Willma Willis Gore

Rather than muse about the clichés of new years and fresh starts, I decided to begin 2013 on Jellyfish Day with a book review and interview. Willma Willis Gore is a special lady, both for her incisive writing and determination, but also for her age – she celebrated her ninetieth (90!) birthday in 2012! How many nonagenarians do you know who are active writers, or active writers who are nonagenarians?

Gore is the author of 2000 articles published in 80 periodicals, 19 children’s books, two novels, including the recent Braving House Calls (CreateSpace 2012), two how-to books (Linden Books, 2002 & 2007), and a newspaper column. She continues to give solace and support to Sedona, Arizona area writers in her monthly writing workshops

I’ve long wanted to read more of Willma’s work, ever since first meeting her and listening to her inspiring talk on what to write “While You’re Waiting to Market Your Great American Novel” in the summer of 2006 for the Professional Writers of Prescott. Willma kindly aided my aspiration to read her work when she mailed me a copy of her latest novel and her memoir. I began reading the memoir first because I was certain she’d had a brilliant and interesting life, and I wasn’t disappointed.

In fact, Iron Grip, though self-published with just a few little typos and irregularities, is a riveting story (I mention the self-pubbing and little errors only because there’s so little to criticize about this book!) I often read in bed and fall asleep over books or e-books, but this story kept me turning pages into the wee hours.

Gore, disguised in her first-person prose as “Ellen Early,” is confronted with her husband Alex’s catastrophic accident when most newlyweds are still reveling in post-honeymoon romance and just settling into their marriages. Instead, the Earlys are thrust into negotiating an emotional minefield of disappointment and loss as they confront the double amputation of Alex’s hands after an artillery explosion while assigned at Camp Sibert in Gadsden, Alabama, the first large-scale chemical agent training area in the United States during World War II.

Gore writes with both uncommon clarity and grace, and with descriptive flair about the ordeal, never wavering in her determination to tell an honest story:


Captain Greeley’s normal debonair attitude was reduced to halting steps as he came along our driveway.

I left the couch where I’d been watching through the window, opened the front door, and pushed the screen wide. The hinges squealed, a raucous invasion in this silent stretch of time. Greeley kept turning his cap in his hands, looking down. I wished he would look up, feeling that something in his face would give me a clue to his mission. He glanced at me as if to calculate the distance between us and looked down again at his cap. The alcohol on his breath wafted into my presence, confirming what Alex had told me, “Greeley can’t stay away from the bottle.”

“Something’s happened to Alex?” I heard my wooden voice as though it came from far away.

His lips parted but no sound came. Finally he said, “He . . . he had a little accident on the training grounds when the convoy got back from Louisiana. His. . . his . . . his hands.” He glanced up, and quickly down again. “They got burned pretty bad. He’s at the base hospital. Maybe you’d like to stay at camp tonight?”

Wedding Day, March 1942
Within an hour, Gore is wrangling with putting their married life on a new course. She endures a hasty relocation to Atlanta for her husband’s long hospitalization, her mind racing with thoughts of all the new tasks she would have to perform, wondering if she was capable of fulfilling the many medical and non-medical responsibilities suddenly foisted upon her. She proves more than capable, a steady pair of hands for a seemingly rock-strong man who engages the world with as much savoir faire and inventiveness as she. As Gore says in her own words, “. . .both recognized that the future would present many challenges; we were bonded in the desire and the confidence that somehow, together, we would meet anything life would throw at us.”

So Alex and Ellen Early, like so many others of the “Greatest Generation,” forged on with their lives, seizing the opportunities that accompany the harsh realities of wounded veterans’ lives during and after World War II. Alex learned to negotiate the world without hands, struggling with and then mastering his prosthetic hooks during his long recovery and rehabilitation. Meanwhile, in a rare move for many women at the time, especially for a helpmate burdened with extra domestic duties, Ellie reaches again for her dream to be a working writer and resumes her studies (along with Alex) at UCLA.

While Iron Grip could have descended into maudlin sentimentality or an emotionally clichéd story of loss and triumph, Gore reveals instead the psychological layers of real people and the complexities of real lives. The memoir reads like a good novel, taking us from the couple’s hardworking triumph over a tragic mishap, to the blossoming of their family life with the happy arrival of three boys spaced two years apart, a process not without an underlying sense of building tension.

The Earlys’ lives begin to crumble once again as Alex’s behavior gradually becomes more brittle and controlling. He begins to clash with coworkers and quit jobs, expressing doubts about himself and his accomplishments. As capable as ever, Ellen shoulders increasing responsibilities with her writing career and raising their sons, not quite understanding her husband’s descent into the grip of manic-depression (now known as bipolar disorder). To add insult to injury, Ellen must confront her husband’s infidelity with his therapist, a personal friend, after nearly two decades of marital devotion.

Iron Grip easily becomes not only a metaphor for Alex’s new hands and the tenacious manner he dealt with his losses and his life, but also for Ellie’s – Gore’s – experiences as she becomes iron strong in the face of both success and adversity.

See interview with Willma Willis Gore on Jellyfish Day http://jellyfishday.blogspot.com/2013/01/iron-grip-interview-with-willma-willis....… (más)

I picked this book hoping for something to educate my younger students on the importance of good stewardship of our planet Earth. The table of contents, glossary, and index implied that this might be a good resource. However, the language seemed geared towards a very young audience, but the layout lacked any technique to draw a young reader in. There were very few colorful illustrations, no fun sidebars with trivia or fun facts, and the text itself was rather dry. I would not try to use this book in my classes because I do not believe it would hold the attention of any of my students, nor is it highly valuable as a research material. There are lots of more exciting and educational books available to use.… (más)