones, but even these breaks begin to show the troubled nature of the small town and its struggling people. Though the book is not folksy at all, in comparison, I would say that Miel is much like a Spoon River Anthology in novel form, but with much more humor and emotional depth at play.