Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape, by Marc Nieson, Ice Cube Press, 2016, 272p, paperback $19.95
Award-winning writer Marc Nieson’s memoir Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape presents its poignant narrative through a teacher’s lesson plan, interweaving elements of the earth, the sky, and the human in a story of rootedness in the land, specifically the Midwestern heartland. From the twisting canals of Venice to the flooding roads of Iowa, Nieson discovers love as he isolates himself in the natural world. The writing process itself releases him, and Schoolhouse cleverly becomes “a textbook of lessons…. A study guide for the incurable romantics among us all. Or, call it an elegy for a hilltop, an homage to what once was. A cautionary tale regarding what may or may not be sustainable in love and landscapes.”
We are immediately thrust into an environment of love, mystery, and intrigue as we meet Marc’s first romantic interest. A vision of yellow-green, Sybil captures his attention one evening as he listens to a class lecture. A love affair ensues that drives a narrative spiraling out of control as Nieson travels from place to place in search of himself. New York, Italy, Iowa: each place offers a distinct relationship with the environment, as this city boy travels from home, finding new pieces of himself in every landscape he encounters.
The rush and stir of New York City provide ample entertainment for Marc and Sybil, allowing them to get lost in the busy-ness of metropolitan living. They take advantage of this shifting landscape, isolating themselves in their desire for one another, but from the beginning of their relationship, a sense of doom pervades. With a single flash of memory, we land in the heart of this book: Iowa, a place where Marc is finally able to grow. Upon acceptance to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Nieson uproots himself from the city to pursue a new vocation. Writing nourishes and frees him, and the landscape captivates him, inviting him to live a different kind of life. Taking on the mantle of Thoreau, he communes with nature outside the Iowa City limits. Animal pellets and stripped tree bark whisper unspoken secrets. In the depths of Redbird farm, the plot blooms to full life. A new chapter has begun.
Nieson artfully composes a cohesive whole out of various strands of memories as he recounts his spiritual rebirth: his romantic relationships, his attachment to wild landscapes, his writerly life, thoughts of Italy, the deaths of friends and family. On the edge of civilization, Nieson is an isolated wanderer entering a world teeming with life and (therefore) death. Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape aptly evokes earth and sky as a medium for self-exploration and self-articulation. Nieson as a jack-of-all-trades protagonist embraces the natural world as he nurses the wounds of incomplete love. Only by facing his fears does he truly learn the lesson of the land. This memoir should be read and re-read by any who would walk with Thoreau or commune with the spirits of the wild. As a compelling blend of landscape and human nature, Schoolhouse fulfills the needs of the wanderer, the writer, and the lover in all of us.