Skywater - Hardcover

Melinda Worth Popham was the first winner of the Edward Abbey Ecofiction Award and the recipient of an NEA grant. Skywater was named an American Library Association “Notable Book.” The California State Senate honored her “outstanding literary achievement advocating environmental conservation, preservation and enhancement.” Skywater is her second novel. Her forthcoming memoir Grace Period is based on life events that led her to Yale Divinity School. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, she raised her family in Malibu, California, and currently lives in Los Angeles.
 

Popham's second novel examines that much misunderstood breed, the coyote, and its desolate yet enchanting habitat. After the water sources in their home terrain have become contaminated, a motley crew of coyotes led by "Brand X" journey to find Skywater (the ocean), only to discover that it is undrinkable. The main human characters are an elderly couple distraught because they must now turn away the coyotes from their contaminated water tank. Some of the prose is quite beautiful, as hot and arid as the terrain being described; yet the novel is hampered by its central "voice," or point of view--that of the coyotes themselves. This highly anthropomorphized perspective is less than convincing; the thoughts and reasoning of the coyotes often seem more like those of concerned environmentalists than wild desert creatures. The author's message is well taken, so it is unfortunate that she chose such an awkward and unworkable "vehicle" to carry it forth.
- Jessica Grim, Univ. of California Lib., Berkeley
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