Local Book Reviews

Debra Jo Immergut

You Again

ECCO PRESS

The em-dash is by far my favorite punctuation. It’s useful as a break, a pivot point: It comes in handy often at Little Village, as we believe ellipses should only indicate removed material. The casual “pause ellipses” that pepper social media are a no-go in our stories and interviews, so that elapsed time, that silent space, that trailing off has only one true portrayer: the em-dash.

With any writing element that I adore, I am hyper-sensitive to its overuse (I learned my lesson breaking my tragic eighth grade comma addiction). So in the beginning of Debra Jo Immergut’s You Again, I bristled. Why use a distinctive em-dash where a simpler comma would do, I thought. And, well, that one’s flat wrong, I’m almost certain!

I was wrong. As I sunk deeper into the experience of the novel, it became clear that the Iowa Writers’ Workshop grad’s use was precise, as much thematic as functional. I imagine her fighting with a blindered editor like me to retain each one. You Again is fundamentally concerned with breaks, pivot points and especially elapsed time, in a way that justifies every use. Even— especially—where it feels wrong.

Immergut’s taut thriller follows the story of Abby Willard, a 46-year-old wife and mother of two who is squandering her early art school promise doing graphic design for pharmaceuticals. Spotting (and later interacting with) her early 20s self sets her down a year-long spiral of self-doubt that pulls in familiar threads of many mid-40s women’s stories: rekindled friendships, creative parenting choices, marriage hurdles, reexamined life decisions.

But woven throughout, bringing a broad smile to my face the first time it appeared, are the reflections and communication of two scientists and a police officer, trying to piece together the details of Abby’s story from the vantage point of the following year. It’s a masterful use of a common trope, allowing past, present and future to converge in a way that echoes Richard Powers while steadfastly holding its place in the world of speculative fiction.

The key to Immergut’s success is her descriptive strokes. Every scene is awash in detail; when artist Abby dwells on a coworker’s comment, “Color is your competency,” it’s clear that’s true of Immergut as well. But Immergut is also a master of the principle of Chekov’s gun. Nothing set up is thrown away. And every time you come across one of those moments of realization, you find your mind skipping back, wondering what other hints and clues she left along the way.

Time collapses on itself in subtle and overt ways throughout You Again. “THE PAST IS PRESENT,” a sign reads at an antifa rally late in the story. “New York City is full of ghosts,” reads a work log entry from the physicist. “For anyone who’s ever lived here, this place is a haunted battlefield.” At a bar she frequented in her youth, Abby notes the juxtaposition of the young, posh clientele against the place, “so the bar’s crust and gloom had the faux quality of a historical re-creation.”

There is an em-dash between Abby’s 46- and 22-year-old selves, a time lapse, a ghost. The way that Immergut unravels that silent space is riveting. There’s not much more that can be told without spoilers, but trust me: Sit with any discomfort any of it may bring you. The payoff is worth it.

Thomas M. Cook and Olayinka O. adegbehingbe, illustrated by Jo Myers-Walker

Lucky’s Feet

CLUBFOOT SOLUTIONS, INC.

In the 1950s, the University of Iowa was the setting for groundbreaking work being done on the condition of clubfoot, a congenital deformity which causes an infant’s foot or feet to turn inward. When left untreated, the condition—which affects one in every thousand births, the vast majority of which are in developing countries—can make walking incredibly difficult and painful.

Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, a SpanishAmerican physician and faculty member at the UI, developed a method that has become one of the predominant treatments for clubfoot. The Ponseti Method is both nonsurgical and less expensive than other methods, which made it a boon for patients in countries that lacked resources.

In the 2019 book Clubfoot, locally published by Ice Cube Press, Thomas M. Cook, PT, Ph.D., a senior advisor to the Ponseti International Association and also a UI professor emeritus, explored Ponseti’s history and work. But the condition of clubfoot is most commonly treated in young children. So it seems inevitable that Cook published a companion to that history last year: Lucky’s Feet, a children’s book that takes a personal look at one boy’s experience with clubfoot and the Ponseti Method.

Lucky’s Feet comes out of the Coralville-based nonprofit Clubfoot Solutions, Inc., and was printed locally, too, at Tru Art Color Graphics in Iowa City (full disclosure: I also work for TACG’s sister company, Bankers Advertising). It’s a slim paperback lush with the beautiful watercolor illustrations of Iowa artist Jo Myers-Walker—a deeply Iowan effort from start to finish.

But it also benefits from Cook’s co-author, Olayinka O. Adegbehingbe, MD, a Ponseti mentee who heads the Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology department at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Nigeria. It was Adegbehingbe who treated the deformities of the book’s protagonist, a young boy given the nickname As’ad, or “Lucky,” by his sister after undergoing the Ponseti Method to correct his clubfoot at age 8.

The book is told first person from Lucky’s perspective (although it is only based on his story, admitting to creative liberties taken). It covers the challenges of being born with a deformity in a developing country, where he was viewed as a burden to his family because of his inability to contribute.

He ends up living with his grandmother, who both cares for him and oversees his treatment. It details, accessibly, at a child’s level, the process of the Ponseti Method: the series of casts, changed weekly, that slowly adjust the direction of Lucky’s feet and enable him to walk again. It’s a warm, joyful story with end materials for parents that briefly go deeper into the method and Ponseti, and point to further resources.

Myers-Walker’s illustrations are the heavy hitters of Lucky’s Feet. The gorgeous colors bring Lucky’s landscape to life, and the tender treatment of the clubfoot condition reveal a generous and gentle approach. Altogether, it’s a sweet and simple book, perfect for older siblings of infants undergoing clubfoot treatment or for teachers looking to bring diverse personal stories into the classroom. —Genevieve Trainor