Leap

Reading and re-reading Terry Tempest Williams over the past three decades has been to journey from the American west into landscapes of the heart, from the political into the personal and around to activism again, from a naturalist's cool sensibilities into the sizzling passions of a visionary. In LEAP that trajectory continues. Williams' edgy artistry -- heretofore offered most tellingly in the title essay in the collection AN UNSPOKEN HUNGER (Pantheon, 1994) -- has consistently infused her writing, but with this sojourn she has taken full flight. The unifying story here is that of a painting, the masterpiece by Hieronymus Bosch ("El Bosco") known today as "The Garden of Delights." The author enters fully into the work, announcing from the outset that she has moved because of a painting, moved from Salt Lake City (her home of many decades) to the Paradox Basin (no more apt name is possible, and yet, it is in fact the name of the geologic locus of her new home). And we learn that she moved there after seven years travel in a canvas, through Paradise, Hell, Earthly Delights and Restoration, and moved on from her natal Mormonism. This book is a journal and a poem, a paean and a polemic. This book is brilliant. Tripping from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to the tribulations of Joseph Smith, clipping newspaper accounts of genetically modified headless frogs and children fallen to convulsions while viewing Japanese cartoons, caroming from Czech poetry to Blake to Joan Miro, back to the wetlands rimming the Great Salt Lake, and forth to Madrid's Prado and the presence of Bosch once more, Williams compasses whole galaxies. Visiting La Albufera de Valencia, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Spain, the author writes, "Walking around the shoreline, stepping over heaps of garbage braided into the bulrushes, the familiar grief I know at home returns. I came to Spain to get away from my torn heart ripped open every time I see the landscapes I love ravaged, lost, and opened for development. "There are too many of us, six billion strong and rising, our collective impact on fragile communities is deadly. "No wonder El Bosco's birds torture us in Hell." Later, she recounts a wilderness rite in which she and her husband sever their marriage from Mormon orthodoxy, and exposes her heart at the moment when she realizes that she has outgrown her heritage, weeping in a crowded Salt Lake City stadium, knowing that ties no longer bind. Further on, into the personal and painterly Restoration, Williams asserts, "This is my living faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. "To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary

You need not being a devoted fan of Terry Tempest Williams or Bosch, but you must abandon all thoughts of literary "tradition" while you read this. She's breaking tradition, linear thought, and countless other rules we associate with great writing. But if you open yourself--there is pure brilliance behind those pages. Passion behind her words. Leap places a powerful grip on the reader as Williams takes you through the panels of the triptic, through her life and the life of the painting. What does it mean to surrender to your passions? An inquisitive look at at painting that will turn you inside out, take you in circles, through heaven and hell and somewhere along the way, you'll find restoration.

When do we ever take the time to stop and smell the roses, or to indulge our obsessions, or to give our inner voice the time it deserves? This author did all those things, and then went a step further in getting her observations and insights down. She's a smart and introspective writer and my mind is whirling from her journey with the painting. This is a risky book... she admits we may find her crazy, and I did at times. But being in her wild, cerebral, artistic zone was not boring or banal... this book is not a superficial beach read. It made me want to look harder and deeper at the world around me and to listen with attentive ears. Bravo! Bravo!

Terry Tempest Williams begins this book with a brief artistic description of her Mormon upbringing in Northern Utah (something I can relate with), then a confession of an obsession with a painting--a secret she had kept "for fear of seeming mad." From this point on she touched just about every emotion that I have felt in my own "Paradise" (oh the security of "knowing" that you belong to a church that has all the answers), my "Hell" (very traumatic to ask the hard questions concerning one's faith and emerge in a world of total uncertainty), my "Earthly Delights" (to find the middle ground between Heaven & Hell, good & bad, do's & don'ts; to find the present--the beauty of where I stand), and my "Restoration" (to try to piece it all together without losing the roots of who I am).T.T.W. assisted me in coming out of my hell and finding earthly delights when I first read her book "Refuge" several years ago; I have personally thanked her for this. Now she writes a book with the final chapter titled "Restoration." After reading this beautiful, rambling, amazing, disjointed, wonderful collections of words, I may seem mad in saying this, but she is inside my head. I loved this book.

Terry Tempest Williams begins this book with a brief artistic description of her Mormon upbringing in Northern Utah (something I can relate with), then a confession of an obsession with a painting, a secret she had kept "for fear of seeming mad." From this point on she touched just about every emotion that I have felt in my own "Paradise" (oh the security of "knowing" that you belong to a church that has all the answers), my "Hell" (very traumatic to ask the hard questions concerning one's faith and emerge in a world of total uncertainty), my "Earthly Delights" (to find the middle ground between Heaven & Hell, good & bad, do's & don'ts; to find the present--the beauty of where I stand), and my "Restoration" (to try to piece it all together without losing the roots of who I am).T.T.W. assisted me in coming out of my hell and finding earthly delights when I first read her book "Refuge" several years ago; I have personally thanked her for this. Now she writes a book with the final chapter titled "Restoration." After reading this beautiful, rambling, amazing, disjointed, wonderful collections of words, I may seem mad in saying this, but she is inside my head. I loved this book.