According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of the Oregon Historical Society "Writer Brian Doyle explored the spirit of Oregon’s small towns and the wonders of the world. Describing himself as “a story catcher,” he wrote about spirituality, family, nature, place, wine, and the human heart with a distinctive playful style and zest.”
The excerpt below is from his book Martin Marten (2010) and describes the stories belonging to Miss Moss one of the book’s characters. We love the way he talks about stories, how they change and how they get told.
“A great deal of who she really is are stories we do not know, stories she may or may not share, stories perhaps even she does not know the meaning and shape of quite yet. People are stories, aren’t they? And their stories keep changing and opening and closing and braiding and weaving and stitching and slamming to a halt and finding new doors and windows through which to tell themselves, isn’t that so? Isn’t that what happens to you all the time? It used to be when you were little that other people told you stories about yourself and where you came from, but then you began to tell your own story, and you find that your story keeps changing in thrilling and painful ways, and it’s never in one place. Maybe each of us is a sort of village, with lots of different beings living together under one head of hair, around the river of your pulse, the crossroads of who you were and who you wish to be.”
Chapter 38, Location 2018 - Kindle version.
Martin Marten, Brain Doyle, St. Martin’s Press, 2015
We’re working our way through his writings and have enjoyed every one so far.