Ellen Birkett Morris’s novel Beware the Tall Grass weaves two narratives, fifty years apart, into an indelible story of love, war, and peace.
Tara Ison wrote of the book:
A young man’s coming-of-age in 1960s Missoula and the fields of Vietnam; a young family’s struggle many years later to understand the deep-hidden trauma of their young son; Ellen Birkett Morris’s compelling debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, explores the invisible, inexplicable connections of our souls across time and space. Masterful and deeply moving, Morris engages our hearts and challenges us to accept, and embrace, the transcendent nature of our being.
In her own words, here is Ellen Birkett Morris’s Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Beware the Tall Grass:
Beware the Tall Grass is a story told in two distinct voices, Eve, a modern mother full of angst over her young son Charlie’s violent memories of war, and Thomas, a young man caught up in the drama of the 1960’s who experiences love and loss and ends up on the battlefield in Vietnam. I ended up with a playlist of retro favorites that reflect the spirit of the 1960s, and modern songs that echo with the mystery of days gone by.
“Beautiful Boy,” (John Lennon)
This love song to a baby boy mirrors Eve’s desire to give Charlie the perfect childhood. The line “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” sums up the novel’s central dilemma of what you do when the life you get isn’t the life you thought you are going to get.
“Tangerine,” (Led Zeppelin)
This mellow, guitar heavy ballad has a dreamy quality as it tells the story of a past life not easily forgotten.
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” (Joan Baez)
Baez’s haunting vocals make this song the ultimate mother’s lament. She can’t follow where her son goes and can’t protect him from life. The things he sees, from sad forests to dead oceans, are his to carry. This is the reality Eve faces as she tries to help Charlie deal with past life memories.
‘Wendell Gee,” (REM)
This mysterious song about a boy “reared to give respect,” who vanishes into the landscape shares haunting echoes with the challenges faced by Thomas, whose every move is guided by integrity.
“Bad Moon Rising,” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
No band summed up the angst around the Vietnam War better than Creedence Clearwater Revival. Bad Moon Rising is a cogent warning to Thomas and fellow soldiers to look out for the danger to come on the battlefields of Vietnam.
“Orange Crush” (REM)
This pulsing tune explores the fallout from Agent Orange and the dangers of war for everyone whose life it touches.
“Reincarnation Song” (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
This song’s opening lines “Give me your eyes, I’ll show you things you never dreamed you thought you’d see” perfectly mirrors Charlie’s experience as he is visited by memories of a past life as a solider.
Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award. Her novel Beware the Tall Grass is the winner of the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. She is also the author of Abide and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s the Ethel, Oh Reader, and on National Public Radio.