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[The Roof Rat Review.]

Jesmyn Ward. Salvage the Bones. Bloomsbury, 2011. It’s well done, and the last sentimental turn moving in context. My quibble is with a lyrical mode that’s too available a default in American prose: a quibble with the decade, not this book.

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Texts and images copyright (C) 2022 Pauline Kerschen. Layout adapted from the Single A Tumblr theme by businessbullpen. The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) has zygodactylic feet, leaving X-shaped tracks with ambiguous direction. The Pueblo and Hopi used the X symbol to mislead evil spirits. Border folklore in the early twentieth century held that a roadrunner would lead a lost traveler back to his path. In Mexico the roadrunner is known as paisano, countryman.