Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1987330 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-19
• Released on: 2007-03-27
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .85" h x 5.06" w x 7.96" l, .65 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Against the enormous beauty of the American Midwest depicted in Henderson's third novel, people cast small but significant shadows while tending to families as fragile as fallen leaves. The hero of this century-spanning epic is a tough, restless woman, Augusta "Gussie" Locke. Born in 1903 in rural Minnesota to the beautiful Leota and the coarse, handsome trapper Brud Tornig, Gussie proves a disappointing curiosity to her parents: homely, solitary and given to running away. When Gussie catches her father with another woman, she and Leota flee the state, landing in Greeley, Colo., where Leota marries the wealthy Mr. Locke. On her first day as a Locke, the teenage Gussie once again runs off, escaping civilized life to the mountains of Wyoming. There, she finds work with the oil and mineral crews in the Great Divide Basin and cares for her daughter, Anne, conceived on the run from Greeley. Anne's own trajectory echoes Gussie's, and before long Gussie must face her mother's fate: abandoned by her only child. Saturated with details of the natural Midwest, Henderson's work etches in high relief the image of a solitary life among scenic riches. There is, however, an emotional wall around Henderson's protagonist, inviolable even by such studied prose; as a result, some characters remain elusive, like a beautiful, sun-faded portrait. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Henderson's novel is an extraordinarily beautiful creation, brought to the reader on the wings of the ravens that serve as its protagonist's familiars. Told in languorous prose virtually encrusted with the details of nature--very reminiscent of Annie Dillard--this story follows Gussie Locke through a lifetime of wandering. As soon as she can walk, Gussie is tracing the paths of her natural surroundings, following the flight of ravens through northern Minnesota, a few steps behind her father. As she grows, so does her preference for quiet, for the smells and sensations of the earth, and for a life away from the rules of polite society. Escaping her mother and new stepfather, she passes a passionate night that leaves her with child, and the rest of the novel follows the life she makes as a single mother in the first half of the twentieth century. The tender descriptions of Gussie's love for her child are especially touching, given her hardness elsewhere. Rarely is a woman portrayed in this way without reducing her to someone with some kind of gender confusion, but Henderson avoids these cliches. Gussie is truly her own kind of woman, and her own kind of mother. As much a story of lineage and the meaning of family as it is a story of nature, this novel covers a lot of ground in greater detail than one would imagine possible in some 400 pages. Read slowly, and enjoy this raw and haunting tale. Debi Lewis
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