THE DEEP RANGE

The Deep Range, Arthur C Clarke, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc, 1957, 175 pp

 This captivating story comes from Clarke's other life as a deep sea explorer. Though it is set in the future, when much of Earth's food supply comes from algae and farmed whales, it also falls in the category of extreme adventure.

  Don Burley is a whale shepherd, keeping the herds safe from predators. He gets unwillingly pulled off that job and asked to train the mysterious Walt Franklin, a former spacer with some undisclosed past incident that left him subject to panic attacks. The men eventually come to enjoy a friendship based on mutual respect and shared adventures in the deep ranges of the world's oceans.

 So you get plenty of suspense, some tragedy, love stories, and another glimpse of a possible future. The underwater scenes were breathtaking, even for me who likes to stay on dry land.

(The Deep Range appears to be out of print. Try the science fiction section in your local library or used book sellers.)

WHY YOU HAVEN'T HEARD FROM ME

I haven't posted for over a week because I took a trip to Dunedin, Florida, a small town outside of Tampa, to visit my son and his family. I had not seen my grandchildren since a year ago July at my mother's memorial service in Michigan. I understand that I am prejudiced, but I truly have the best grandchildren in the world. 

 Jordan is twelve and growing into a lovely teenage girl who loves to sing, choreograph her own dance routines and play volleyball. Emma is nine and is as addicted to reading as I am, while also being a natural actress and comedienne. Ethan is five and a half, loves soccer, Legos, and is a bit spoiled because he is the baby. I got to visit each one in their class at school and do some work with them. We went to the beach on both Saturday and Sunday, watched the sun set and the moon rise.

 When I left, we all cried. Emma cried the most. Nine years old is a very emotional year. I remember. Yesterday I spent a sad day getting over the fact that I will not see them everyday. But they are coming to Los Angeles for Christmas and hopefully moving here next year. 

 We now return to book reviews.

THE STREET OF A THOUSAND BLOSSOMS

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms, Gail Tsukiyama, St Martin's Press, 2007, 422 pp

 Gail Tsukiyama is a beloved author in Los Angeles, where she lives at least part of the year. This is the first novel of hers I have read, though she has written several. While she did not win me over as an author, the story was a good contrast with a recent book I read, The Piano Teacher, because while that book showed the effects of Japanese aggression on Hong Kong during WWII, this one gave me insight into the lives of Japanese civilians who went through their own hardships as their Emperor set out to conquer the world, losing in one the most stunning defeats of the 20th century.

  Hiroshi, who becomes an acclaimed Sumo wrestling champion and his brother Kenji, destined for fame as the carver of masks for actors in Japan's traditional Noh theater, are raised by their grandparents. The boys were orphaned at a young age when their parents drowned in an accident.

 The book is long and follows their lives along with other key characters from 1939 into the 1960s. The style is leisurely and as precise as a Japanese tea ceremony. Though these men both achieve their goals, so much suffering and loss accompanies their successes that I felt mostly sad when I wasn't slightly bored as I read.

 I was enlightened on the details of both professions. As usual, the women suffered the most. The author celebrated the hard working and resilient character of the Japanese people, who within two decades after the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were back in the game as a world power, at least economically.

 I used to practice macrobiotics, a form of vegetarianism based on Japanese foods and philosophy. One of its sayings was, "The bigger the back, the bigger the front." Gail Tsukiyama demonstrates in her story that behind the intricate beauty of Japanese culture lay an equal cruelty and violence. In the Tao and in macrobiotics, we sought balance which would promote health, because in extremes are found illness, death, loss and sorrow. Mankind apparently has a hard time with that lesson.

(The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

DANDELION WINE

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury, Doubleday & Company, 1957, 239 pp

 Every time I start a book by Ray Bradbury, I groan and fume, then get bored and irritable. His sentences are so bad. I want to get out my red pen and act like a high school teacher. The characters are drawn in such an odd way that as a reader I get self conscious. I don't care about these everyday people, but then they start voicing those slightly skewed Bradbury thoughts and I recognize those ideas as ones I've had myself.

  Eventually I arrive in the world he has created, whether it is Mars or the Midwest. I can see, hear, smell and taste it. In Dandelion Wine, it is the summer world of a small Midwestern town; the summer as seen through the eyes of twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding.

 As he gets his new summer sneakers and races around town, down into the ravine, across new-mown lawns, with his brother and his friends, he sees the young, the old, the eccentric, the sorrowful. He begins to get the whole picture of life because he is on the cusp between child and young adult. He is not entirely happy about it all.

 By the end I am left with recovered thoughts and pictures from my twelfth summer. I feel that tarnished innocence, that mixed feeling about adults, that urge to grow up stalled by the wish the remain a child. 

 Truly, I am not sure how he does it.

(Dandelion Wine is available in paperback at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE PIANO TEACHER

The Piano Teacher, Janice J K Lee, The Viking Press, 2009, 326 pp

 Marketing has been with us for many years as the engine which drives commerce, but these days it is the slickest it's ever been. In the niche of book covers, I consider myself at least careful not to buy a book for its cover, but this one pulled me in like the proverbial sucker: the colors, the image of the woman and the title all worked their magic on me. Fortunately I was not too badly suckered, especially because I recommended The Piano Teacher to one of my reading groups.

 Claire Pendleton is an unformed, inexperienced provincial English young woman who married a man she barely knew, mainly to escape her boring life and overbearing mother. She finds herself in post WWII Hong Kong and before long she is in way over her head. Between the social life, the impenetrable lover who excites her far more than her husband and intrigues lingering from the war, she is forced to develop a personality. Both her innocence and an intrepid streak she never knew she had, bring her through.

 The story is historical and something of a thriller. The actual main characters are Claire's lover, Will Truesdale and his now deceased lover from the war, a Eurasian socialite named Trudy Liang. From Graham Greene to James Clavell, novels set in Hong Kong always deal in a certain dark, sensuous and slightly criminal set of circumstances and The Piano Teacher is no exception.

 Serious flaws such as an abrupt change in style shortly before the end and inconsistencies in Claire's character still did not ruin the fascination and power of the story. I look forward to more from a promising first novelist.

(The Piano Teacher is available in paperback on the adult fiction shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY

Citizen of the Galaxy, Robert A Heinlein, Charles Scribners Sons, 1957, 302 pp

 Citizen of the Galaxy is another one of Heinlien's Young Adult novels, though I found it in the Science Fiction section of my local library. Thorby is a young boy who knows neither his parents nor his age and has been a slave for as long as he can remember.

  The story opens at a slave auction on the planet Jubbul, central to the Nine Worlds. Thorby is purchased by a beggar named Baslim, who raises the boy as his adopted son, frees him and turns out to be much more than a beggar.

 Thorby's tale then proceeds through several phases while he searches for his origins. Ultimately this is a book about slavery, which though it is no longer practiced on Earth in this futuristic time period, goes on clandestinely across the galaxy. And guess what? One of the biggest business conglomerates on Earth knows full well what is going on and profits from the slave trade while denying that it even exists! Sound familiar? 

 I was completely immersed in the story and impressed by Heinlein's seemingly omniscient ability to know the future. Once again he created a breathlessly exciting read with deep social implications and his recurring theme that intelligence and hard work are the keys to life.

 I would recommend this especially for male teens who are reluctant to read books but are required to read for school. In fact, I'd love to hear from one of these young men who tried Citizen of the Galaxy.

(Citizen of the Galaxy is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

SLAMMERKIN

Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue, Harcourt Inc, 2000, 334 pp

 A slammerkin can mean either a loose dress or a loose woman. Emma Donoghue is a fine writer whose most recent novel, Room,  was short listed for the Booker Prize of 2010. Recently I reviewed Room for BookBrowse and since I had never read anything by Donoghue, much less heard of her, I did a little homework.

This novel is historical fiction in the sub genre of prostitute tales, of which I have read my share. Memoirs of a Geisha, The Crimson Petal and the White, Forever Amber, come to mind. I am sure there are more. Donoghue adds her own twist.

 Mary Saunders turned 14 in the slums of London, 1760. Her father was dead, her stepfather was not happy about having to feed her, her mother was a piecework seamstress whose eyes were going. Like many impoverished children, Mary had an eye for color, for glitter and shine. And though her father's wish that she be educated had been carried out at great hardship by Mary's mother, the young girl knew that her future was bleak.

 Within months of that 14th birthday, Mary ran away and soon slipped into prostitution as a means to stay alive. Despite the disgusting aspects of her life style, for the first time she was having fun, wearing colorful and glittering gowns, having a best friend. Two years later Mary died by hanging, convicted of theft.

 Slammerkin is a great read, due to fine historical details, atmosphere, characters and storytelling. Never dull, never overbearing in the details, yet always realistic, the novel captivated me. The twist is this: Mary had a loving mother, education, moral training and intelligence, but even with all that, she could not rise out of poverty, servitude or oppression. This novel makes you think about why that is and how it could possibly ever change for men or women.

 Doll, a seasoned London prostitute only four years older than Mary, who met with a gruesome end, taught her friend three rules: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told. All true; still not enough.

(Slammerkin is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE COMFORTERS

The Comforters, Muriel Spark, J B Lippincott & Co, 1957, 228 pp

 This is Muriel Spark's first novel. I have only read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which I found fascinating, but I really know nothing about Spark except that she is considered eccentric when it comes to writing novels. Indeed, this is an unusual story.

  The characters are great. Caroline is a writer, recently converted to Catholicism, who has unstable nerves and hears voices accompanied by the clacking of typewriter keys. Her on and off boyfriend Laurence is a television actor, not super high on intelligence but hyper-observant of details around him to the point of thinking of himself as an amateur sleuth. 

 Laurence's grandmother, who is half gypsy, appears to be part of a smuggling ring which adds a mystery to the tale but in this highly English group of characters, that is just silly. Laurence's mother, a very proper Catholic wife, is constantly trying to help a woman who is clearly the evil character in the story.

 It goes on, it is almost too much and not until half way through this short novel was I at all sure what was going on. To her credit, Spark ties up all loose ends in closing but it was touch and go for a good while. Then, by making sense of it all, she secured my trust.

 The most incredible aspect though was that in 1957 comes this novel which is a piece of metafiction, in the sense of writing that draws attention to the relationship between fiction and reality; in the sense of exposing the illusion of fiction. The voices Caroline hears convince her she is a character in a novel that the voices are writing. The term metafiction was not even coined until 1970, another confirmation of my growing sense that 1957 was a year of major change in literature, even though the changes were creeping in quietly.

(The Comforters is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

ROOM

Room, Emma Donoghue, Little Brown and Company, 2010, 321 pp

My review of Room is now available for non-subscribers at BookBrowse. I begin thus:

      "When I finished this brilliant novel, besides being as locked into its story and world as Jack and Ma were in Room, I had no idea how I would review it. I was convinced there was nothing I could say about it without the entire review being one big spoiler. For me, what made Room so great was that I never knew from page to page what would happen next..." Continue reading here.

 Room is a finalist for the Booker Prize which will be awarded on October 12. I predict a win for Room. 

(Room is available in hardcover at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

IN THE WOODS

In The Woods, Tana French, Viking Press, 2007, 429 pp

 Wow! I really liked this book. Two murder mysteries connected because of one man, who is a police detective in Dublin. His incredible partner, Cassie. Excellent writing. Psychological and suspenseful with a true psychopath. What more could you ask for? Plus she has two more books published already: The Likeness and Faithful Place. Here is a female mystery writer who can stand up to Sara Paretsky.

  Apparently many readers hated the ending. I admit it was a bit disconcerting but I also understand that it is a set up for the next book. I had more trouble with Detective Rob Ryan, who is a great detective but a fairly shitty man. He makes Benjamin Black's Quirke, in Christine Falls, look like a together guy. Rob Ryan just kept making me furious as he let his past troubles get the best of him over and over. However, his relationship with his partner Cassie was a fascinating study in friendship and parnership, so fascinating that it almost trumped the mystery.

 In The Woods is one of the best books I read in August, which was a full month of excellent reading.

(In The Woods is available in paperback on the mystery shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

A TREE IS NICE

A Tree Is Nice, Janice May Udry, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1956, 28 pp

Last Sunday, I began to post my review of this surprisingly special book, but was foiled by Blogger when it came to uploading an image of the cover. The next day I came down with a deadly virus from which I have just recovered sufficiently a week later so I can sit at my computer with some brain cells available. Still I have the *#@** image upload problem. It has a lovely cover and if you click on the title and are lucky it may take you to an image of the cover, but I don't have high hopes. Blogger is great because it is free, but you know what they say about that. I am not wild about the HELP capabilities.

 Anyway I will no longer be denied. A Tree Is Nice is the perfect follow up to my Redwoods trip. (The flu was not.) I have always had a deep reverence for trees. I might never have made it through The Lord of the Rings trilogy if it hadn't been for the trees. I certainly would not have made it through life.

 Janice May Udry's picture book won the Caldecott Medal in 1957 for the illustrations by Marc Simont. That is a good thing because otherwise I might never have read it. Her title fairly well sums up the truth about trees.

 After providing dozens of reasons why a tree is nice, the book ends with how to plant a tree and some encouraging words about the fun of watching it grow "every day for years and YEARS...You say to people, 'I planted a tree.' They wish they had one so they go home and plant a tree too."

(A Tree Is Nice is available on the picture books shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BACK FROM THE REDWOODS

VACATION REPORT

My husband and I just spent the past five days in Northern California, celebrating our 30th anniversary amongst the redwoods. 

Redwood trees are big; I am small.

 With the aid of my trekking poles and lots of training before we left, I am proud to say that I managed a 6 mile hike with 500 feet elevation through the Gold Bluff Canyons at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

 Perfect final anniversary dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley

 Before we left I started reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee, the wild and revealing story of how Alice Waters created her unique restaurant. I did not get very far in the book because it seems I don't read much on road trips. Now that we have been and experienced a meal, the book means more.

 We had a fabulous time and Somehow are more in love than ever. I'll be back on the blog tomorrow with the regularly scheduled program.

ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA

Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010, 457 pp

 I am an unabashed fan of Isabel Allende and have read all of her novels. Recently she has toned down the magical realism that was such a strong flavor in her early books and I don't guess she has ever topped The House of the Spirits, but as a storyteller she always excels. Truthfully the magic is still there because the people whose stories she tells believe in it as part of life.

 Island Beneath the Sea, set in late 1700s Saint-Domingue (which became Haiti) is the story of Zarite, a sugar plantation house slave. It covers a time period and subject matter similar to Andrea Levy's The Long Song. Levy's book was set in Jamaica so it was interesting to see the parallel history of slavery on both islands.

 Later in Allende's book, after the slave rebellion, Zarite and her master relocate to New Orleans, giving the author the scope to explore sugar plantation and Creole society there at the turn of the 19th century through the eyes of both a white master and a slave. In My Big Fat Reading Project, I have visited New Orleans many times, so I felt right at home.

 What I love most about Allende's sensibility is her basic premise that women, for better or for worse, actually run the world because of their love of men, their sort of underground network and behind the scenes machinations, all of which are driven by a purpose to create children and families; to provide healing and wisdom; to deliver men from their foolishness. She makes me ponder questions about male/female balance and master/slave dynamics in a more spiritual, organic way than authors like Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood, adding another facet to the equation.

(Island Beneath the Sea is available in hardcover while the supply lasts on the new book shelves (also called The Barn) at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE ASSISTANT

The Assistant, Bernard Malamud, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1957, 246 pp

  I quite liked Malamud's first novel, The Natural. This is his second novel and I liked it less. 

  A poverty-stricken Jewish man runs a failing grocery store in Brooklyn. He is presented as a failure of a man. All he knows is dogged persistence and hard work. He considers himself unlucky, but actually he lacks the killer instinct needed for business success. He is an immigrant from Russian pogroms, his wife is a nag, he lost a son when that boy was young and has a grown daughter who would have liked to go to college but works as a lowly secretary to help support the family.

 The "assistant" is a non-Jewish orphan who has never succeeded at anything and has become a petty criminal. Due to various occurrences these two men enter into a relationship which is more like a deathlock, when the store owner hires the other as his assistant.

 The one thing I admired about this dark tale was the way the author would tease the reader into hoping that life would improve for these characters and then would dash those hopes as the fatal flaws of each sent them back to paths of hopelessness and destruction. Somehow, Malamud does this over and over, managing to raise the hope each time.

 When it all ended, I felt I'd been had. I concluded that the author's theme was that there were other sides to life than the happy, hopeful ideals of the 1950s.

(The Assistant is available by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE WIND DONE GONE

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The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001, 208 pp

I have not yet ever read Gone With the Wind, though I have seen the movie countless times. I have read Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley's supposed sequel and vaguely remember it. It's been seventeen years since I read it. The Wind Done Gone is a brilliant novel of imagination and truth concerning Cynara, daughter of Mammy and Mr O'Hara (the owner of Tara). Cynara was born in the same year as Scarlett. Through her diary we learn about her life, her relationship to Scarlett and Mammy and others from Gone With the Wind.

Alice Randall is a woman of color who most recently published Rebel Yell. She is also an award winning songwriter, a screenwriter and journalist. Man, can she write! She first read Gone With the Wind at age twelve and began to wonder where were the mulatto children of Tara? This is her imagined answer.

I love the title. I loved Cynara, her emotional journey, her strength and her wit. If you don't know the story of Gone With the Wind, you might not get how great is The Wind Done Gone. It would be worth reading both books or at least seeing the movie and then reading this lovely, intelligent, caustic novel.

I did like The Help, but I would like a book about that period of history from a black woman's side of the story. Actually, Alice Randall did write part of it in Rebel Yell. Now I've got to go read her second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, while I hope she keeps writing novels for years to come.

(The Wind Done Gone is available in hardcover, paperback and audio by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. To find it at your nearest indie bookstore, click on the cover image above.)

MIRACLES ON MAPLE HILL

Miracles on Maple Hill, Virginia Sorensen, Harcourt Inc, 1956, 232 pp

 I know I have some readers who like to read my reviews of children's books and I am sorry I have been remiss on posting them lately. For a while I was trying to post about a good family read every Sunday but suddenly my Sundays got full of family events, etc. So here we go with a family read on Monday!

Miracles on Maple Hill won the Newbery Award in 1957. It is a lovely story with a fast pace, believable characters and conveys much truth. I found it unique among the Newbery winners I have read so far because the loveliness is not cloying and the truths are nicely incorporated into the story, never coming across as "lessons." Virginia Sorenson is an extremely fine writer. Best of all, I was not bored once while reading it.

 Marly is an exuberant and perceptive young girl with an annoying older brother who truly does "know it all" and likes to be first. As Marly puts it, "Boys were queer. They seemed afraid they'd stop being boys altogether if they couldn't be first at everything." Still, she loves Joe and does her best to keep up with him.

 The big problem in their family is their father. He came back from the Korean War in bad shape: nervous, irritable and depressed. The solution is to go to their mother's childhood home in upstate Pennsylvania where maple syrup is made, where life is simpler and Daddy can recover in what Grandma calls "all outdoors."

 Of course it all works out but along the way the children meet unusual but wonderful people both young and old while they have the kinds of adventures that can only be had in rural areas. I think kids today, who are barely allowed to play outside and have most of their activities planned for them and supervised by adults, might just enjoy a story about kids who get to roam the "all outdoors," face a little danger and have adventures. The book did not feel old fashioned, it just felt rural.

 This is not a story about being a good child. Instead, Marly comes to understand herself, life and people by interacting with the unique qualities, both positive and negative, of individuals. Plus, the reader learns how maple syrup is collected and made.

 (Miracles on Maple Hill is available in paperback on the Newbery shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

A DRAM OF POISON

A Dram of Poison, Charlotte Armstrong, White Lion Publishers, 1956, 221 pp

 This mystery won the Edgar Award in 1957. It is unusual in that it is also a love story and a psychological portrait of a man finding his true nature. 

 Kenneth Gibson is a fifty-five year old bachelor leading a dull but comfortable and well-ordered life as a teacher. He is prone to helping people, especially fairly helpless characters. He takes on Rosemary, newly widowed and drowning in the fear of being alone. His attitude toward her is in a Henry Higgins mode but eventually they fall in love, despite a 23 year difference in age.

 Bad things begin to happen, Kenneth becomes distraught and reckless, while the suspense builds inexorably until the final pages when all is resolved. Kenneth's psychopathic sister and deadly poison are involved.

 Many intriguing and well-developed characters fill this very short book. In fact, the economy of the writing shows a master at work. Armstrong seamlessly incorporates philosophy and psychology into a unique take on a mystery.

(I could not find A Dram of Poison in any of my libraries. It is available from used book sellers.)

MOCKINGBIRD

Mockingbird, A Portrait of Harper Lee, Charles J Shields, Henry Holt and Company, 2006, 288pp

 Considering that he had no access to Harper Lee and that no one else had published a book length biography about her before Mr Shields, I have to admire what he put together in Mockingbird. My only complaint is that his writing style is so clunky that reading the book was rather a drowsy chore.

 I enjoyed reading about how Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, found an agent and publisher, went through the editing process and then the whole fame and publicity thing. I also liked the sections on her assistance to Truman Capote as he researched In Cold Blood. Because I had seen "Capote," the movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman, I had some background on that period of their lives.

 I was also pleased that Shields presented the information he discovered about Ms Lee's failure to publish any more novels without advancing an analysis of his own about why. He demonstrated a level of respect for the privacy she obviously desires.

 Somehow, I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird nor seen the movie. As this year is the 50th anniversary of the book's publication, it is a good time to add it to my reading list. Mockingbird is worth reading, both as a biography and as a look at that period in history. Just be prepared for some dry patches.

(Mockingbird is available in paperback at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE FIELD OF VISION

The Field of Vision, Wright Morris, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1956, 251 pp

The National Book Award winner for 1957 was a challenging read. The entire story, such as it is, takes place during a bullfight in Mexico. I have yet to read a bullfight story I liked. Most of the book consists of flashbacks concerning the people involved in the life of a man names McKee. For the entire first half of it, I was not completely sure who anyone was.

 Each character is a variation on eccentricity and most of them live in Omaha, Nebraska, though off the beaten path of mainstream American life. Some of them have sparks of being gifted, whether as an artist or a frontiersman, except for McKee himself who is a dud trying to make sense of all these oddballs.

 The bullfight and arena (the field of vision) are meant to be symbolic. The theme seemed to me to be something about the banality of America. Wright Morris claims that he wrote the book to show that "the range and nature of the plains imagination...contains elements that are peculiarly American...There, mirrored in the bullring, a group of touring plainsmen see, for the first time, the drama of their tangled lives."

 I am grateful he explained that on the jacket flap because otherwise I would have missed it. I did not enjoy reading this book.

(If, after my underwhelming review, you would like to read The Field of Vision, it is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BARN BLIND

Barn Blind, Jane Smiley, Random House Inc, 1980, 218 pp

 Reading Jane Smiley's first novel was a pleasure and a revelation. I've only previously read one of her books: Good Faith. I liked it a lot but didn't love it. I've read most of her book about writing, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, which is a bit dry in parts but from which I learned more about literature and derived inspiration as a writer. One summer I heard Jane Smiley speak at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books where she impressed me with her intelligence. Later I met her in the ladies' room where she impressed me with her height; she is at least as tall as Julia Child was.

  So I've always had the idea that I would read more of her books, finally deciding to read them in the order in which she published them, which is my way of getting to know an author. Barn Blind is astoundingly good for a first novel. The characters are rich and deep. It is their interrelationships which drive the story: brothers and sister, kids to parents, mother to children and husband/father to wife and kids. With admirable economy she gets all these relationships into a little over 200 pages.

 The mother is much more invested in her career as a horse woman (breeder, riding instructor and horse show presenter) than she is in her children. She uses her children to advance her career dreams and they are overpowered by her, causing varying degrees of trouble. From the opening chapter, you know that tragedy looms and the impending doom stuck me like glue to the book.

 There is something about people and the connection with animals that makes for compelling stories. Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The Three Junes, The God of Animals, all came to mind as I read Barn Blind. I am excited to read more Jane Smiley. From interviews I can see that she lives by her own internal compass. That is my kind of woman and in the two books I have read so far, I have found a kindred spirit.

(Another out of print book. Wow, it is getting scary how many books are vanishing from stores. Anyway, it is available in paperback from libraries and used book sellers.)