Sour cherries
Mark Elberfeld
at Buc-ee’s
What do sour cherries, a subway reprimand in Moscow, and an imaginary alligator named Fluffy have in common? In Sour Cherries at Buc-ee’s, Mark Elberfeld invites readers on a deeply personal—and often unexpectedly funny—journey through memory, movement, and meaning.
From a seventh-grade retreat on the Mattaponi River to the surreal vastness of a Buc-ee’s gas station, Elberfeld traces the threads of identity, place, and connection. Whether he’s reflecting on summer camp, road trips in an electric car, the quiet radicalism of hospitality, or a friend’s hauntingly beautiful art show, his essays linger in that liminal space between the ordinary and the profound.
With humor, honesty, and a teacher’s instinct for drawing meaning from mess, Elberfeld explores what it means to leave, to return, to remember, and to reframe. For anyone who’s ever found themselves crying in a parking lot, questioning the shape of freedom, or chasing summer like a white whale—this book might just be the life ring you didn’t know you needed.
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“In Mark Elberfeld's Sour Cherries, we meet something to relish: an unrelenting mind on the page. Here, we travel to summer camp, to Switzerland, to Vermont, and that dreaded region: chemistry class. Humorous and meditative, Sour Cherries ponders that age-old quandary: Why must we travel away to really understand who we are, at home, in ourselves? Building in tension, with wide-ranging material from Frankenstein and Walt Whitman to artist Shawna Miller and getting a rental car, Sour Cherries is a delight that explores all the complexities of human emotion.”
— Taylor Brorby, author of Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land
Part of the pleasure of reading Elberfeld’s work is his easy communion with an eclectic gallery of friends, acquaintances, and fellow artists nurtured in community across time and place. And, caught as we all are in this politically divisive moment, as distrust and cynicism hold sway, Elberfeld’s sensibilities could not be more timely or necessary. The writer’s curiosity and good-will, whether among friends or strangers, offer the rare alternative of civility across difference. As he states: “just keep inviting those you want into your own freedom.” Elberfeld’s humanity embraces the contradictions all around and within us. It’s a recipe for liberation and a divining rod to wholeness. And, thankfully for us, he never loses his appetite for the absurd—or a well-timed snack.
— Laurie Clark, MFA in Creative Nonfiction, UNC Wilmington; published in Gulf Stream Magazine, Middlebury Magazine, and The Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review
“A humane and humanistic writer is revealed in this eclectic essay collection. The author’s bio suggests a theme of journeys taken. Elberfeld is an avid traveler, and not just as a tourist; he’s actually lived abroad for long stretches, which gives him a true cosmopolitan bearing. His essay “Confederation of Multitudes” contrasts Hungary, where he worked as a teacher, with Switzerland, describing both countries in loving detail. Several of the essays, taking the form of gallery and book reviews, show a sensitive understanding of visual and literary arts (the author’s college degree was in art history). The title entry, “Sour Cherries at Buc-ee’s,” discusses the famous gargantuan travel stops that have become almost totemic in the South, but it ultimately drifts into a reverie of childhood travel and, in a lovely phrase, becomes a “palimpsest of a road trip.” A trip to Yellowstone National Park promises much but becomes a bitter disappointment, for the typical reasons: traffic jams, crowds, long lines, and so forth.
But the author rallies at the end, examines this reaction, and tries to find a way to truly see the wonder of his travels. Such reflections (and the courage to look at oneself) are the hallmarks of a thoughtful essayist, which Elberfeld is. (The verb essay means to try, as in trying out ideas, and to be an essayist is to be a spelunker of one’s thoughts and beliefs.) One of the best pieces in this collection is “Chasing Summer on Nantucket,” the author’s account of vacationing on the island, which includes his reflections on Melville and Moby-Dick. The essay becomes a rumination on time and change, a sense of past and future. “Who is our Ahab now?” he asks. “Who is our white whale?” As the essay’s title suggests, it is really an elegy, and an eloquent one. The final piece, “Asynchronicity,” introduces readers to Elberfeld’s husband and opens with a wonderful and intriguing metaphor—“Russell and I take turns being the statue or the bendy carwash man”—which is an excellent description of two guys fumbling through their lives together. A very thoughtful, wide-ranging, and well-written collection.”
— Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Atlanta writer Mark Elberfeld began this essay collection—appropriately on the theme of journeys—at a remote chateau in tiny Orquevaux, France. Educated at the University of the South, Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English, and Georgia State University, Mark previously taught sixth grade in the Washington, D.C. area, where he grew up, and in Budapest, Hungary. His work has appeared in NANO Fiction, the Centenary Journal of the Bread Loaf School of English, South Writ Large, and Voices Elevated: 10 Years of the Elk River Writers Workshop. He has also been nominated for publication in Best American Essays. A facilitator and executive coach, Mark lives with his husband, Russell, and their calico, Sophie. This is his first book.
This playlist accompanies Mark Elberfeld's essay collection, Sour Cherries at Buc-ee's. Many of the places referenced in the songs are inspiration for Elberfeld's writing.
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