cover image Teaching Maggie: Letters on Life, Writing, and the Virtues of Solid Food

Teaching Maggie: Letters on Life, Writing, and the Virtues of Solid Food

Lee Reilly. Ruminator Books, $23 (221pp) ISBN 978-1-886913-36-3

After witnessing the birth of her goddaughter--the child of the woman who was her Stanford roommate in the early 1970s--Reilly immediately began to write the letters in this collection, which span Maggie's first three years of life. Having earned a master's degree in literature (which she deems one of her ""worst mistakes in life""), Reilly conveys the balanced vision of a wise, well-read Midwestern woman at midlife in lovely prose inflected with literary allusions and her liberal politics. Clearly intended to be read by a much-older Maggie, Reilly's musings attempt to ""explain, describe, debunk, decry, and celebrate"" the world the child has so recently entered. Food, sleep, religion, holiday traditions, rebellion, taxes, fame, feminism and insects are treated with good sense and good humor. Tackling some stickier issues, Reilly attempts to explain the difference between Democrats and Republicans, and between ""family values"" and ""valuing families,"" revealing her insights as well as her honest annoyance and confusion over the terms. She laments ""the decline of thinking,"" and describes the writing life (which she does not recommend). Despite her promise not to advise, she does aim to influence; on ""critical moral issues,"" Reilly offers a particularly lucid description of gradations of wrongdoing and their correct responses. In two entries that Maggie may one day find the most interesting and valuable of all, Reilly writes about the child's mother and grandfather as she personally knows them. Although Reilly's voice is pleasant and her insights are thoughtful, this volume ends abruptly, with Maggie still so young that it feels incomplete, begging future installments. (June)