An enjoyable tale of Canadian pioneer life inspired by the author’s family history.
A young woman from Iowa settles in Canada in the 19th century.
This novel is the lightly fictionalized tale of Malmqvist’s (The Drone at the Diamond Valley Chop Shop, 2019, etc.) great-great-grandmother that’s based on both family lore and documented history. Julia, the daughter of a French Canadian man and his Oglala Sioux and French wife, leaves her Iowa farm at age 8 after her father kills a thief and antagonizes the local authorities. The family spends several years on a nearby reservation with relatives. After the U.S. government opens land for settlement, Julia and her family set out for Oregon in 1865. During the trip, they are attacked by Blackfoot, and Julia and two younger siblings are adopted by the tribe. Their transition is aided by the presence of Sara, another white adoptee. At 15, Julia marries Moïse (the book’s title refers to the bride price he pays) and joins him on his Oregon farm. After several years of marriage and a reunion with her father, Julia is convinced by Moïse to move to Canada’s newly organized Northwest Territory, where the family settles into ranching in a rural community in southern Alberta. The group later adapts to the arrival of the train and other connections to the wider world. An author’s note elaborates on the historical Julia’s experiences and how Malmqvist came to learn about her family’s past. The novel does an excellent job of capturing Julia’s discomfort as her way of life repeatedly changes (“This was the first house that I’d been in since we’d fled our farm in Iowa when I was a small child”). And while the kidnapped-by–Native Americans trope is a frequently problematic one, the author balances the facts of Julia’s capture with well-rounded portrayals of her adoptive family. The writing is generally strong, although there are occasional bits of stilted dialogue as characters deliver historical trivia (“Have you heard of the Kentucky Derby?...The first race was held last year”). Still, Malmqvist generally turns limited facts into a plausible and highly readable narrative.
An enjoyable tale of Canadian pioneer life inspired by the author’s family history.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4531-3
Page Count: 211
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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