Today would have been my father’s 91st birthday.
What do you give a man who, in life, said he never needed anything? How about
his photo on a book cover?
I’m pleased that
today of all days, I can show you the cover of Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss.
That’s Dad strolling along the edge, doing something he
loved—walking and observing the world around him. He’s on Newport Beach in
Southern California, a moment captured during a 1997 trip. Everyone else—my mother,
husband, and child—was elsewhere, and he’d offered to stay with me on the
beach, the only place I found comfort that summer: I was pregnant
and fighting off all-day nausea, vertigo, and an odd aversion to air
conditioning.
I was content to sit in the sand, relief washing in on every
ocean breeze, and was not in a mood to talk. Dad was typically taciturn and, as
usual, only able to sit for a few minutes before he began walking, back and
forth along a quarter mile of beach—but always within eyesight. I remember his
glancing back every few steps to check on me.
I’m biased of course, but I think the art department
at University of Nevada Press did a terrific job. I love the cover for the way
it treats light and balance, color and feeling. But I also love it for the way
he is halfway-off-the-frame, and in a kind of slow motion; that captures
something the story inside tries to tell—about the way he proffered protection,
punctuated by our mutual tendency to always be moving near one another, but
never fully.
Happy Birthday, Dad. Hope you like the gift.
7 comments:
The cover is beautiful, Lisa. I'll call it richly joyful with specks of curiosity.
Thanks very much @Lauri! I love your interpretation!
can't wait to get a copy...signed of course!
Love to sign one, @SCmom. If I don't see you at a live event next spring, you'll be able to order a signed one from my local independent bookstore.
Lisa- it's a beautiful cover. I too really like the way your father is halfway off the frame. I agree with you that the art department did a great job. This is all really exciting!
I love the cover for exactly all the reasons you mention. Congratulations and yes what a special day to be able to show it.
Thanks you, @Patrice and @Christine. I appreciate your kind words!
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