A Beautiful Yet Haunting and Tragic Portrayal of Motherhood

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Elsewhere takes place in an unknown, damp, foggy mountain village where strangers are rare yet sometimes welcomed for a short stay, but ultimately driven out by villagers in protection of their ways, ideas, traditions. The time period is ambiguous as some indications seem from "pioneer days"-- weaving baskets, orchard fruit harvesting, all women wear hair braids and often wore dresses with heavy boots, the town has a tannery and everything has to be ordered and delivered from Elsewhere. Other indications point to a more modern setting, such as a camera shop (with instant film cameras), aerobics in the park, cut-off shorts. One of the traditions is known as "the affliction", as their women become mothers, if they misstep by loving too much or not enough or by paying too much attention to their children or not enough, they may be come overcome by the affliction and "disappear" into nothingness. Everyone accepts this a possibility and since there is no explanation everyone is on the lookout for "signs" that it may occur. Everyone watches everyone else very closely and mothers judge other mothers, however they are their own harshest critics when they judge themselves, second guessing every moment of their mothering. This societal and self judgement will be very familiar to the reader's who are mothers, as will be the description of how when they devote themselves fully to their offspring, they slowly lose their own identity, piece by piece until they fade into the mist. The writing was descriptive and beautiful. I do wish a few things would have been explained a bit more fully (the fruit, the silver pins, the dirt eating) and the ending seemed a bit abrupt, without a clear direction for hope or guidance for future mothers with this "affliction".