Scan barcode
A review by suzannemseidel
The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
5.0
Do you ever love a book so much that when it's over you just cry a bit? I do, and I did this morning when I finished The Coal Tattoo. When I look at the individual pieces of the story it looks like something I wouldn't enjoy. The story leaps over periods of time - one scene he is proposing to her, the next scene, it is the day after their wedding. The main characters have really odd (and in my opinion, terrible) names that are never explained - Anneth and Easter. I would really like to know the story behind those names. And there is no real happy ending. One of the sisters ends by making the same mistake for the third time since we've known her. Another ends by settling - one could say, also for the third time.
But despite all of these aspects that would usually leave me glad a book was over, rather than moved to tears, The Coal Tattoos is a beautiful story. I think what makes it so beautiful is that it is beautiful despite all of my hangups. The story is beautiful because it skips and jumps through this family's life, showing us years and years, rather than just a few days, weeks, or months. The story is beautiful because we get to really know Anneth and Easter, know them well, so that we almost foresee Anneth's final mistake and Easter's finally settling.
Even more than all that, the story is beautiful because of what it says about life and all of us. We are all beautiful despite our hangups and imperfections. As Easter says, "A truly good face had to have some imperfections to even it all out." The same is true about stories. And, I believe, about lives.
The Coal Tattoo shows us that life can be beautiful and meaningful and moving despite the sadness that at times consumes us, despite the loss and death and grief we bear, despite the mistakes we make that we can't take back and the mistakes made against us that we have to forgive. Life can be wonderful even if we stay in one place. Life can be great despite the men tearing up the earth and women tearing up each other and themselves, despite war. Life can be full despite the things we wanted that we never get and the people we wanted to be that we never could reach. With all of its imperfections, life can still be beautiful, even magical.
But despite all of these aspects that would usually leave me glad a book was over, rather than moved to tears, The Coal Tattoos is a beautiful story. I think what makes it so beautiful is that it is beautiful despite all of my hangups. The story is beautiful because it skips and jumps through this family's life, showing us years and years, rather than just a few days, weeks, or months. The story is beautiful because we get to really know Anneth and Easter, know them well, so that we almost foresee Anneth's final mistake and Easter's finally settling.
Even more than all that, the story is beautiful because of what it says about life and all of us. We are all beautiful despite our hangups and imperfections. As Easter says, "A truly good face had to have some imperfections to even it all out." The same is true about stories. And, I believe, about lives.
The Coal Tattoo shows us that life can be beautiful and meaningful and moving despite the sadness that at times consumes us, despite the loss and death and grief we bear, despite the mistakes we make that we can't take back and the mistakes made against us that we have to forgive. Life can be wonderful even if we stay in one place. Life can be great despite the men tearing up the earth and women tearing up each other and themselves, despite war. Life can be full despite the things we wanted that we never get and the people we wanted to be that we never could reach. With all of its imperfections, life can still be beautiful, even magical.