Two Novels

Do you ever read a book that just stays with you? You've finished the book, but it almost feels sad to be done because it feels like you're leaving your friends behind?

That's how I felt about a pair of books I finished recently:  Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, and True Places by Sonja Yoerg. Both books were featured consecutively in my local book club. Both featured female central characters who lived outside the mainstream in rural midAtlantic states. Both cause the reader to examine just what it is we need to feel fulfilled in our lives, right along with the protagonists of each book.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, the book, set in the mid 1900s, takes off with young Kya's mom walking down the road and away from their North Carolina coastal marshland shack, fleeing an abusive marriage. One by one, every member of Kya's family leaves her, until at last she is the only one who remains. Kya turns to the marsh itself for solace: ""The sun, warm as a blanket, wrapped Kya's shoulders, coaxing her deeper into the marsh. ...whenever she stumbled, it was the land that caught her. Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother." p. 34

But even the marsh can't protect her from natural human longing for companionship, as she grows up alone, living out her days with gulls and tides as friends. The dual storyline in this book follows a murder investigation and trial of surrounding the death of a prominent young man from the local community, found dead not far from the marsh Kya calls home. Was Kya, the "Marsh Girl," involved somehow?

True Places brings a character very similar to Kya, a young girl named Iris, into our lives, yet in a modern-day setting. This book begins very similarly to Where the Crawdads Sing; Iris has been living alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surviving off the land, her father has left the family and her mother has died. Iris is picked up along the roadside by the mom of a quintessential modern family, Suzanne. Suzanne's own two teenage children, Brynn and Reid, are nearly estranged as they are caught up in their own struggles with modern life in the Instagram and Snapchat era. Will Iris' pure innocence make or break this family as they navigate through the mess of possessions, appearances, and relationships that have come to define their lives?

There are many common themes and motifs between these two books, and both are written very well. I especially loved the nature writing in Where the Crawdads Sing, which was beautiful and yet not superfluous. It always seemed to serve the plot or the setting of the story, and in that way, reminded me of some of Barbara Kingsolver's work.  In True Places, I loved how the narration slipped between each of the different characters and did so convincingly. I found myself somewhat fatally attracted to the teenage daughter, Brynn, and thought the writing on that character in particular was spot on. She was a perfect representation of a modern teenage girl--you could feel the sarcasm oozing and practically felt spurned yourself through her many perceived eyerolls.

Overall, while both books were really great and kept me completely absorbed, I liked Where the Crawdads Sing a little bit better. The main character was so compelling, and I just found myself completely cheering for her until the very end. In that sense, it reminded me of another great book, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which I also highly recommend.  In comparing those two books, they both feature women who are stronger than they first realize, who have been through trauma, and who have been marginalized from mainstream society, in one way or another.

Lastly, if you take Crawdads as an ovearching metaphor for the sort of struggle between human-kind and nature, I think it's comparable to A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. Both could be considered allegory for mankind taking advantage of, or manipulating, nature. In one, the ending is very satisfying, while in the other, it feels very pessimistic.  I'll let you read either or both books, and tell me what you think.

If you're looking for a great piece of writing with compelling characters and great plot, and you're willing to give yourself completely to a book, try either Where the Crawdads Sing, or True Places. You might find a new favorite that you can't put down and you'll certainly welcome a few unforgettable new fictional friends into your life!



Check out these two books on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36809135-where-the-crawdads-sing

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39904267-true-places

Montana Magazine Celebrates Centennial Farms

Almost a year ago now, we had a visit to our farm from a photographer who was doing a story on farms and ranches in Montana that had been in the same family for 100 years. Our farm was homesteaded in 1910, so our centennial was celebrated four years ago, but it was still cool to be included in the story, which was printed in this most recent issue of Montana Magazine.

Here's a link:

http://montanamagazine.com/portfolio-century-stories/

The web article isn't as good as the print article, so if you're in Montana, pick up a copy of Montana Magazine at your local independent book store and check it out. The photography is pretty good in the story, even if some of the details aren't 100 % correct. They do mention our involvement in Farmers Union, and that our farm was homesteaded by Jeff's Great-Grandmother (rare for women to homestead!), but then they never mention that we are from Inverness.

Here's another link to a blog post I did a few years ago that talks about our farm being homesteaded: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8925967694042657102#editor/target=post;postID=3473278006020582098;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=135;src=postname

All the same, it's cool to be featured and even more cool to be part of this great family tradition of farming and ranching. This is a unique lifestyle and each and every farm is unique. We are lucky to carry on the family business in this beautiful place!

This photo was taken back in May I think. 

Mucky and Ducky



 

"It's cool and mucky; now it's ducky! Better pack a sweater." 

 

So begins the Weather segment of the August calendar page in our edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac.   Does anyone read those things? Actually, what I meant was, does anyone read those things and take them seriously?  Is it the OLD FARMER's almanac, or is it the OLD ALMANAC belonging to farmers? Does it not count if I read it and I'm not an old farmer? Do I have to pass it off to the nearest septuagenarian agrarian for oral readings?

 

All that aside, out of curiosity, I opened ours up for the first time today. We were given it as a Christmas stocking stuffer.  Maybe Jeff reads it some (he's not old yet and neither am I), but this was a first time for me.  The weather prediction in the calendar for our region for the month of August has so far been pretty accurate. According to the almanac, temperatures were supposed to be about 4 degrees below average (check!), precipitation about 3 ", or 1" above average (check!), and with daily scattered thunderstorms (check!).  Cool, wet, and humid have ruled the first four days of August.  It's not exactly ideal harvest weather.

 

After coming back from the fair last Sunday, Jeff and I spent some time prepping for harvest.  We greased and readied the combine, washed windows on it and the grain trucks, vacuumed all the vehicles, prepared the auger, and moved to the field.  We were starting on our yellow field peas, north of our house. It's a new combine and header for us this year, so Jeff was anxious to give it a whirl.  We tried it out on the peas that night, so the official First Day of Harvest was Sunday, June 28.



Prepping the Combine



It took until Thursday, August 1 to finish cutting our peas.  And that was only about 250 acres.  Those dang thunderstorms halted harvest for a few days in there, between Sunday and Thursday.  Days when it didn't rain, there was so much dew that cutting couldn't begin until late in the afternoon.  Wednesday and Thursday were big days of low moisture, however, which allowed the pea crop on our farm to cut completely.  Just in time for the next bout of thunderstorms.  Friday and Saturday saw a lot of rain in this country, which is abnormal for this time of year. Perhaps if we had consulted our Farmer's Almanac back in January, we would have known this ahead of time... alas, I don't think any of our plans would have changed! 

 

Everyone is hoping to get back in the field as soon as possible.  If we get some good warm, drying days, it could be by Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll have to remember to pack my sweater! We are ready to be done with the mucky, ducky humidity and get some grains in the bin. If harvest continues to be postponed, I'll have plenty of time to revisit the Old Farmer's Almanac for a little light reading.  Next up, "The Right Way to Kiss," on page 172!

 

Harvey posing for yet another glamour shot.

Abby: "Well, if you guys aren't going to pet me, I'll just rest here in the shade!"

Cutting Peas on the First Day of Harvest, July 28.

Havre Book Exchange

I love a good book store.  Even better is a book exchange where you can bring in volumes you have already read but don't necessarily want to keep in your permanent collection, and earn credit towards new purchases.

Yesterday on my trip to Havre, I stopped in at Havre Book Exchange to make my first trades.  I brought in 5 or 6 paperbacks and one hard cover.  For paperbacks, you get credit towards 'purchase' of any other used paperback in store.  I can't remember what the ratio was, but it was something like one half of the original value, and could only be credited towards used paperbacks.  Hard Cover earns you one quarter of the original value, but you can spend that credit on anything in the store.

Only one of the books I brought in was denied for trade, and that was because they already had several copies of that book.  Everything else was approved.  After my trade, I came away with three used paperbacks:

Moo, by Jane Smiley
The Runaway Jury, John Grisham
The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly

I also picked up Blind Your Ponies, a New paperback, by Stanley Gordon West.  It is a novel with the small town of Willow Creek, MT at its core.  Looks pretty good.

I'll keep you all updated as I finish these or other books.  I don't review everything I read, just books that I think deserve a few words.  I've got enough to keep me going for a while, now, though.

Blindness: A Book Review

Some of you who know me know that I enjoy a good book.  I try to read a variety of fiction and non-fiction, everything from the classics (I am trying to read everything by Steinbeck, one of my favorites) to deliciously light and predictable mystery/thriller paperbacks.  My most recent read is Blindness by Jose Saramago, which I just finished last night. 

In Blindness, an entire city is overcome by an inexplicable illness wherein all the residents come down with 'white blindness'-- they are blind, but instead of seeing everything black, it is as though there is a white light shining into their eyes.  All the afflicted are herded up and brought to a former insane asylum for quarantine.  Within the quarantine they are subject to every possible humiliation and degradation. They are reduced to living as animals, with "packs" competing one against the other.  They live among their own filth (the toilets plug early on, and when you're blind you can't see where you're going anyway), their food rations arrive sporadically, and the women are forced into unthinkable acts of profanity to earn what food there is to be shared.   It is a living hell. 

They are all blind, save one.  The Doctor's Wife, as we know her, (Saramago does not give any of his characters formal names) has feigned blindness so she could stay with her husband. It is through her eyes that the reader sees the atrocities occuring in the forsaken asylum. It is she who becomes the heroine of the story and eventually leads her own small band of compatriots out of the asylum back into the heart of the city. 

The writing style Saramago uses in Blindness is tedious as well.  The book is laid out in lengthy paragraphs. There is a lot of stream-of-consciousness, and dialogue is embedded.  There is also less punctuation.  While it is difficult and slow to read, this writing style forces the reader to pay very close attention to what is happening.  Saramago does not want us to miss anything. 

To me, a major theme seems to be totalitarianism vs. anarchy.  Are the people better off with the government supposedly taking care of them?  What happens if this government abandons its people?  And yet, when there is no government left to take care of its charges, the people self-organize anyway. 

Another major theme is human nature at its best and worst.  There are moments in this book that make you hate what humankind can bring itself to do, and also moments of supreme generosity and kindness that not only make up for the darkness, but give a sense of hope. Every possible human emotion is explored in Blindness.

To be honest, Blindness is, well... not my favorite.  Reading Blindness was like watching the movie Requiem for a Dream.  I don't know if any of you have seen that movie, but if you have, you will know what I mean.  Requiem for a Dream and Blindness are both very dark, very graphic, and emotionally wrenching, and leave you thinking about what you have read/seen for a long time.  They are both very well done, but yet not enjoyable.  Does that make sense?

Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998; Blindness was published in 1997.  I would deduce that this book had something to do with why he won the prize. As I said, it is extremely well written and brings up some major themes that are very relevant to modern times.  One other review I read stated, "This is an important book, one that is unafraid to face all of the horrors of the (20th) centry," (The Washington Post).  I think it is important to acknowledge and learn from past human tragedies and triumphs, but I like to enjoy what I read.  Blindness is a masterful work of fiction, but for me, it was simply not enjoyable.