Book-It '10! Book #16
Mar. 9th, 2010 06:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky
Details: Copyright 2008, Penguin Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Set in the Kaw River Valley where Paretsky grew up, Bleeding Kansas is the story of the Schapens and the Grelliers, two farm families whose histories have been entwined since the 1850s, when their ancestors settled the valley as antislavery emigrants.
Today, the Schapen family, terrified by the lawlessness of the 1970s—when Lawrence was the most violent college town in the nation—has turned to that old-time religion for security. The Schapens keep a close eye on all their neighbors, most especially the Grelliers. They maintain careful track of everyone’s misdeeds, printing the most egregious on their family website. When Gina Haring, a Wiccan, moves into an empty farmhouse and starts practicing pagan rites, the Schapens are so outraged that they begin an active harassment campaign against the Wiccans.
The family members worry, too, about who stands better with the Lord, they or the Grelliers. When a Schapen cow gives birth to what may be a “Perfect Red Heifer” —needed if the temple is ever rebuilt in Jerusalem—the Schapens feel convinced that God is indeed smiling on them.
The pastor at their church, the Salvation Bible Church, proclaims:
'We have been given a miracle, a chance to make history in Kansas. The nation and the world laugh at us. "What is the matter with Kansas?", liberals ask. We have a chance to say, "Nothing’s the matter with Kansas; everything’s right with Kansas." What’s the matter is that this nation has turned its back on the truth of the risen Lord.'
Despite parental cautions, the Grelliers’ teenage children are enraged by the Schapens. All their short lives, they and the young Schapens have fought, first in their country school and now in high school. One particularly angry confrontation causes Chip Grellier to be expelled from school and consequently to join the army. Chip’s death in Iraq is the catalyzing event for momentous, even monstrous, changes in the lives of not only both the Schapens and the Grelliers but of all the families in the Valley. The powerful, climactic scene at Gina Haring’s Samhain bonfire will forever haunt the reader."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Yet another find in the search for Pagan fiction that wasn't The Mists of Avalon or a clone thereof.
How I Liked It: Sara Paretsky is apparently an esteemed author with a devoted following for her recurring mystery series. This book is apparently a departure close to the author's heart and a sort of love-letter to her home.
The beginning hits us with too many characters and not enough introductions and a personal introduction from Paretsky that just confuses things (and that belongs as an afterward, frankly). Once in, however, the story is compelling if some of the characters are fairly to completely flat. It can probably be credited to Paretsky's primary work in mystery fiction that the book captures and keeps one's interest, but then you would have to wonder why the plot would peter out the way it did. I was left wanting more of the story since it has an unfinished feel, but it's Paretsky's skill with drawing the reader in that makes me even care.
As far as the depiction of Paganism, Paretsky's version isn't particularly remarkable; it merely serves as an "outsider" status in a small town mentality. As far as accuracy, the holidays and traditions associated therein check out. Something might be made of the fact the primary Pagan character, Gina Haring, is also (probably) a lesbian as well as single, belonging to an anti-war citizens group, and a Manhattan transplant as a sort of blue state stereotype, but somehow Paretsky keeps her from devolving into that kind of simplicity.
You get the feeling there's a bigger story that's trying and failing to be told here, of the conflicts of Kansas's status during the Civil War and during the counter-culture of the 1960s and the divide of the Iraq war (though she had no way of knowing when the book was released in January of 2008, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin would help fuel the "culture war" even further in a few short months and divide to provide Paretsky with an even handier modern reference). And I've found that the brilliant story you can make out in a so-so book is actually more unbearable than a downright awful book, since you almost know what you're missing.
Notable: A character in the book keeps a website and we are regularly privy to its content.
Since Paretsky provides the URL (http://www.schapenfarm.com/newsnadnotes.html) and I was curious to see if she (or more accurately, the publishing company) had bought the space (and filled it out) as a promotional device for the book. While the URL doesn't actually exist, it does redirect to books-by-isbn.com, under Paretsky's name.
Title: Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky
Details: Copyright 2008, Penguin Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Set in the Kaw River Valley where Paretsky grew up, Bleeding Kansas is the story of the Schapens and the Grelliers, two farm families whose histories have been entwined since the 1850s, when their ancestors settled the valley as antislavery emigrants.
Today, the Schapen family, terrified by the lawlessness of the 1970s—when Lawrence was the most violent college town in the nation—has turned to that old-time religion for security. The Schapens keep a close eye on all their neighbors, most especially the Grelliers. They maintain careful track of everyone’s misdeeds, printing the most egregious on their family website. When Gina Haring, a Wiccan, moves into an empty farmhouse and starts practicing pagan rites, the Schapens are so outraged that they begin an active harassment campaign against the Wiccans.
The family members worry, too, about who stands better with the Lord, they or the Grelliers. When a Schapen cow gives birth to what may be a “Perfect Red Heifer” —needed if the temple is ever rebuilt in Jerusalem—the Schapens feel convinced that God is indeed smiling on them.
The pastor at their church, the Salvation Bible Church, proclaims:
'We have been given a miracle, a chance to make history in Kansas. The nation and the world laugh at us. "What is the matter with Kansas?", liberals ask. We have a chance to say, "Nothing’s the matter with Kansas; everything’s right with Kansas." What’s the matter is that this nation has turned its back on the truth of the risen Lord.'
Despite parental cautions, the Grelliers’ teenage children are enraged by the Schapens. All their short lives, they and the young Schapens have fought, first in their country school and now in high school. One particularly angry confrontation causes Chip Grellier to be expelled from school and consequently to join the army. Chip’s death in Iraq is the catalyzing event for momentous, even monstrous, changes in the lives of not only both the Schapens and the Grelliers but of all the families in the Valley. The powerful, climactic scene at Gina Haring’s Samhain bonfire will forever haunt the reader."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Yet another find in the search for Pagan fiction that wasn't The Mists of Avalon or a clone thereof.
How I Liked It: Sara Paretsky is apparently an esteemed author with a devoted following for her recurring mystery series. This book is apparently a departure close to the author's heart and a sort of love-letter to her home.
The beginning hits us with too many characters and not enough introductions and a personal introduction from Paretsky that just confuses things (and that belongs as an afterward, frankly). Once in, however, the story is compelling if some of the characters are fairly to completely flat. It can probably be credited to Paretsky's primary work in mystery fiction that the book captures and keeps one's interest, but then you would have to wonder why the plot would peter out the way it did. I was left wanting more of the story since it has an unfinished feel, but it's Paretsky's skill with drawing the reader in that makes me even care.
As far as the depiction of Paganism, Paretsky's version isn't particularly remarkable; it merely serves as an "outsider" status in a small town mentality. As far as accuracy, the holidays and traditions associated therein check out. Something might be made of the fact the primary Pagan character, Gina Haring, is also (probably) a lesbian as well as single, belonging to an anti-war citizens group, and a Manhattan transplant as a sort of blue state stereotype, but somehow Paretsky keeps her from devolving into that kind of simplicity.
You get the feeling there's a bigger story that's trying and failing to be told here, of the conflicts of Kansas's status during the Civil War and during the counter-culture of the 1960s and the divide of the Iraq war (though she had no way of knowing when the book was released in January of 2008, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin would help fuel the "culture war" even further in a few short months and divide to provide Paretsky with an even handier modern reference). And I've found that the brilliant story you can make out in a so-so book is actually more unbearable than a downright awful book, since you almost know what you're missing.
Notable: A character in the book keeps a website and we are regularly privy to its content.
Since Paretsky provides the URL (http://www.schapenfarm.com/newsnadnotes.html) and I was curious to see if she (or more accurately, the publishing company) had bought the space (and filled it out) as a promotional device for the book. While the URL doesn't actually exist, it does redirect to books-by-isbn.com, under Paretsky's name.
