Descend Again

In the small town of Sintiempo in Arizona, in the hot summers of 1942 and 1943, young Millie Delaney is the solitary teacher at the tiny local school. There are only a few students, most of them just biding their time before they leave. The girls most likely will marry; the boys will probably be swallowed up by the town's main employer, the marble mine. Teaching in these circumstances is not very inspiring work, but Millie is used to the dullness, and anyway she's a pillar of the community - her father helped establish the marble mine which put the town on the map.

But this period is different. Firstly, one of her students, Miguel, suddenly shows unexpected signs of brilliance, and a love of poetry. He and Millie develop an intense connection which brings joy and inspiration to them both. When Miguel finally finds the confidence to put pen to paper for himself in a poem, Millie is astonished by the result.

At about the same time, a wanderer slips into town. Karl is incredibly tall, very blond, and at first fascinatingly elusive. He gets a job at the mine, and once they've met, Millie and he cannot avoid their attraction to each other. Millie can feel her quiet life blooming into much more. But the physical side of Karl's love proves not to have the poetic qualities she has always dreamed of. A barrier develops between them.

Miguel is also deeply troubled, because his poem was not all that it seemed. He wants to talk to her about it, but Miss Delaney seems preoccupied. As the summer of 1943 moves into its full peak, the desert landscape ripples not only with ringing waves of heat, but with tension. Before the summer is out, one of the three will be dead, one gone, and the other in hiding.

First published in 1960, Descend Again was Janet Burroway's first novel, heralding an extraordinary talent in prose of startling beauty. The rich southern novel of Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty had been given a new desert-state transformation, by a writer somewhat more lean and spare. It was the inauguration of a brilliant career.