"A sobering look at how small-scale artisans have been made obsolete by mass production . . . A moving testament to what we’ll lose if we don’t pay attention." —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal
"A beautiful mix of in-the-moment observation, elegiac memory, and history . . . Fascinating." —Thomas Urquhart, Portland Press Herald
"Deming has a poet’s eye for details . . . Champions of a home-crafted way of life will find much to savor here." —Publishers Weekly
"At first glance, the worlds of fashion and fishing may appear to be disparate topics, but using poetic language, childhood experiences, and knowledge of cultural history, Deming captivatingly weaves together these communities . . . A charming, heartfelt homage to the makers, past and present, who have defined lives and communities across the world." —Kirkus Reviews
“With the skill and care of an artisan poet, Alison Hawthorne Deming brings us the textures of nearly lost words and the craft that required them. Her tactile exploration of makers from fisherfolk to dressmakers makes me long for the embrace of a handsewn garment, stitched of relationships to land and history, embroidered with story.” ––Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
"Alison Hawthorne Deming is one of our wisest investigators of the relationship between humans and nature––a relationship in which humans are both part of nature and also serve as nature’s remakers and destroyers. In A Woven World, using fish, fashion, and family to frame her tapestry, Deming explores her deep attachments to particular places and her grief and hope for places being transformed by human incursion and fecklessness. In (sometimes barely) measured passion, and (always) passionate measures, Deming threads her way from beloved place to place, from ocean to city, crossing the line between hope and despair and back, always asking, What is the natural place for human making in the world? What acts of fabrication are worthy of celebration, and which are wasteful and destructive? And, most importantly, what is worth recovering, and is it too late for us to do so?" ––Katharine Coles, author of Wayward
"Only a daring poet, who happens also to be a superb essayist, would try stitching together two endeavors seemingly so disparate as high-fashion dressmaking and ocean-edge fishing. But Alison Deming succeeds brilliantly. To these twin themes of fish and fashion, she adds threads of family and cultural history stretching from Paris to New York to a Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy, from the mid-nineteenth century to our own day. What binds the book together is her admiration for 'the maker class,' people skilled in the use of hand and eye to produce the essentials of life. Deming reminds us that literature is one of those essentials—a truth captured by the word 'poet,' whose Greek root means 'one who makes.'” ––Scott Russell Sanders, author of The Way of Imagination
"A Woven World juxtaposes stories—fishing weirs and high fashion—in surprising ways, but the weaving is magical and wise. Deming’s focus is on the labor of hands and the materials they work with, from saplings and brush to sequins and silk. This is, in other words, a deep inquiry into the nature of character and craft. Throughout it all, Deming’s fierce urge to re-ravel the world shows us what we risk losing if we disentangle ourselves from the stories that help shape who we are. This is a celebratory book, full of scrutiny and longing." —Barbara Hurd, author of The Epilogues
2021-06-22
Essays in celebration of artisans.
At first glance, the worlds of fashion and fishing may appear to be disparate topics, but using poetic language, childhood experiences, and knowledge of cultural history, Deming captivatingly weaves together these communities. Inspired by a 2016 exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring Yves Saint Laurent’s “sardine dress,” the author set out to learn more about the artisans who have made an impact on her life. Among them are her maternal ancestors, who ran a couture dressmaking business “in Manhattan from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression,” and the herring fishermen on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, Canada, where she spent her childhood summers. Deming laments “the world’s dismissal of makers in favor of manufacturers,” which has “driven such small-scale artistry into obsolescence.” In a fascinating journey, she takes us around the world, from New Brunswick to New York to Paris and beyond, chasing leads and sifting through archives and sharing her family’s history and her own quest for continuity and belonging. Deming lovingly describes her grandmother’s skills cutting fabric and sewing together an elegant dress without a pattern as well as her remarkable ability to give new life to the author’s boring, secondhand prom dress. She also expresses the same childhood admiration and excitement in her descriptions of watching the fishermen on the island pull their bounties from the sea. “How much human life depended on the sea and the people’s ability to make vessels and nets and ropes and sails and salt, and to read water and sky and stars. Their ability to survive unimaginable hardship.” A running theme is the detachment between mother and daughter that has plagued Deming’s family for at least two generations, ultimately leading to her grandmother’s being buried in an unmarked grave and listed as having no heirs. At times, the details repeat across the essays, but this takes little away from the book’s overall high quality.
A charming, heartfelt homage to the makers, past and present, who have defined lives and communities across the world.
