This book may contain language, sexual content, and themes of grief and loss, which may be challenging for some readers. Reader caution advised.
Even in the Midst Of
by Mildred Rugger
Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Loss and Love by Margaret Renkl is about grief, but not exclusively. We often learn about grief indirectly within a broader context. In this first of four book bytes, I’m going to overview the book by talking about one part of that context: beauty.
Visually, Late Migrations drew me in from the first moment. The cover background is the color of happiness: somewhere between sunflowers and ripening apricots. On this lovely background is a silhouette of a girl. But no ordinary girl. She’s made of leaves, flowers, and fruit. And this flora shelters a variety of fauna: a bird, a nest with eggs, a butterfly, a cocoon, a turtle, a snake, a lizard, and a fox.
The artist is Billy Renkl, brother of the author. His art also functions as something like chapter markers. These interior pieces of art transport me to a lovely old country home with muted colors. Each artwork is somewhat like a labeled painting of flora and/or fauna hanging on old-fashioned wallpaper.
The beauty of this book comes not only from the artwork, but also from the language. To give you a taste, listen to what the author says about the little brown wrens in her yard: “Their courtship song is one of the most beautiful in the world, a high, thin river made of musical notes tumbling and rushing and cascading downstream” (p. 4).
The final source of beauty I’ll mention is the structure. Maybe that sounds strange, but I’m fascinated by how the author put this book together. It’s a collection of short essays that could be read in any order, I suppose, but that are intended to be read in this particular order.
The chronological essays focus on Margaret’s family, rooted in rural Alabama. Some are in the voice of Margaret’s grandmother, adapted from her recorded memories. Most are in Margaret’s voice: recounting stories she was told of family life, reflecting on family photographs, or sharing her own memories of family life. The subject matter of these essays date from the birth of Margaret’s mother in 1931 to a day in 2018 when Margaret’s two younger sons are heading back to college.
Interspersed with the chronological essays are undated essays, focused on the natural world Margaret loves observing. These are set on the outer edge of suburban Nashville, where she now lives.
The order of the essays is not random. They are beautifully arranged so that ideas are viewed from different perspectives as we move from one essay to another. We’ll be exploring some of those ideas in my next three book bytes.
This is Mildred Rugger for HPPR Radio Readers Book Club, wishing us all a growing awareness of the beauty of life, even in the midst of grief.
