Under Brambles is a tapestry of vignettes, poems, and narratives that unravel the raw beauty found in the broken, the forgotten, and the misunderstood. Margaretta James takes us through fragments of lives—of people on the margins, of unspoken pain, of longing, and fleeting moments of connection. The stories don’t follow a linear structure; instead, they pull the reader through waves of emotion, leaving behind echoes of regret, defiance, and tenderness.

James’s writing is poetic and immersive, painting scenes with words that feel almost cinematic. The opening piece, There Be Dragons, transports us to a bustling night market, where a sand-sculpted dragon silently witnesses human cruelty and kindness. The sensory details—jasmine, salt air, the flickering light of candles—make the setting almost tangible. But beyond the lush descriptions, the story carries an undercurrent of sorrow, of destruction, of the transient nature of beauty. The dragon, lovingly crafted and then desecrated, becomes a metaphor for the fragility of creation in the face of careless violence.

One of the most gut-wrenching entries, My Mother Who Danced, is written as a letter from a daughter to a mother she spent her whole life resisting, only to understand too late. The honesty in this piece is brutal. The resentment, the love, the guilt—it’s all there, tangled up in a raw confession that is both personal and relatable. The narrator’s realization that she has inherited some of her mother’s traits and that she has failed to appreciate her mother’s sacrifices hits hard. This isn’t just a story about a complicated mother-daughter relationship; it’s about the passage of time, about regret, about how we often only recognize love in hindsight.

Then there’s Hallelujah, a darkly satirical take on faith, miracles, and commercialism. A statue of the Madonna in a failing church begins bleeding, and the reaction is swift. What starts as a seemingly divine event is quickly swallowed by human greed, morphing into a spectacle that loses all meaning. James expertly balances humor and cynicism here, crafting a sharp critique of the way society exploits faith for gain.

The book doesn’t shy away from pain. In Story from a Quilt, James presents a heartbreaking tribute to a friend lost to illness and societal rejection. The imagery of a memorial quilt, each patch a piece of a life cut short, is devastatingly beautiful. The contrast between the vibrant, rebellious life of the protagonist and the cold indifference of the institutions that shunned him makes for an emotional gut-punch. The writing here is particularly poignant, moving between nostalgia and grief in a way that feels personal.

Under Brambles is not for readers looking for a conventional story with clear resolutions. It’s for those who appreciate writing that makes them feel something raw and unfiltered. This book is for lovers of poetic prose, for those who find beauty in imperfection, for anyone who has ever looked back and wished they had understood sooner.

Pages: 85 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DSW98NXT