Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright's As It Is On Earth
Lenox Born Author's Debut Novel
By: Johnnycake - 09/13/2012
Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright’s first novel is As It Is On Earth.
Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright, a former dean (now associate professor) in the School of Architecture at Parsons The New School for Design , has published his first novel, As It Is On Earth.
The author grew up in Lenox, MA. Wheelwright and his wife, the photographer Eliza Hicks, have a home in Columbia County, N.Y.
In his debut novel As It Is On Earth (Fomite Press, 306 pages, eBook original and Trade paper (POD), $ 15.95, September 15, 2012, isbn: 978-1-937677-18-3) Wheelwright introduces us to Taylor Thatcher, the irreverent scion of a fallen family of Maine Puritans, attempting to chart his own course away from the entanglements of his family over seven days leading up to Columbus Day, and the end of the Millenium, 1999.
In his errant efforts to escape from history, the young college professor is further unsettled by growing attraction to an Israeli student, Miryam Bluehm. He is swept by Time through the "family thing" from the tangled genetic and religious history of his New England parents, to the redemptive birthday secret of Esther Fleur Noire Bishop, a Cajun-Passamaquoddy. She raised him and his younger, half-cousin/half-brother, Bingham.
The landscapes, rivers, and tidal estuaries of Old New England and the Mayan Yucatan are also casualties of history in Thatcher's story of Deep Time and his re-discovery of family on Columbus Day at a high-stakes Pequot Indian Tribe gambling casino.
As It Is On Earth is rich in detail and character, with a superb sense of place.
There will be a reception and reading to celebrate the publication of Wheelwright's debut novel As It Is On Earth on Saturday, September 22nd, from 4-6 p.m., at Johnnycake Books, 12 Academy Street, Salisbury, CT 06068. Phone: 860-435-667