Late Migrations (Renkl)

Late Migations:  A Natural History of Love and Loss
Margaret Renkl, 2019
Milkweed Books
248 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781571313782


Summary
An unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world.

Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter.

Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.

And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees.

As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—"the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin."

Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.  (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
Margaret Renkl is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly. Her work has also appeared in Guernica, Literary Hub, Proximity, and River Teeth, among others.

Renkl was the founding editor of Chapter 16, the daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee, and is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina. She lives in Nashville. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Ms. Renkl crafts graceful sentences that E.B. White would surely have enjoyed.…. We’re left to wonder what drives Ms. Renkl’s fears… [and we] wish… that Ms. Renkl would more fully explore the implications of such disclosures, but Late Migrations treats them only glancingly. Her narrative… patchwork sensibility seems meant to convey the crazy-quilt texture of personal memory, recollection rarely moving in clear sequence…. A liberating lyricism informs [the illustrations]…. [Renkl's] prose often sings…. [It's the] border between lightness and dark is where Ms. Renkl seems most inspired.
Wall Street Journal


This warm, rich memoir might be the sleeper of the summer. [Renkl] grew up in the South, nursed her aging parents, and never once lost her love for life, light, and the natural world. Beautiful is the word, beautiful all the way through.
Philadelphia Inquirer


[A] perfect book to read in the summer.… This is the kind of writing that makes me just want to stay put, reread and savor everything about that moment… a vivid and original essay collection.
Maureen Corrigan - Fresh Air


Magnificent…. Conjure your favorite place in the natural world: beach, mountain, lake, forest, porch, windowsill rooftop? Precisely there is the best place in which to savor this book.
NPR.org


Late Migrations has echoes of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life—with grandparents, sons, dogs and birds sharing the spotlight, it's a witty, warm and unaccountably soothing all-American story.
People


[Renkl] guides us through a South lush with bluebirds, pecan orchards, and glasses of whiskey shared at dusk in this collection of prose in poetry-size bits; as it celebrates bounty, it also mourns the profound losses we face every day.
Oprah Magazine


A lovely collection of essays about life, nature, and family. It will make you laugh, cry—and breathe more deeply.
Parade Magazine


(Starred review) [A] magnificent debut… poetic…. Renkl instructs that even amid life’s most devastating moments, there are reasons for hope and celebration…. Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.
Publishers Weekly


A captivating, beautifully written story of growing up, love, loss, living, and a close extended family by a talented nature writer and memoirist that will appeal to those who enjoy introspective memoirs and the natural world close to home. —Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL
Library Journal


[Late Migrations] is shot through with deep wonder and a profound sense of loss. It is a fine feat, this book. Renkl intimately knows that "this life thrives on death" and chooses to sing the glory of being alive all the same.
Booklist


Lyrical…. [T]he strength of [Renkl's] narrative is in the descriptions of nature in all its glory and cruelty; she vividly captures "the splendor of decay." Interspersed with the chapters are appealing nature illustrations…. A series of redolent snapshots and memories that seem to halt time.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a conversation for LATE MIGRATIONS … then take off on your own:

1. Margaret Renkl writes "[A]ll my life I've turned to woodland paths when the world is too much with me." Does the natural world have a similar affect on you? Do you find solace in nature? In other places? Where do you find comfort when you need it?

2. Although she is a nature writer, Renkl says that she is not a scientist. In fact, she posits that scientific ignorance can be a good thing in that it leads to astonishment. What does she mean? Do you agree that astonishment is a beneficial outcome of scientific ignorance? If you yourself are scientifically knowledgeable, do you lack the ability for awe?

3. The narrative in Late Migrations is studded with stories of Renkl's life. Did you enjoy those episodes, feeling they enhanced the book? Or did you find them interruptive and distracting?

4. Talk about Renkl's childhood family, especially her parents and grandmother. What did you most appreciate about her descriptions each? Do her relationships remind you of your familial connections?

5. Renkl, who nursed both her parents until their deaths, and who also lost her husband, is intimately familiar with personal loss. She says of grief that "this talk of making peace with it," all the talk of "finding a way through, [of] closure. It's all nonsense." What do you think? How have you handled deep, aching grief in your own life? Have you found "a way through"?

6. The author juxtaposes observations of the natural world with family history—as if to remind us that we, too, are biological creatures and that we are shaped by forces beyond our control. What other life lessons does Renkl draw from nature? Do you relate to Renkl's understanding of humanity's position and our role in the natural world? What are the implications of that understanding?

7. Renkl sees in nature "the splendor of decay" and observes that "this life thrives on death." What does she mean? Why, say, is decay filled with "splendor"?

8. Is this a religious or spiritual work? One or the other? Both?

9. Which depictions of the nature world particularly intrigued you: say, the lily pads, dive-bombing blue jays, pecan orchards, thunderstorms? What analogies does she draw between the natural world and we humans. What parallels do you draw? How, for instance does she view creatures' "aggressive territorialism"?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)