Palms Are Not Trees After All: A Novella

by Tara Deal

Arriving at an island resort, Scott and Kate make the acquaintance of an older couple, the Griffins, already tanning on the beach. When Scott agrees to do the Griffins a favor, he sets in motion a series of encounters and dilemmas—both between the two couples and within them. Scott believes it will be an adventure; Kate doesn't like the sound of it. There's something mysterious about the situation. Everyone's language hides secrets. Relying on the rhythms of poetry, Palms Are Not Trees After All is a story about exploration and accommodation, about deciding which stories travel, which to tell.

100 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2008

About the author

Tara Deal is a New York writer of fiction, free verse, and urban fragments. Her forthcoming novella, Life / Insurance, won the 2022 Fugere Book Prize from Regal House. She is also the author of the award-winning novellas That Night Alive (Miami University Press) and Palms Are Not Trees After All (Texas Review Press).

Find her online at www.taradeal.com.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began writing this slim book ten years ago, with the idea of reimagining The Stranger by Camus (that’s why the action begins on a beach). I wanted to bring his brand of “happy existentialism” up to date, to make it relevant for myself. Also, thinking of Gertrude Stein, I decided to cling to words as things, to let the word choice and rhythms determine the story. I wanted to tell a story in which all choices are equal, in which communication is always partial. Every speaker, like every reader, must fend for himself and fill in the gaps. Which doesn’t mean that, in the end, the whole experience won’t be meaningful and wonderful: who can say?

Other inspirations for this book included The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Westcott, The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, and The Necessary Angel by Wallace Stevens.

To read the first chapter, visit the Books section of my website. Or download a free sample for your Kindle at Amazon. (Or a free sample for your iPad at the iBookstore.)

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows the relationship of Scott and Kate, a young couple who meets an older couple, the Griffins, while on vacation. The Griffins are very mysterious and ask Scott and Kate to do them a favor.

The book is written in a unique, poetic style that I enjoyed although I found the lack of quotation marks confusing at times. However, the narration is very detached and I found it hard to care much about any of the characters or what happened to them.

[Juli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't like this type of writing where the 'voice' of the book sounds like a third party totally unaffected by the events and disengaged emotionally from the characters and the story. But, strangely enough, the story works because of this third party. The book is a bit haunting, moody and suspenseful and the best thing is that you can't second guess as to what will happen next.

Depending on where the reader is in their stage of life, the story can take on a multitude of meanings. As a more 'mature' student of life, I read it to mean that all things are truly not as they seem (as in the title). I also saw that the older couple who Scott and Kate meet are their future selves, a future reflection...

If you are a student of Zen Buddhism, you will see that their lives are unfolding by the natural forces of cause and effect. If you are a student of existentialism, you will believe that Scott and Kate brought it upon themselves by their choices yet are hapless pawns in an unpredictable world. If you are a student of...well, you get the idea, the story takes on different viewpoints and meanings depending on your own frame of reference. Quite refreshing since most stories are so horribly editorialized that you can't help but see only the writer's point of view.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't see one of these stories very often. A scattering of detail, conversations that happen, or not, like spiraling into a found shell to find what's finally in the center. You get a picture of a couple, or two, exploring the eternal questions that couples try to answer in order to become, or stay a couple.

Beautifully written in a tight style that explores the ambiguity of putting thoughts into words, wryly examined through the characters' relationship to their own written materials. Echoes of the classics of modern English literature make this a must-read for lovers of literary fiction.