“Three Guesses” by Chris McClain Johnson

Three otherwise unconnected people form a deep and unlikely bond across the miles via the nostalgic medium of the handwritten letter in the quietly spellbinding novella Three Guesses (Regal House 2025) by Chris McClain Johnson. It won the Fugere Book Prize.

The opening chapters of this sparkling debut may cause the reader to wonder how a story told in this unique version of the epistolary format could possibly carry through an entire satisfying story. However, author Chris McClain Johnson deftly weaves the lives of troubled artist Pete, big-hearted art buyer Richard, and young vagabond Samantha (Sam), revealing their deepest secrets and desires. There is a certain intimacy to reading what they choose to share with each other which drives us to root for these three strangers who could be meant to shape each other’s lives:

“Like in music when one finger lingers a little too long over the F, for instance, the piece changes somehow. It may sound perfectly harmonic the rest of the way through, but something changed, and that something will surface perhaps years or lifetimes down the road.”

Lyrical passages, sprinkles of poetry, and illustrative stories add to the experience, but those who share the voyeurist urge to devour those dusty boxes of letters and postcards in the local antique store will find themselves captivated by the deliciously generous slices of life these characters share via personal letters. Some of these missives are fired off and posted in the heat of emotion, while some are pensive introspections, like private entries one hopes will not be found until the self-conscious diarist is long gone. The three correspondents reveal those small details of daily lives which quietly echo larger themes of personal artistic longing, nature’s never-ending cycle of creation and destruction, and the deep-rooted need for familial connection, whether born or found.

Chris McClain Johnson

Chris McClain Johnson started writing stories as a child, inspired by the beauty and wonders of her family farms in Mayfield, Kentucky. After graduating from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, she settled in Memphis, Tennessee, where she continues to write stories, poems, music and essays.