A mesmerizing character study of a complicated man, a convincing portrait of an arranged marriage and a seamlessly authentic...
In the first novel of Ross’ trilogy, a 19th-century pioneer couple struggles to carve out a life on the remote central California coast.
Living in an isolated stretch of the Big Sur coastline in the late 1800s, Zande Allan sends for a wife to help him produce the sons he needs to run his growing cattle ranch. But from the moment Hannah Martin steps off the train in Monterey, he’s disappointed: Hannah’s older than her advertised 25 years, plain and soft; she’s a sheltered girl from the Midwest with no idea how to get by on a rustic ranch as a “proper” wife. While Zande fights to increase his landholdings and stock in the inhospitable—but beautiful—Big Sur area he loves, Hannah proves to be more than a match for his hardworking, hardscrabble life. Now, if only Zande can overcome his misplaced pride that keeps them from becoming true partners. First published in 1942, Ross’ novel is more than a pioneer romance. Ross lived on her homestead in the Big Sur area from 1923 until her death in 1959, and her novel has the realism of a documentary. As a character, Zande isn’t sugarcoated; relentlessly honest, he’s true to the mores of the time and his surroundings. He’s chauvinist, racist, brutal and ruthless. But, determined and tough, he’s also faithful to his own strict moral code. Like the feral grizzly bear he battles in the book, Zande is fascinating to watch. Ross’ writing isn’t the typical language of romance novels, either: Her prose is simple and spare. Zande’s rough dialect, for instance, is essential to his complex character. Hannah is equally compelling; resourceful, proud and as steadfast as Zande, she likewise struggles with the everyday challenges of living in a land with no roads, no schools and no close neighbors, amid constant threats to their survival.
A mesmerizing character study of a complicated man, a convincing portrait of an arranged marriage and a seamlessly authentic glimpse into the hard life of the coast’s pioneer ranchers.Pub Date: April 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1938924002
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Coast Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
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