It’s easy to see why Ellen Birkett Morris’s enchanting debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass (Columbus State University 2024), won The Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence. The novel expertly entwines two moving tales, that of Eve Sloan, a mother trying desperately to understand and protect her son Charlie circa 2010; and that of Thomas, an eighteen-year-old infantryman fighting for his life at Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1965. Those readers who lean toward the mystical and spiritual will immediately accept what is happening in the story, while others will have to suspend disbelief. In either case, the novel is absolutely captivating as it explores the human condition.
Eve’s son Charlie shows special characteristics right from his birth. He has the eyes of an old man: “He looked like he’d already seen things worth talking about.” She is determined to avoid the indifferent and critical style of parenting her own mother practiced on her. She vows “to never make [Charlie] feel small and unimportant.” When little Charlie begins to use language concerning war and relates experiences he couldn’t have had, Eve takes him seriously. She “honored his reality” because “We all want someone to allow for our interpretations, to give us the space to feel what we feel, to bear witness to our experience.” Her husband Dan tries to gloss over what is happening and it drives a wedge between them. Like most mothers, Eve worries about making mistakes in raising her son:
“The idealized versions of mothers on television, which left out how much energy it took to take care of a child and how bone tired it made you. The way being a mom turned you into a weird combination of a nurse, a copy and Mr. Rogers. How hard it was to say or do the right thing when you were in the moment and how hard my mother must have tried.”
Despite her mother’s indifference, when she dies Eve misses her. Her friend Amy says what Eve misses most is the chance to make the relationship better: “We all chase the possibility of the perfect relationship.” Amy’s story of choosing the wrong men for relationships is a strong subplot in the novel.
The second main plot thread is that of Thomas. A bit of foreshadowing shows us what to expect:
“Love marks you. It makes you do things you never wanted to do and never thought you could. It tests you and comforts you. In the end it is the only thing that lasts.”
Readers meet Thomas as a senior in high school who loves his horse Beau. When a snake hiding in the grass startles the horse and he breaks his leg, Thomas is forced to shoot him. It breaks his heart, and he warns, “Beware the tall grass, nothing good ever happens there.” In the emotional aftermath following this loss, Thomas enlists in the army. Then he falls in love and wonders if he has made a mistake by enlisting. In Vietnam, Thomas learns to love his band of brothers. And once again, love will involve loss and hard decisions.
Whether or not readers accept the concept of past life regression experienced by Charlie, all will recognize the wisdom in Eve’s reflections on life:
To understand the human heart is the real challenge, to know our place in time and space. To know what happens to our souls when we die. To chart where a person’s energy goes, what happens to the love that surrounds them in life, what becomes of their memories and experiences.
Beware the Tall Grass powerfully portrays the angst and pain that often accompanies love in all its forms. It is a beautiful novel by a talented author.
Ellen Birkett Morris
Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award and finalist for the Clara Johnson, IAN and Best Book awards. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for short fiction. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for her fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council.
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