A Beautiful, Harrowing, Sometimes Tender Story

    Four lonely women desperately wanting love are at the center of Lee Martin’s beautiful, harrowing, sometimes tender BREAK THE SKIN.  How far would someone go to find and keep what she’s always wanted?

    We begin to discover an answer to that question  in the words of a shy high school drop-out who describes herself as “Little Laney Volk, as ordinary as bread from the wrapper, nothing to take note of at all unless, that is, you could get her to sing....”    She does have an off again - on again boyfriend, Lester Stipp, a strange little fellow who always wears a derby hat.

    Alone and uncertain Laney works at Wal-Mart where she meets Delilah Dade, a woman twice her age who invites Laney to share her trailer home.  Laney believes, almost imagines that Delilah is the sister she never had.  The third occupant of the trailer is Rose MacAdow who is a bit dark, sinister, if you will.

    There’s not a great deal to do in Mt. Gilead, Illinois, so it’s a big night when the trio dresses to go to a local hangout.  There they see a musician called Tweet whom both Rose and Delilah want.  Two women after the same man can ruin any friendship and it certainly wrecks this one.  Before long Delilah feels Rose is casting some sort of spell on her, so with the help of Laney and Lester she takes matters into her own hands.

    Quite suddenly the action shifts from snowy Illinois to September, 2009 in steamy Denton Texas, and the voice of tattoo artist Betty Ruiz, “... but most folks know me as Miss Baby, owner of Babyheart’s Tats right here on Fry.  You want barbed wire on your biceps?  A rose on your ankle?”  She, too, yearns for true love.      

    Then outside her shop she sees a man wearing a Derby hat who seems a bit  lost.  He claims not know who he is or how he came to be there, but she believes that this meeting was meant to be.  She gives Lester Stipp a name and takes him in telling others that he is her husband.  Is he lying, running from his past or has he really lost his memory?

    A finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize Martin has crafted an astonishing tale of small town life, desperation, and errors in judgment.  He makes ordinary people rather extraordinary and treats those whose lives unravel, in large part due to their mistakes, with what could be called tenderness.  He’s an extremely fine, insightful  writer - BREAK THE SKIN is not to be missed.

    - Gail Cooke