Inner Passage

This collection introduces the reader to an array of characters from the Midwest Pacific Northwest California and the South whose lives lead them toward truths they ignore resist and explore — sometimes all at the same time.. Often more is revealed about the characters by the things they don’t say than by the things they do. Many are painfully naïve as to their own nature.. Lee’s clean unembellished and razor-sharp prose provides the perfect vehicle for this astutely observed and often wryly humorous examination of human nature and the choices people make within the inner passages of their own minds.Marlene Lee's collection Inner Passage takes readers on a journey from Sacramento to Missoula to New York where we meet characters in a motel or hotel a diner a motor home a truck stop. Written in prose as windswept clean as the roads her characters travel these are dogged savvy people you know and you don't know; and in the end we have a loving portrait of classic America at its best. The verve found in each of these stories is the ultimate satisfying throughline.- Jocelyn Cullity author The Envy of ParadiseEach story provides a passage into the shadows of human existence where the characters navigate love loss grief fear abandonment anxiety physical disabilities misunderstandings and longings. The reader can't help but be swept up in the interpersonal conflicts and existential dilemmas. If you cross the dark threshold into these stories be sure to bring a flashlight.- Barbara Harris Leonhard author Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir