ELEANOR'S SONG

A resilient young girl faces extreme poverty and violence during the 1930s and 1940s in Field’s historical novel.

The story begins in December of 1927 with a devastating automobile accident. Nineteen-year-old Margarete Bowerman Owens is en route to the Seattle train depot, fleeing her abusive husband and attempting to bring her 3-month-old daughter to her own mother’s farm in eastern Oregon. But Margarete’s car is brutally pushed off the road, and only baby Eleanor survives. Five years later, the musically inclined Eleanor is being raised by her maternal grandmother, Delores Bowerman. Although Delores, whose husband abandoned her, was already caring for her own five children at the time of the accident, she took her infant granddaughter when Eleanor’s father said he couldn’t care for her. It is a hardscrabble life, and little Eleanor feels bereft of a parent’s love. Still, in 1935, when the father she has not seen for seven years sues to regain custody of her, she elects to remain with her grandmother, despite his bribes of fine clothes and toys. This was a wise choice; several years later, when she travels to Seattle to help care for her aunt’s young children, her father sexually assaults her. Further trauma awaits her: The following years are filled with hopes, disappointments, and an impulsive, abusive marriage that she regrets immediately. The author effectively portrays the difficulties and desperation of poverty-level farm life through the years of the Great Depression: “Bread, milk from their Jersey cow Babe, last summer’s canned spinach, and a few eggs were all the family had for their dinners.” But there is also a throughline acknowledging the strength Eleanor gains from family ties and her young uncles’ loving support. Although the storyline frequently lapses into melodrama, complete with bad guys who are exceptionally evil, the evocative prose and several scenes of intense action make the narrative addictive. Vividly graphic scenes of violence animate the second half of the novel, culminating in a thrillingly explosive life-and-death battle.

A disturbing, occasionally overwrought period piece with moments of grace and a sturdy hero.