Saturday, June 30, 2018

Santa Cruz Noir, blogging the book. Day 8, "Mischa and the Seal" by Liza Monroy

(To learn more about my "blogging the book" challenge to myself, go HERE.)


I had to give a wry smile of recognition when I read this passage of Liza Monroy's story of Mischa, a graduate student in marine biology who has dropped out and become kind of a surf bum. I am pretty sure Mischa's mother is not the first mother who has entertained these thoughts when visiting her child in Santa Cruz, nor will she be the last.

On Mischa's mother's final visit, she'd entered a repetitive loop of conversation blaming Santa Cruz for her daughter's loss of ambition. The small seaside city was a land of lotus-eaters and it sucked her in. The place was an opiate. The Mediterranean weather, perpetual sunshine, glare of light on the bay beneath the cliffs. How did anyone ever get anything done here, or leave to go anywhere else?

Indeed. All is not quite what it seems here, however. This is one story which definitely benefits from being read twice.

Audible sample of Liza Monroy's "Mischa and the Seal" can be found HERE




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