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Micaela Morris in Jo’s Heaven
By John Howard Reid
Amazon CA & UK
Micaela Morris in Jo's Heaven and Other Stories [Paperback]
This collection of gems incudes Joe’s Heaven, Wright and Wrong, Fan-Fan, Kirkhead’s Dilemma, and the initial version of Grand Illusions, a screen play titled A Plug for the Club. All these were previously published with the exception of KIinkhead’s Dilemma; and, many have won various writing contests. This book begins with the imaginative narrations of a young girl named Micaela Morris who makes appearances throughout the book.
The title story begins with on Micaela on her way to school as a young girl. Every day she passed a curious sign-post which read Jo’s Heaven which sent her imagination into warp speed. What is Jo’s Heaven? Who is Jo? She imagined all sorts of romantic variations from magic kingdoms, castles, and luxuriant valleys brimming with wild life and stony deserts cold and bare as a hermit’s heart. I have to admit I really enjoyed the author’s use of metaphors right from the beginning.
I enjoyed the poetry most in the next story called Wright and Wrong. This is a story about a poet’s return home to claim his inheritance. Right from the beginning he got caught up in a mysterious hide and seek with his siblings for ten diamonds in question. It is a mystery from beginning to end.
Think back, O hyacinth
To your days of youth
When jasmine floated in the air
Raising your petals like a I cicada’s wing
In misty, charcoaled mornings
Your dream reverberated - -
Coalesced into lemon-layered clouds
And motley sighs of creosoted goodbyes.
The third story in this collection we are reading again about Micaela. With her talent for imaginative plots, she grows into an avid writer of scripts. She writes script after script trying to get produced on television. We artists who have such high dreams must survive in the real world while waiting for all our dreams to come true . So, in the meantime Micaela is working as valet until her big break. It comes quite by accident when she is asked to write a script about her life as valet and obsessive free-lance writer. Micaela was given a dreadful 17-minutes out of a half hour show to write a script acceptable to the head honcho.
He maneuvers her into working for almost nothing writing scripts for a jerk who says when she asks for monies due, “Is that all your crazy artists think about? What wrong with plain glory? She answers “Nothing that money won’t cure. Make it a simple Agreed.” This is the best quote I’ve heard for writers in a long. We due seek plain glory when we write, but money always comes in handy.
“Mighty Moses! Greed.” Her boss spouts. Funny, sexist dynamic between her and grouchy producer.
This little book would make a great travelling companion with its many stories, fables and futuristic departures. Reading this book along the way on vacation might cushion the blow of high gas prices. I always enjoy the work of John Howard Reid especially his many absurd characters and humorous and rare slices from life and work. A Five Star gem for Amazon.com.
By Joyce White
