All Is Leaf: Essays and Transformations by John T. Price (review)

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Reviewed by:

• All Is Leaf: Essays and Transformations by John T. Price
• David R. Solheim, emeritus

John T. Price, All Is Leaf: Essays and Transformations. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2022. 218 pp. Paper, $19.95; e-book, $19.95.

With All Is Leaf: Essays and Transformations John T. Price has written a fine example of what should be called literary nonfiction. Price himself is the director of a creative nonfiction writing program and around the middle of this 200-page book presents an essay about his experience as a grad student and professor in that realm. His working definition of the area is "fact-based nonfiction that uses creative writing techniques." He continues that the field may include "such diverse historical forms as personal essays, memoirs, travel writing, nature writing, narrative nonfiction, lyric essays, speculative nonfiction, prehistoric cave drawings, . . . and multiple other subgenres" (109). On the following page he suggests "literary nonfiction" as an alternative descriptor. I trust Price's presentation of factual information and reporting of data related to actuality, but in addition he ranges far from the observable world in his use of extended metaphors, hypothetical situations, and literary allusions. That stylistic range is part of what makes his writing both informative and entertaining. Price's readers who are well-read in traditional literature will gain extra enjoyment and value from his work.

The book contains several very good essays on the writer and writing of nonfiction: "My Archeological Dig Site" (cited above), "My Rock 'n' Roll Road Song," and "My Essay on the Essay." Significant digression is one of Price's well-used techniques. He may begin writing about a conference on native prairie and digress into personal experience and even family issues; or he may begin what seems like a personal essay and digress into philosophical and ethical concerns; but by the end of each essay the reader discovers that both realms of experience and subject matter are an interrelated unified whole. [End Page 400]

Another truly outstanding essay in this book is "My Courtroom Drama," which presents two final cases of his father's law career in great detail and evokes empathy for most of the characters involved. Mid-essay Price recalls To Kill a Mockingbird as background for himself and his father, and that detail makes the final scene of the essay powerful as it evokes another image from the novel.

Price is also given to the literary device of developing an extended central metaphor. Possibly the best essay in this collection, "My Science Fiction Horror Story," treats his experience of a vacation weekend with his preteen son as if he were traveling with an alien being from beyond the earth. One can immediately see the insight of the metaphor, but it is appropriately expanded as the son becomes obsessed with a stellar observatory and the then-planet of Pluto. Price links this to his own youthful reading of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. The story of exploring the observatory/museum is filled with information about both planets in fact (and some fictional references) and information about the geography and geology in the area around the observatory. The story is further enlivened by the son interrupting his father's narrative thoughts with "Hey Dad," followed by various two- or three-line puns. The fact that some are very funny, some not at all, and some in questionable taste reveals both characters and their close relationship. The essay presents this last glimpse of preadolescent childhood and parenting in a richly detailed and valuable manner.

The Loess Hills of Iowa and the native prairie are Price's home area and the natural subjects closest to his heart, and he scatters informative passages about them throughout the book; the title's leaf image is repeated at least twice after the opening essay and provides the final essay's closing imagery.

Including the opening, "Grant Application Letter," there are four essays that take the form of letters of complaint or inquiry to various agents. Each one is a cleverly devised scene worthy of his pen, but several of them seem to take the literary construct too far or too long. For example, "My Pregame Pep Talks...