Rumors of the Turning Wheel

by Halley, Anne

• ISBN13: 9781558494008
• ISBN10: 1558494006
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr

Summary

The title of this powerful collection refers to the wheel of fortune. In a time long before television game shows, a wood and wire crank-driven mechanism would be set up and turned by hand at fairs and carnivals, next to the puppet-show booth, the pot and pan vendors, and the horse-drawn carousel. Country folk and children watched to see where the turning wheel would stop and if their folded paper "chance" might reveal the lucky number that won a prize.

The wheel turns more noisily, portentously, and can take on disguised or secret forms when Fortuna concerns herself with the fate of rulers and nations. Rumors of all kinds will be heard as the wheel's turnings stir the air. Rumors of war, of course, strange births, rape, the collapse of powerful houses and incestuous loves, always the rumor of impending death, sometimes a rumor of survivals and, often, one of hope for the children. These rumors were gathered on the sidelines and in the market squares during the last -- the catastrophic twentieth -- century, and they form the starting point for this memorable

Table of Contents

The Village Hears that Gold is Unstable	9	(2)
Oh a Quick Man	11	(1)
The Street of Small Porches	12	(1)
News from Another Province	13	(3)
Imagining Nothing	16	(2)
Rumors of the Turning Wheel	18	(2)
Leda as Lena	20	(3)
Leda as Lisl	23	(2)
Tyndareus to Leda, with Child	25	(1)
Leda in Plastic	26	(2)
Elsa's Story	28	(2)
Living and Dreaming with Genius	30	(4)
A Roof Over our Heads	34	(1)
Enter with Flourishes	35	(1)
My Mother's 1934 Driver's License Considered as Evidence	36	(6)
Looking for Evidence while Driving with Hope in Kingston	42	(2)
Letter at the New Year	44	(2)
The Giving of Gifts	46	(2)
Grieving for Mary	48	(1)
Rumors of War	49	(2)
A Rumor that there are Survivals	51	(1)
Our Journey to Ghent	52	(1)
On Dannenberg, in Paddelbourne, near Bleifeld	53