The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee, Harper Collins 2016. 416 pp.
This is a Western that took place ten years after the massacre at Wounded Knee and it is such a brutal time in the West. It is the story of a family and the secrets they kept that caused so much pain. The family is the Bennetts. J.D. had married Dulcinea and they were so much in love and had two sons Cullen and Hayward. They had a ranch in Dakota and their life might have been so good, except for J. D.’s father Drum, who was an evil man.
Around the time the story begins Dulcinea, although she still loved him and their sons, had left J. D. with no explanation, and Drum had taken Cullen to raise him to be a tough man, and he did not do this in a kind way. And then J. D. was murdered and found with Star a young Indian girl who has also been murdered. This was an unexplainable mystery that had to be solved.
There are also the ranch-hands and Indians, especially Star’s sister who is determined to find her sister’s killer. Agee is a wonderful writer and even though there was so much sadness you could also feel the beauty in the land around them and even though life could be so hard they could still love that land.
– C. M.
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill. Vintage Books, 2015. 525 pp.
One summer Velvet, an eleven year old girl from a Dominican family living in Brooklyn, with the help of the Fresh Air Fund, goes to spend two weeks with a family in upstate New York. She has a small brother and an anguished, abusive and yet loving mother who can neither read nor write. The family she will visit, Paul and Ginger Roberts, regret having no children of their own, and Ginger especially looks forward to the girl’s arrival.
This was supposed to be a one-time visit while Velvet’s mother searched for a new apartment, but as it turns out, there will be many more visits. Next door to the Roberts’ house there is a stable, and Ginger and Velvet go over to see the horses. This is, in a way, a life changing experience for Velvet. She is captivated by the horses and almost seems able to communicate with them. She is especially drawn to a horse named Fugly Girl that has been abused, is scarred, and kicks and crashes in her stall. But she approaches Velvet as though she knows her.
This novel is written in an unusual way. There are many characters in the book but the key ones take turns telling the tale in the first person. Throughout the book Ginger and Velvet alternate with the story. Sometimes Ginger’s husband Paul takes a turn, or Velvet’s mother or little brother. But we learn from Velvet her painful school experiences, what her childhood was like, her difficulties with her mother. Ginger tells us the secrets in her own life. The reader gets to know these people. Throughout the book we keep going back to the stable and the relationship between Velvet and Fugly Girl, or Fiery Girl as Velvet renamed her. This is a great book – take my word.
–P. M.