Jody Lisberger: "Crucible", "Bush Beating" and "The Mercy of Water"

Jody Lisberger, the author of “Remember Love”, was born is Stamford, Connecticut in the 1950s. She grew up in Ithaca, New York. Initially, Lisberger studied anthropology at Smith College in 1975 , then got her MA in English at Boston College, followed by receiving her Ph.D. in English from Boston University. In 1997, Lisberger started a MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. Lisberger has taught full time at Holy Cross, Tufts University, Harvard University, and Brown University. She has taught literature, drama, feminist theory, fiction and creative nonfiction. She currently teaches Women Studies here at the University of Rhode Island. What we as a class are looking at right now is her prize winning fiction “Remember Love”.

I just read the three stories “Crucible”, “Bush Beating” and “The Mercy of Water.” I personally enjoyed all three, mainly “Crucible”. Lisberger’s writing is extremely detailed and descriptive. As cliché as it sounds, you do not want to put the book down because she keeps you wondering what will happen next. She is heavy on creating a picture and analyzing the characters situations and thoughts. She creates suspense in the story by linking separate stories all together into one. Doing so, this makes the stories very complex and interesting, as the reader relates the different aspects to one another.

For example, in “Crucible” the story is about a Mom and Dad watching their daughter in her high school play. Although the entire stories setting is at the play, throughout the story you learn a lot about the parents relationship with one another as well as the mother’s analyzing the play as it relates to her own situation. Their daughter, Julia, plays an adulteress in her school play, Abby. As Sheila, Julia’s mom, watches the play she cannot believe her eyes as Julia is caressing another actor’s face as well as indulging in the plot. “Please let it drop and shield these two. My daughter doesn’t know these things. She’s acting. It’s a play. You’re supposed to act.” (page 14) Sheila then begins to connect the play to her current relationship status with her husband, Tom. She herself was cheating with a man checking their house of radon in the air. Seeing the play made her think of her mistakes and how her future with her husband will play out.

A scene that really added suspense to the story and was interesting to me was when Sheila goes to look for Julia after the play. She goes to find her to congratulate her on how well she did and she is not with the rest of the actors. Sheila is pointed toward a doorway, and is hesitant to go in. Thinking she is in there with her fellow actor that she had intimate scene with in the play. She ponders on this for a while and Lisberger creates great suspense for the reader as to what could be behind that door. We soon learn that Julia is doing nothing but innocently getting dressed, (page 21-23). Although we are built up with uncertainty and doubt in Julia as a “whore” of a character, the scene ends with her doing nothing wrong. I really enjoy Lisberger’s style of writing and her detail to the characters thoughts.