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A Tragic
Life Begins in a Depression-era Small Town
The Frederick News Post, June 13, 2002 by Karen Gardner
Allison
Pollack Alexander lives and writes in a small cabin near Mount
Airy. It's a peaceful life, in a peaceful setting, but it
hasn't always been that way.
Ms. Alexander
has written a book, "Return to Suicide," that is
not meant to be as uplifting as her surroundings. It was published
this year by AmErica House.
"It's
not a happy story," she said. The book is only a little
more than 100 pages. It chronicles the life of a little girl
who lives in the scrubby little town of Suicide, Okla., during
the Depression.
She wrote
the book after seeing a picture of a little girl working the
fields in Oklahoma during the Depression. "That picture
has haunted me since I was 8," she said. Ms. Alexander
has had a rather chaotic life herself since her childhood.
She began
writing short stories at 9, but at 15 ran away from home and
hitchhiked across the country. At 17, she joined the Children
of God, a religious organization that has been labeled a cult
in some circles. Ms. Alexander would agree. She spent 12 years
in the group, mostly in Asia and Latin America.
Her experience
wasn't entirely negative. She was 17 when she joined and 26
when she left. In that time, she married and had four children.
Although she had written stories since she was 9, she destroyed
everything when she joined the group. "When I came out
I was like a blank slate," she said. "I wouldn't
write for five years."
Now 39,
she said it's nice to be able to write again. "You lose
your identity and you don't realize it until later,"
she said. "It was a great experience if you can get beyond
the brainwashing. Living communally has its good points."
She is
much more independent now, and learned that while in the church.
She and her husband, now divorced, left the group because
they wanted their children to express themselves.
Ms. Alexander
has spent five years expressing herself through her writings.
The book "Return to Suicide" is a tragedy, but not
necessarily a sad book. "I just like real life,"
she said. "Life isn't all rosy and sunny."
The story
has symbols, including a train. It has sympathetic characters
and unlikeable characters. It has murder and suicide, as the
title indicates. "I still think I'm a positive person,"
she said.
She has
written two other novellas, as she calls them. All three are
under 150 pages. One is about a girl who finds the Renaissance-era
diary of a girl fleeing marauders. The other is about a man
who has an affair with a woman, and what happens to his children
as they learn of his liaison. The book spans his life from
his mid-40s to his early 60s. "It's my favorite,"
she said. "It's a story about relationships."
She often
gets her inspiration in a cornfield near her home. Two of
her children, her 14-year-old daughter and one of her 18-year-old
twin boys, live with her in Mount Airy. Her 20-year-old son
and the other 18-year-old live with their father in Beijing,
where they settled after leaving Children of God.
Her second
book, "Dance of the Misbegotten," will be available
in August. She took part in a weekend book signing, known
as Emerging Literary Voices 2002, at a small, independent
bookstore in Pittsburgh. She also took part in a women's conference
on books at Borders Books and Music in Hagerstown in April.
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