A moving, disturbing, and hilarious story of postwar rural America.
A Scandinavian community experiences trials and small triumphs in this novel set in post–World War II Minnesota.
Capable Tia Fiskum, unlike many other young people in Tolga Township, longs to one day take over her family’s farm. Her dreams are shattered, though, when the man she loves, Clyde Hanson, marries a town girl, Vera, who’s repulsed by farm life and dreams of running away to California. Meanwhile, Frieda Carlson, the young German wife of a war veteran, struggles with her English and the provincialism of her Norwegian neighbors. When Tia’s brother Norman returns from the army, everyone assumes that he’ll take over the farm that Tia covets. But his alcoholism and wanderlust instead drive Tia to shield Norman from scandal—particularly from Tillie, the eavesdropping town gossip. It was Norman who planted the shelterbelts, rows of trees that form a windbreak, around the town. Just as some of those trees have fallen while others have remained upright, some of the residents of Tolga Township fall to tragedy while others draw upon reserves of strength from unlikely sources—even the supernatural: when Nels Carlson claims a miraculous recovery from arthritis, the town’s good Lutherans fear that he’s become a fanatic. This latest novel by Simar (Blooming Prairie, 2012, etc.) is an engrossing portrayal of Norwegian farmers whose passive aggression tamps down their real passions. Each chapter is written from a different point of view, some in first person and some in third, and through them, Simar weaves a tale of longing, jealousy, rage, lies, and joy. Although the characters often back-stab one another, they also come together with genuine warmth when one of them is in trouble. Characters that could have been clichéd are instead made fresh by Simar’s revelations of their fears and hopes. The humor is appropriately subtle and sarcastic, and the descriptions (“Gunda Olson unfolded from the kitchen chair like a rusty pocket knife”) are delightful.
A moving, disturbing, and hilarious story of postwar rural America.Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-87839-817-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.
Things are about to get bloody for a group of Charleston housewives.
In 1988, the scariest thing in former nurse Patricia Campbell’s life is showing up to book club, since she hasn’t read the book. It’s hard to get any reading done between raising two kids, Blue and Korey, picking up after her husband, Carter, a psychiatrist, and taking care of her live-in mother-in-law, Miss Mary, who seems to have dementia. It doesn’t help that the books chosen by the Literary Guild of Mt. Pleasant are just plain boring. But when fellow book-club member Kitty gives Patricia a gloriously trashy true-crime novel, Patricia is instantly hooked, and soon she’s attending a very different kind of book club with Kitty and her friends Grace, Slick, and Maryellen. She has a full plate at home, but Patricia values her new friendships and still longs for a bit of excitement. When James Harris moves in down the street, the women are intrigued. Who is this handsome night owl, and why does Miss Mary insist that she knows him? A series of horrific events stretches Patricia’s nerves and her Southern civility to the breaking point. (A skin-crawling scene involving a horde of rats is a standout.) She just knows James is up to no good, but getting anyone to believe her is a Sisyphean feat. After all, she’s just a housewife. Hendrix juxtaposes the hypnotic mundanity of suburbia (which has a few dark underpinnings of its own) against an insidious evil that has taken root in Patricia’s insular neighborhood. It’s gratifying to see her grow from someone who apologizes for apologizing to a fiercely brave woman determined to do the right thing—hopefully with the help of her friends. Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls, 2018, etc.) cleverly sprinkles in nods to well-established vampire lore, and the fact that he’s a master at conjuring heady 1990s nostalgia is just the icing on what is his best book yet.
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68369-143-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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