Florida from the Cab
By Marit Ehmke
Hello radio readers! This is Marit coming to you out of Lane County, KS.
Mostly since it's been a race against the weeds with undercutting season at our farm, I had the pleasure of listening to Lauren Groff’s Florida in her own voice while out on the tractor.
It's a striking collection of short stories that among several themes explores wildness, fear, visceral nature, motherhood, and survival.
Groff’s writing is original, both in how it sounds and where it leads. I love how the stories don't end in a neatly wrapped bundle, much like real life. Connection can be complicated, and in some stories, it's clear that dangers exist in our world.
Her writing hits on a great range of emotions from primal fear to reverence in the beauty of small, everyday things.
Florida is a place of heat, humidity, storms - it's not an especially easy place to live.
I got the sense several characters in these stories felt claustrophobic in their lives - somewhat stuck by circumstance or choice. The descriptions of Florida with its almost maddening lushness reinforce this.
That made me think about living here - what kind of character would the High Plains be? For one, it’s vast - so expansive you can see the curvature of the earth at the corners of your eyes if you look at the horizon right. Its weather can be good- it can also be dramatic and sometimes punishing.
Hurricanes in Florida make me imagine what a tornado might be like,
swallowing the horizon line and everything in its path. One takeaway I got from this book is our desire to feel safe. and have some control in scenarios where that isn't always possible.
I'm very impressed with the evocative quality of the collection - a good read to get lost in that also has depth. Good writing can make you feel a little unsettled in some ways, and I feel like this book falls into that category.
We all have fears, anxieties, things we may dread. We all face challenges, some closer to the heart than others. We all have to navigate living in an often-complicated world. Florida is definitely worth a read or listen.
This is Marit signing off for the Radio Reader Book Club!
