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The Joyful Mysteries
ET leaves a state hospital without name or address, moved by a distinct notion, or idea, or feeling, or delusion, or revelation. Her latest comes to her in a dream, wherein she is told she is with child. With two fellow hospital discharges, she follows vague perceptions that appear to be from on high, leading her to a dilapidated flop-house, where her notion is made flesh. Enter Enda, a thirteen-year-old runaway who is destined to have an audience. He observes and remembers and makes stories of what he sees and learns in a comedic career that comes to posthumous fruition.
216 pages, Paperback
Published July 31, 2020
11 people want to read
About the author
Pam Jones
9 books30 followersPam Jones was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1989 and grew up in Connecticut. She studied Creative Writing at Hampshire College and is the author of The Biggest Little Bird (Black Hill Press/1888Center, 2013), Andermatt County: Two Parables (The April Gloaming, 2018), IVY DAY (Spaceboy Books, 2019), The Joyful Mysteries (Atlatl Press, 2020), and Anointed (Spaceboy Books, 2021). Her short fiction has appeared in The Cost of Paper, Boned, and Heavy Feather Review. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 9, 2021
AJ, LC, and ET left the hospital on the same day, at the same hour.
We learn a lot about these three in Pam Jones's The Joyful Mysteries. Not their names, not where they are from, perhaps, but we learn who they are in their minds. The people they are that the world has been fighting them for their entire lives. In Catholicism, as I understand it, the Joyful Mysteries are five prayers on the rosary, telling the story of the birth of Christ. I am not a person of faith, so these are mysteries to me as well. But I think we may be seeing something of a passion play, here. A series of births, discoveries, rebirths, and deaths through which our characters, who all struggle deeply with mental illness, find some sort of salvation. I have been following Jones for a time, and each of her novels are challenging and beautiful. I look forward to the next one.
We learn a lot about these three in Pam Jones's The Joyful Mysteries. Not their names, not where they are from, perhaps, but we learn who they are in their minds. The people they are that the world has been fighting them for their entire lives. In Catholicism, as I understand it, the Joyful Mysteries are five prayers on the rosary, telling the story of the birth of Christ. I am not a person of faith, so these are mysteries to me as well. But I think we may be seeing something of a passion play, here. A series of births, discoveries, rebirths, and deaths through which our characters, who all struggle deeply with mental illness, find some sort of salvation. I have been following Jones for a time, and each of her novels are challenging and beautiful. I look forward to the next one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review