I read Jill McCorkle because to read her is to be connected to life. The real stuff, the plodding and sorting and trying to make sense, and the random buried jewels revelatory and epiphanic in their universal wisdom. ( )

I received this book from LTER over a year ago. I have started to read it numerous times only to put it away. Just couldn’t get into it and had a hard time following it. I finally finished it. Multiple time frames and four narrators. It felt muddled and confusing. I have liked prior books by this author, but this one never connected. ( )

Jumbled And Disjointed, Yet Somehow Works. This is one of those books that arguably *shouldn't* work, given how truly disjointed it is with its time period and character jumps, and yet as more of a meditation/ reflective work on life and death, it really does actually work. As we work through the various streams of consciousness of Fred, Lil, Shelley, and Harvey, we see each of their lives through their own eyes as they struggle with past, present, life, and death. We see the traumas large and small, the regrets and the victories, the confusions and the joys. Admittedly, the particular writing style will be hard to follow for some, and even I found it quite jarring despite my own abilities to largely go with any flow of a book. But in the end it really does work to tell a cohesive yet complex story, and really that is all anyone can ultimately ask of a fiction tale. Thus, there is nothing of the quasi-objective nature that I try to maintain to hang any star reduction on, even as many readers may struggle with this tale. And thus, it is very much recommended. ( )

The story of Hieroglyphics by Jill McCorkle is like a memory. It entices and draws in with a glimmer here and a shape there only to slip away into the unknown. The idea of the book is very real and very much a part of every person's experience. That being said, as a story, the book is challenging to read because the struggles are individual and do not really come together. The idea is unifying; the fiction is not.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/05/heiroglyphics.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour. ( )