Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

March 19, 2025

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

Montana 1915: Adelaide Henry is a "lone woman," a single woman who purchases a plot of land and becomes a homesteader. She leaves everything behind in California, especially her family, her sins, and her past, travelling only with a large heavy steamer trunk. She purchases a desolate plot far away from any neighbors, yet they find her anyway, and Adelaide gradually becomes part of a community. She soon realizes that many people come to Montana to escape the past and start over. Yet Adelaide is hiding something far worse than most of the and when her secret comes out, people start to disappear.

Genre blending fiction, part well-research historical fiction, part horror. Good descriptions of survival on a lonely homestead near a small town. In the early 20th century, Montana was one of the few places where a single woman could own land and homestead without a man to co-sign for them - even Black women like Adelaide could own land. Like others, I kept reading to find out what was in the trunk. A look at the American frontier like you've never seen it before, a suitable if unusual choice for Women's History Month.

Montana homestead, 1915

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

July 6, 2024

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

John Chenneville, a lieutenant in the Union Army and a telegrapher, suffers a grave head injury in the waning days of the Civil War that leaves him in a coma for months. When he recovers consciousness, the war is over and most of the troops have returned home. His injury forces him to re-learn to speak, walk, and perform basic tasks. When he finally arrives at his family home outside St. Louis, he finds out that his younger sister, her husband and their baby son have all been murdered by a sheriff's deputy. The deputy has gone on to murder several other people. When he discovers that the local sheriff has no intention of bringing the man to justice for the murders, John vows to hunt the man down and exact his own revenge.

I think I started this once before but had to return it because there was a waiting list. I'm glad I decided to go back to it - it was totally worth it. I loved Jiles' previous book News of the World (which is referenced once toward the end of this book), and this novel features the same type of knight errant as the protagonist in her previous book. John knows that his actions are criminal and that he is planning to commit murder, but he lives according to his own single-minded code of right and wrong. Wonderfully written, highly recommended to readers of historical and literary fiction.

19th century telegraph office, with a female telegrapher

Inland by Tea Obreht

August 14, 2019

Inland by Tea Obreht

Orphaned at a young age and wanted for murder in Missouri Territory in 1856, Lurie stumbles upon a shipment of camels being brought to Arizona Territory by the U.S. Army intending to test their use as pack animals in desert areas.  He becomes a cameleer, forming a bond with one particular camel he calls Burke.  Forty years later, Nora Lark and her family are living in the middle of a drought in Arizona Territory.  Nora’s husband, who runs the local newspaper, left the ranch eight days earlier in search of water and hasn’t been heard from since.  Her older sons have gone off to find their father, leaving Nora alone at the ranch with her youngest son, her invalid mother-in-law, and her husband’s cousin who holds seances – even the homestead dogs have disappeared.  Their stories finally intersect in an unexpected way.  Recommended for readers who enjoyed Toni Morrison’s Beloved or Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Tea Obreht writes lush, beautiful prose, and I had been looking forward to reading Inland, but the pace is really slow, plus there are many characters and it takes quite a while to get into the story.  Told from two viewpoints (Lurie and Nora), their stories don’t intersect until the last quarter of the book.  Lurie’s story is fairly linear and contains a good amount of action, while Nora’s story is more stagnant but jumps around a lot in time.  There is a feeling of dread that underlies the text, like the oppressive heat and drought in the Arizona desert.  A number of characters in the book are communicating with the dead or might be dead themselves (not sure how much this element adds to the story).  Certain aspects of the plot come together very late in the last quarter of the book, when a character that has been mentioned frequently (essentially the town bogeyman) finally appears and explains or confirms what has been hinted at throughout the book.  The ending felt rushed, with Nora foreseeing the future after taking a drink of “magic” water.  While other readers may have enjoyed Inland, I was disappointed.

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison

Monday, June 17, 2019

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison

Sometimes a minor decision changes everything.  The year is 1885.  After the death of her father, Jessilyn dresses like a boy and changes her name to Jesse, and sets out to find her outlaw brother Noah.  Earning her living as a sharpshooter as she travels, Jesse gets the same high from shooting as she does from a jolt of whiskey.  Noah’s gang are heralded as heroes by the local people, like Robin Hood's men.  When Jesse finally catches up with her brother, she finds herself attracted to a woman gunfighter named Annette.

There are traditional Western elements like gunfights, violence, and the righting of wrongs, but without the traditional western romanticism.  In its place are strong female characters and themes of gender and identity, sexual orientation, and race, while searching for the meaning of family and home.  Will appeal to readers who enjoyed Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry or True Grit by Charles Portis.  (The first 2/3 of the book was fast-paced and gripping, but it lagged little after Jesse joins the gang.)