Laura's Ghost

October 1, 2020
For fans of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer remains an enigmatic figure. Stallings takes a scholarly and personal look at Palmer's enduring legacy. In three sections, Stallings includes thoughtful interviews with many of the women directly involved in Twin Peaks' production, including Sheryl Lee, the actress who portrayed Laura onscreen; interviews with women who have become well-known in the Twin Peaks fan community (among them are filmmakers, artists, critics, scholars, and others); and essays and interviews with Lee, Grace Zabriskie, Jennifer Lynch, and writer Willow Catelyn McClay. Throughout, the author and her subjects identify Laura's role as both survivor and victim of abuse as being vitally important to their understanding of their own experiences. Essays and interviews are lengthy and comprehensive. Footnotes throughout correspond with a back-of-book bibliography. Stallings also includes illustrations and poetry by other contributors to this text (Lee, Lynch, etc). Scholars looking for pop-culture references regarding abuse, women's issues, and feminist theories will be interested, and Laura's Ghost might just be a must-read for any true Twin Peaks fan.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 9, 2020

Twin Peaks, the bizarre yet groundbreaking 1990s TV series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, is more than coffee, cherry pie, and surreal Americana. At its heart is a murdered 17-year-old-girl who, despite the show's supernatural trappings, was a victim of sexual abuse and domestic violence. Stallings (Pepperdine Univ.) curates women's perspectives to examine the importance of Laura Palmer and reflect on the cult classic's impact on their lives. Sheryl Lee, who portrayed Laura Palmer, and David Lynch's daughter director Jennifer Lynch, who wrote The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, have direct insight into the character, but the fans' perspectives are often more compelling. They have engaged with the series critically and creatively, hosting conventions, staging burlesque shows, and crafting poems, essays, and artwork--some of which are presented here. Laura's trauma is tragically a shared experience, and what emerges is how the contributors see themselves in her story. VERDICT Followers of the convoluted drama series will have an easier time following the conversation. While it's easy to embrace Twin Peaks for its quirkiness, Stallings successfully centers the conversation on its darkest secrets. The work includes trigger warnings for sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, as it embraces difficult topics that are sadly as relevant today as when the show first aired.--Terry Bosky, Madison, WI

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