A fact-filled but somewhat dry look at farm life in 19th-century America.
In a bid to avoid military conscription, a farming family leaves its Prussian home in the 1880s to seek a new future in the United States in this debut historical novel.
August Mallast fought in three wars as a young man. Now, as a father of seven, he fears his eldest sons may soon be forced into military service. With trouble brewing for the German empire on multiple fronts, August and his wife, Rosina, make plans to immigrate to the U.S. The two oldest Mallast boys—Rudolph and Adolph—are the first to make the journey, crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard the SS Oder. August, Rosina, and the rest of the children follow later on the SS Wieland. And after a brief reunion in New York, the family sets off together for the Midwest. Its destination? Michigan, a state that the clan is told has “lots of land and opportunities to pursue farming without high taxes or the need to support centuries-old hierarchies.” Shortly after their arrival, the Mallasts secure a lease on a farm near Lake St. Clair, five miles east of Mount Clemens. In subsequent years, the family logs long hours tending crops and livestock in hopes of putting down permanent roots with the purchase of their own farmland. The author hews closely to the facts when reconstructing this immigrant tale. The main characters, August and Rosina, are based on Prevost’s great-grandparents, and insider details about farmhouse dinners and favorite pastimes add to the tale’s authenticity. Readers should also delight in the historic family photos included in the book. But the author’s reluctance to stray from documented facts leaves the novel feeling unfinished. The story is driven by the records available rather than the characters. Prevost includes blow-by-blow accounts of several family land deals. But scant attention is paid to the emotional highs and lows experienced by the Mallasts as they make their way in a new land.
A fact-filled but somewhat dry look at farm life in 19th-century America.Pub Date: June 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9846369-0-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: RLP Industries
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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