PURCHASE FROM AMAZON

Author: Lynn Veach Sadler, Ph.D

ISBN: 9780615145631

In Foot Ways, native North Carolinian, poet, author and former college president, Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, showcases her mastery of the novella form.

Dividing her novella into five short stories, Sadler paints different character portraits that are relayed to the reader via first-person narratives with a little sadness thrown in. All are carefully constructed and are loosely interconnected in some way or another to a certain Mr. Rufe, who as we learn from the first story narrated by Mary Flora Glory Marchant (Polly Junior), had the knack of showing up every year at “the First Breath of Spring.”

It turns out that Mr. Rufe was quite a ladies’ man who had a fetish for women’s feet, although Mary confesses that she was not taken in by his seductive charm: “He seemed to know that he didn’t make my heart pittety-pat the way he did all other women and daughters in the neighborhood.”

Mary’s mother, Polly Senior, convincingly evokes the dark and dangerous milieu she inhabited both physically and emotionally before she was saved by the town’s doctor, Lawrence Miller, his sister Rose and her husband Clarence. Towards the end of her story a certain tall Scotchman in highland garb, pumping bagpipes makes his appearance. Could this be our amorous Mr. Rufe?

Dan Asher enlightens us about his father who was well-versed in the scriptures and who never missed an opportunity to point out various passages in the Bible referring to feet. His favorite line was “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter!” Dan’s father is described as a man with a great sweetness who gained fame as a lover, for he made love to his partner’s feet. All women and their daughters adored him.

Mary reappears recounting her relationship with Dan Asher and as she states, as quickly as he had come, Dan Asher was gone but, as we learn, not before leaving something that later changes her life. The novella ends with Mary aged twenty-one recounting her relationship with Bee Burton prior to their breakup.    

The characters populating Foot Ways are deftly choreographed giving each a turn on center stage, although I would have liked to have seen a more complete development of Dan Asher and his relationship with Mary. At first the characters may seem disaffected, detached, and unconnected however on further reflection and by the book’s end this impression is dispelled. 

 The language of Foot Ways is imaginative, unencumbered with splendid word play and expressive observations. In essence this is what holds together the events of the stories. It is a pleasure to read particularly in the way Sadler effortlessly balances contrasting elements, remembered phrases, verbal exchanges and incidents in a way that moves her stories hypnotically forward. Moreover, as a full-time writer of poetry, Dr. Sadler’s elegant lyrical wordsmithing gives Foot Ways its considerable power.

The above review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Retired Title Attorney: Editor & Publisher of Bookpleasures. Here are  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

To read Norm's Interview With Dr. Sadler CLICK HERE