This is KLCC. I’m Connie Bennett with a book review of “Weather Woman” by Cai Emmons.
I absolutely adored Eugene novelist Cai Emmon’s enchanting new book, “Weather Woman,” from the independent publisher, Red Hen Press. The protagonist is Bronwyn Artair, an attractive and intelligent young woman, who – like most of us – is searching for herself and her role in the world. At the beginning of the book, Bronwyn seems to have overcome a tough childhood to have it all: a coveted place in a doctoral program at MIT, and an Ivy League attorney fiancé. But plagued by self-doubt and tormented by her male colleagues, Bronwyn drops out of academia to become a TV weather-girl at a small New Hampshire station, only to be dumped by her boyfriend on her thirtieth birthday. As she reels from these crises, Bronwyn makes a startling discovery: she’s able to control the weather.
In this eco-feminist fable, Emmons explores themes that resonate for us in today’s world: global warming, gender power struggles, the role of the media, the importance of community. Her writing style is literary, rich and evocative, with a lush plethora of adjectives creating a vivid sense of place – ranging from Bronwyn’s simple New Hampshire cabin to the permafrost at the edge of the Laptev Sea, in northern Siberia. She develops nuanced and complex relationships, most notably those between Bronwyn and her scientist mentor, Diane, as well as Bronwyn’s potential new love interest, Matt, a tabloid journalist.
Though clearly immersed in a thoughtful concern for our world, “Weather Woman” finds exactly the right balance by tipping towards the individual human concerns and passions that make a compelling story. Recommended.
This is KLCC. I’m Connie Bennett, reviewing “Weather Woman” by Cai Emmons.
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Eugene area Weather Woman 2018 reading/event schedule:
*Sunday, Oct. 14—publication party, open to the public, OCT 5-7 pm
*Wednesday, Oct. 17—4:30 pm, reading at UO Knight Browsing Room
*Friday, Nov. 9—5:00, reading at J. Michael’s