Cyanide poisoning. That was the oft-repeated cause of death for Rufus B. Keeler, celebrated ceramist and Cati Porter's great-grandfather. He was just 49. His son Brad, himself a noted ceramist, died at 39. Their deaths sent shockwaves through her family, indirectly leading to her mother's dropping out of middle school and teen-aged marriage. Decades later, she found herself asking questions no one else would. Her search for answers would take her up and down the California coast, tracing the potteries where they once worked. She set out to find her grandfathers. What she also found was a mother she thought she already knew. Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The potter shapes the clay.
Our So-Called Safe and Perfect Bodies by Cati Porter asks, what are the forces that shape a life?
Reviews
"The closer I get to my expiration date, the more alive the dead feel to me," Porter writes. Our So-Called Safe and Perfect Bodies lovingly and thoughtfully explores the question of legacy and how we become who we are. - Samantha Dunn
Cati Porter invites us along for her explorations into archives and across landscapes as she works to piece together her ancestors' lives. Deeply suspicious of lore, this is not a romanticized foray into her family's past; rather, it is a meditation on the fallibility of what we uphold as history, and the mysteries our ancestors leave behind. - Cassandra Lane
Cati Porter is an intrepid detective, looking both outward, exploring the history of her famous ceramist grandfather and great-grandfather, and inward, investigating her own desire for understanding. - Gayle Brandeis
Pre-Order Link: Our So-Called Safe and Perfect Bodies a book by Cati Porter - Bookshop.org US