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PERSEPHONE: Prologue
 Once upon a time what is now Nebraska was a place of legend and ancient myth where golden cities ruled. Many Spanish expeditions came up from Mexico to pilfer these riches. No less than Coronado made more than one such journey here. Some say he was the first white man to discover what is present day Nebraska. Of course instead of ‘golden bells hanging from trees’—what the clever Indians wanted the Spanish to believe so they’d leave their land in the south—what he found of course was tall rich grassy plains stretching forever, undulating with low extremely fertile hills with only an occasional bluff to sharpen the vertical plane of the horizon.
Like Coronado’s persistent dream of gold, the towns in this fable don’t exist. There is no Respite, Witherspoon or Bentley Nebraska. All have only a mythical presence.
The time could be early 21st century. Though a strong case could be made that it’s more likely the 19th or early 20th century—or even much, much earlier since humans live simultaneously in so many different time warps of experience.
It’s normally believed that time belongs to clocks since that technology harnessed us to profitable business, as well as to its proudly anti-spiritual philosophy—i.e. ‘time is money’. This ambivalent arrangement makes modern human society operationally atheistic while still religiously believing in God. Money worships only itself—the perfect caricature of the worst, most destructive love.
In spite of clock’s turning a blind eye to modern physics, time bends not only in quantum terms but also in human evolutionary terms. It spreads out over at least 5000 years of human history all going on simultaneously among the living usually in different locations and cultures, though sometimes within the same town. All of which makes time and place more fictional than we care to admit. But then again fiction is where vision begins.
The fabled story of this book revisits the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who is abandoned and betrayed by God (Zeus), given to Hades and held prisoner there as her mother searches for her. In this particular story Demeter is a man Henry Harrow and his daughter each of whom, like the goddess Demeter are seriously searching. Will Persephone be rescued? Is fate changeable?
The beginning of everyone’s life is a fable. But that innocent experience lasts only for about twelve years, the scant time that nature gives us to be spontaneously innocent and utterly flexible…before the onslaught of nature’s chemical commands and its historical, cultural and scientifically factual demands.
WHAT READERS SAY...
“Persephone is storytelling at its best. Fenn makes this fable believably real, crafting an original, deft and remarkable tale. He blends myth with revealing psychological insights about the conflicting desires and difficulties of small town life. He offers a glimpse of strange happenings in Respite, Nebraska—are the sisters really witches? Have they put a spell on the community? Fantasy melts into mystery. Intriguing, compelling ideas to be read at the speed of light.”
—Peter Robinson, San Francisco Books & Travel
“I really enjoyed the philosophical trip to the mythical town of Respite and found that the intrigue between the characters has a ring of political astuteness. As a story I wanted to find out what happened. I completed the book in two short readings, so I don’t hesitate in recommending it to a friend.”
—Carol Goodman, San Francisco Literary Society
copyright© 2007, 2008 Don Fenn. All rights reserved.
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