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Book Reviews #1 & 2;void(0)) TITLES: A FLAME IN THE WIND; and RETURN TO ABO You can’t Go Home Again? Nonsense A comparison of Two Books on Homecoming by Connie Gotsch With all due respect to Thomas Wolf, you can indeed go home again. It just might be tough for a while, when you do. The historical romance A FLAME IN THE WIND, by Karen Cogan, and the mainstream 21st Century novel RETURN TO ABO, by Sharon Niederman, illustrate the point nicely. Each offers a perspective on a woman returning to a ranch from a city. In A FLAME IN THE WIND, Rebecca Dalton endures the jolting stage coach taking her into the Australian Outback, by thinking of the father she’ll soon rejoin after a dismal life in Sydney with her not-too-nice mother and her downright nasty aunt. But Rebecca's homecoming is not as joyous as she expects. A young neighbor of her father, Cole, meets her coach, and tells Rebecca that her father has died in a wagon accident. He adds that a sheep ranch is no place for a woman alone, and suggests she return to Sidney. Another neighbor G. W., and Rebecca’s hired man, Ned, echo the advice. Ned implies Cole might not be the nice person he claims to be. Rebecca insists on staying. However, she’s not settled in her father’s house long, when another rancher, Finley, makes it clear he intends to have Rebecca’s land, any way he can get it. In Australia in the mid 1800s, she has little chance of stopping him. Author Karen Cogan explores Rebecca’s dilemma in simple but elegant prose that vividly describes people, feelings, landscapes, time, place, and action. A FLAME IN THE WIND has Christian overtones, but never preaches. Karen Cogan's careful research of the Australian Outback makes the book into a page-turner. The heroine of RETURN TO ABO, Maggie, is in many ways Rebecca’s opposite. Maggie has given up on the romance and adventure life as a 21st Century San Francisco journalist once promised, and is returning to the New Mexico ranch where she grew up. It’s the last thing she wants to do, but she must care for her ailing mother, with whom she has never gotten along. A bitter divorce, rejection by her teenage daughter, Hannah, and the trauma of a murder have also left Maggie unable to write, and she has lost her job with a major newspaper. Still, she plans to stay on the ranch only as long as she must. Then she will find new work. Set amid the scent of fresh sage, and the richness of the earth after a sudden thunderstorm, Maggie's story unfolds as she meets old friends, faces old hurts, rekindles relationships, and begins to rethink her goals. Though a modern women, she copes with problems similar to Rebecca Dalton’s as she encounters the spirit, and to an extent, the spite, a small town can produce. Author Sharon Niederman has wonderful command of the English language, and she uses it fully to describe her characters and their surroundings. She delineates the tensions between Maggie, her mother, and other locals by using multiple points of view that switch seamlessly. The reader can feel the gritty earth beneath Maggie's boots when she steps onto her mother's property for the first time in many years. Readers can sense the eyes of gossips watching every move people make in town. The warmth of the cafe where the locals gather comes right across, as do the good-natured easy pace at the office of the weekly newspaper, and the shock and amusement to the bridge club when Hannah arrives with green streaks in her hair. The awkwardness of Maggie’s encounter with her old high school boy friend, is touching, as is her horror of discovering how sick her mother really is. RETURN TO ABO does have one tiny draw back. The end is a little too neat. A few scraggly questions about what happens next to some of the characters might better fit the story’s true-to-life beginning and middle. However, RETURN TO ABO and A FLAME IN THE WIND make nice back-to-back reads. Together they’re a look at homecoming and what it can bring--across time, geography, personality, and desire to be--or not to be--where a person finds herself. Both books are available in stores, at Amazon.com, and B&N.com. A FLAME IN THE WIND is published by Avalon Press, and The University of New Mexico Press offers RETURN TO ABO.  YOU Got it Bad? Try Kyle Kendrick’s Adventure A Review of Kent F. Jacobs’ THE TURNED FIELD by Connie Gotsch THE TURNED FIELD’s main character, Air Force pilot and Gulf War hero, Kyle Kendrick loves flying A-10s and Jaguars. Then one night, just before Christmas driving home from a Military Winter Ball near his base in England, he misses a turn on the narrow road. Hours later, he wakes up in the Norfolk-Norwich Hospital as a ‘Male Unknown,’ paralyzed, with no idea who he is: unable to recognize his friends, family, wife, or lover. He cannot remember how to fly; he cannot tell the answer to two-plus-two. THE TURNED FIELD vividly depicts Kyle’s mental and physical agony as he recognizes his situation. After that, the story documents not only how he copes, but also how those around him react: parents, soon-to-be-ex-wife, in-laws, superiors, squadron buddies, doctors, nurses, and lover, Jamie. Author Kent Jacobs based THE TURNED FIELD on a true story, which he learned when he and his wife, Sallie, met a charter pilot with a tracheotomy scar. An M.D. with thirty years experience practicing, Jacobs asked the pilot what happened. The answer floored the doctor, who in his own words “thought (he’d) seen just about every kind of accident,” in his internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and practice. He asked if he could write the tale, and the pilot agreed, provided names would be changed. Jacobs conducted hours of video taped interviews with the pilot upon whom he based Kendrick, received the man’s permission to examine his medical records, and consulted many specialists in internal medicine, physical therapy, orthopedic surgery, and pulmonary disease, to create precise details of the pilot’s case. Jacobs also showed the manuscript to military officials, including the commander of Gemini 7 and Apollo 8, Col. Frank Borman. Then using narrative, flashback, notes the pilot managed to write when he finally could communicate with a nurse, and the pilot’s thoughts as he lay in his hospital bed, Jacobs wove characters, plot, and description into a tale of vivid realism. For anybody who likes the theme of people against themselves, THE TURNED FIELD is an especially good read. But it’s also good for those who like complex interactions between characters, and psychological drama. THE TURNED FIELD is inspiring and thought provoking. What happened to Kyle Kendrick could happen to anyone--at any moment. Who would be lucky enough to survive such an ordeal? Who would be tough enough to react to it as Kyle did? Kent Jacobs published his first novel, BREKKAN, in 1996. He recently closed his medical practice to write full time. If THE TURNED FIELD is any indication, he’ll make the literary world a more an exciting place with his simple, direct style and lively description that never mires the reader in minutia. THE TURNED FIELD is a good one for the summer reading list. TITLE: Two Steps Forward, One Back in Grief In the preface of her newest book, A MONTH OF SUNDAYS: SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT AND MY SISTER, Albuquerque, New Mexico author, Julie Mars says: “For seven months, I took care of my sister, Shirley, who was dying of pancreatic cancer...I witness her intense spiritual turbulence and her return to Catholicism...I consider it an honor and a privilege to be with her every day as she considers the state of her soul...As my sister’s faith forms its final shape and hardens, mine disappears....When I return home to Albuquerque, I feel a driving need...to go to church.” So Mars does, for 31 Sundays, the equivalent of a month, visiting Christian, Sort-of-Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Unitarian, and nonsectarian places of worship. Each visit triggers thoughts, feelings and remembrances of Shirley, their siblings and parents; and Shirley’s children. Using simple, direct language, Mars interweaves her family’s relationships, Shirley’s advance toward death, and her own spiritual search for something she can call God, into a microcosm of human experience. A visit to the Church of the Latter Day Saints evokes this thought: “My father taught me, expected me, to be tough, to follow my own strong will, and not apologize for it. I did. But secretly, I locked myself in the closet and cried so hard I could not breathe. Waves of sadness washed over me, washing me away, and I was enormously bereft, lonely, scared of everything. That was when Shirley would whisper through the door that she wanted to come in. I would crawl into her lap and drink in her silence.” Describing this intimate moment, Mars states a universal truth. Independence can terrify. Everyone needs a safe person and a safe place. Everyone faces the moment when they must lose that security. The combination of universal and personal experience in this and many other paragraphs in the book makes A MONTH OF SUNDAYS: SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT AND MY SISTER a compelling, tender, and moving read. So do Mars’ frank descriptions of caring for a dying person, right to the moment Shirley becomes so weak, she needs diapers, just before her “Final Dive,” as Mars calls it, into delirium and coma. Mars’ spiritual search and its climax, add a final touch on the last page of the story. A MONTH OF SUNDAYS is a thoughtful and moving book for anyone, but especially for those facing illness, death, loss, spiritual crisis, and grief. The story is not for the airport or the beach, but for a time to sit down, and think, about life. A MONTH OF SUNDAYS: SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT AND MY SISTER (ISBN: 0974207454), runs 208 pages, and is published by GreyCore Press. It’s available for $10.95 on line at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com, in book stores, and from GreyCore www.greycore.com TITLE:TWO ON A HORSE: AN INTERESTING GAME Bin-daa-dee-nin and You-his-kishn carry their badly wounded brother, Nzhu-’a’c-siin, into a cave. For the moment, they can breathe. But tomorrow, what can they do? Return to the Mescalero Apache reservation from which they’ve run to escape the filth, disease, and starvation that killed their father and mother? No! They’ll remain in the mountains, raiding ranches, until they escape to Mexico, or die at the hands of the white soldiers. Bin-daa-dee-nin prays to the Mountain Gods for help. A beautiful--and completely tame--pinto horse appears. The boy can ride it instantly. Surely this is the answer to his prayer. Now he can hunt. He and his brothers might just survive. But, the army comes. The Apaches flee one way, and the horse runs another. Rancher’s daughter, Sarah Chilton, finds it. It becomes hers, until the terrifying night the Apaches come raiding. A boy about her age snatches the horse out of her father’s corral. From this beginning, Albuquerque author Karen Taschek’s youth novel, HORSE OF SEVEN MOONS, turns into a frightening turn-of-the 20th Century cat-and-mouse game between two cultures trying to survive in southern New Mexico. Bringing their opposing lives and values together through the horse--Moon Dancer to Sarah, and Moon that Flies to Bin-daa-dee-nin--Taschek presents the plight of the Apaches fighting to stay free in their home lands, and the anguish of the settlers struggling to protect ranches they have built. She shows the conflict in realistic fashion, using language that is simple and direct, but never simplistic. Neither settlers nor Apaches like each other, and neither considers how the other might feel. Yet, the reader sympathizes with both by the end of HORSE OF SEVEN MOONS. The fate of Bin-daa-dee-nin, Sarah, and Moon-that-Flies/Moon Dancer leaves happiness, pain, and a touch of sadness--as life can do. Both adults and young people will enjoy HORSE OF SEVEN MOONS. Reading level: Young Adult Paperback: 184 pages Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (April 1, 2005) Language: English Price: $19.95 @ Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, book stores Author: Edna McConnell and Teddy Jones Title: A Stone for Every Journey Traveling the Life of Elinor Gregg, R.N. 309 pages plus bibliography total 323 Sandstone Press (2005) Santa Fe, New Mexico English ISBN: 086534454X Price $22.95 Amazon, Barnes and Noble “When I said I would go, the die was cast, and I’ve never been sorry. I wired them on October 18, 1922, that I would go, and I left Boston on the 26 in my open Ford runabout. Today, November 15, I’m at the Winner Hotel in Winner, South Dakota. I have just finished my breakfast and am waiting for the stage to Rosebud.” That entry from nurse Elinor Gregg’s diary opens Edna McConnell and Teddy Jones’ “A Stone for Every Journey Traveling the Life of Elinor Gregg, R.N.,” a book that chronicles the adventures of a woman working for the Indian Health Service in its early years. Eventually, Elinor Gregg would become the first Supervisor of Nurses for The Indian Service. But right now, wet weather, winds and muddy roads have forced her to abandon her car. She laughs about the inconvenience, despite the expense of having to house the vehicle until spring. “...It has been worth it in seeing the country and riding with the native. This the life...” The extraordinary life of an extraordinary woman. After Gregg arrives at the Rosebud Reservation for the Sioux, the reader bounces with her over muddy roads into hospitals containing a minimum of equipment for health care, into Indian homes so remote that hospital visits are almost impossible, and through the touchy political process of working with field matrons. Not trained nurses, these women have learned basic First Aid but little more. Now Elinor Gregg must teach them proper care for patients with diseases such as T.B. and trachoma. A nurse herself, Edna McConnell spent her entire career, from the mid 1960s to her death in 2002, researching and writing about Elinor Gregg. Gregg's place in nursing history, and her lively personality motivated the study. Born to a Boston clergyman, Elinor Gregg grew up in an educated family. Her brothers were doctors. One sister married a business man. The other sister became a teacher. Gregg served as a field nurse during World War I, and as a hospital nurse in Boston before going west. Gregg could also write. Her lively journal entries bring her adventures, feelings, and attitudes to life. However, “A Stone for Every Journey” is more than just a diary. In 2002, Edna McConnell discovered she had a terminal illness. She turned her research and part of the book’s first draft over to colleague and friend Teddy Jones, to finish. To get her own sense of Elinor Gregg, Ms. Jones talked to her family, and visited libraries and archives from Boston to Santa Fe, where Elinor Gregg died in 1970 at nearly 84. Jones discovered that Elinor Gregg had a profound effect--for the good--on almost everyone she met. Her memoirs do not reveal this impact because, like most people, she had no idea how much influence she carried. Jones elected to show this side of Ms. Gregg, as well as her spunky personality and place in nursing history. So, Teddy Jones invented to fictional student nurses, Alice and Melody. For an assignment in a Geriatrics class, they must interview an older person about his or her life. The year is 1966, and the two choose Elinor Gregg. They set off with a tape recorder from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, to Santa Fe to visit her. Very quickly, Ms. Gregg becomes “Aunt El,” to them, as she did to to everybody she knew, according to Jones’ research. Her memoirs become transcriptions of the tapes Alice and Melody record. Gregg’s thoughts and actions begin to influence the choices the young women make for their own lives. “A Stone for Every Journey” becomes a story within a story. This mix takes the book beyond the level of autobiographical journal. Jones gives the reader a sense of how Gregg saw herself, and how other people might have seen her. “A Stone for Every Journey Traveling the Life of Elinor Gregg, R.N.” leaves the reader with fresh admiration for America’s pioneering professional women. It gives a good picture of life in one part of this country between the World Wars I and II. It catches the personality of a very vital lady, who would have been a pleasure to know, and reminds everyone how much powerful people can shape another person’s life. Usually when history's a mystery, it's because someone didn't read the assigned book. But in the case of Pamela Christie's THE KING'S LIZARD, history ‘s a mystery because she has designed a clever story. The history-loving author has mixed thorough research with a great sense of whodunit it, to create a murder mystery in 18th Century Santa Fe that will have even the most seasoned mystery reader on the edge of his or her seat, guessing who bad hombre is. It's the 1770s in Santa Fe, the frontier outpost capitol of New Spain. Someone wants to undercut the governor's attempt to stop the endless warfare between Navajos, Hispanics, and Apaches. But who? The governor calls on THE KING’S LIZARD’S main character, Nando, to find out. “Be like a lizard on an adobe wall for me,” the governor instructs. “Watch, but don’t be noticed. Find the people you need to find.” Nando is perfectly suited for this task. Half Spanish and half Apache, and the son of a respected Spanish don, Nando slips easily between different segments of Santa Fe society. He understands how a Spanish gentleman dresses, and behaves in polite company. He knows how to live off the land, and slip silently through the woods. He can remember all he hears and sees. He can engage people in seemingly innocent conversation that reveals much about how they feel about the governor. And what feelings abound in the city! The Franciscan priest who seems to despise Nando because he’s half Indian, might hate the governor for his tolerance of other races. The son of one of the frontier's highest officials. might dislike the governor’s war policies. That’s because this young man is involved in the illegal trade of selling captured Indian children to Spanish Haciendas as slaves. He’s making a lot of Spanish people, and tribal elders furious. That’s not the way to end warfare. Then again, the good Father and the cocky rich kid might be entirely innocent of any wrong doing, and hold no animosity toward the governor. The evidence against them is somewhat circumstantial. Could Nando's own cousin have a hand in undercutting the peace process ? He’s always out after a chunk of change. He’ll align himself with anyone who will give him some, with no thought of the consequences to others. And what about the strange object Nando finds on the road? He has no idea what it is. But could it be the clue that leads him to the culprit(s), after he shows it to the governor? Pamela Christie has the knack of letting the reader pose these questions and many more, as he or she goes through THE KING’S LIZARD. She also makes people think they know the answers--right up to the book’s surprising, but utterly sensible ending, which is probably very different from what the reader thinks it will be. Even more fun, Pamela Christie has thoroughly researched the appearance and layout of historic Santa Fe. Anyone familiar with the city will recognize downtown, San Francisco Street, the central plaza, and that wonderful 400-year-old building, The Palace of the Governors, which has been standing in use since the city’s 1610 inception. Best of all, Pamela Christie points out that the Spanish and Mexican people who settled New Mexico were as much pioneers as the people who made the trek west over the Oregon Trail. Spanish people fought for their survival as hard as anyone else in the new land. As a result, the descendants of men like Nando have lived in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and dozens of other New Mexico towns for 20 generations. That’s a take on American history a lot of people back east don’t get. Pamela Christie presents her history lesson in a lucid style that’s easy to follow. The reader can understand all the political maneuverings between all the factions Nando encounters in his search for the trouble maker. Pamela Christie fits THE KING’S LIZARD’S main and subplots together in a logical, but never predictable fashion. And yes-- there’s even a touch of romance. Handsome Nando has a girl friend, who has a thing or two to add to his knowledge of what is going on. THE KING’S LIZARD’S a good book to enjoy and to learn from. If there’s somebody out there who’s not quite turned on to reading that history assignment now that school’s started again, THE KING’S LIZARD is a good way to hit his or her switch, and get that history book open, not just for this term, but for many to come. The King’s Lizard Pamela Christie 368 pages English Publisher: Lone Butte Press (August, 2004) ISBN: 0966686047 Price: $13.95 Bookstoes Amazon.com TITLE: ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN’T SCARE Everybody knows trolls hide under the bridge and when you cross, they jump out and scare you to death right? Right. Except, well, there are trolls, and then there’s ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN’T SCARE. He’s the main character in a picture book with story by Brad Thiessen and illustrations by Jeremy Balzer. The team has created a charming tale and setting, for people aged 3 t0 8, but the story’s sure to delight anybody. Orso Troll lives with his father under a bridge. Mr. Troll takes great delight in frightening people out of their wits, but Orso would rather spend the day climbing trees, walking in the meadow, playing with the animals he meets in the forest, and talking to clouds. The day Orso turns eight, he sits in front of his birthday cake wishing he could share it with some troll friends. But though gentle with him, his father explains that trolls don’t have friends. They're only good for one thing, scaring people. “You have me,” Dad points out, when Orso feels alone. For the reassurance, Orso gives his father a big troll hug. That tickles, and his dad begs him to cut it out. Trolls don’t give hugs, though Mr. Troll finds himself enjoying the one he’s gotten. The next day, Dad takes Orso under the bridge, to learn to scare the world. But poor Orso can’t even try. Running home, he cowers on his bed. His dad accepts that Orso is going to be a nontraditional troll. Together, they try to think of other things trolls might do, besides frighten everyone. Nothing comes to mind. Next morning, two human children, Lizzy and Jacob, meet Orso in the woods. Orso tries halfheartedly to frightens them. He almost succeeds with Jacob, but Lizzy laughs. What happens next brings a startled response from Mr. Troll, a big change in both Orso and Mr. Troll’s lives, and something very special on Orso’s next birthday, when he turns 9. ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN’T SCARE empowers children. Brad Thiessen suggests even the smallest youngsater make a big difference in a loved one’s life, even if that person is a grown up. The author also breaks stereotypes found in traditional stories about creatures such as trolls. He depicts girls as strong, and guys as flexible and willing to examine the lives they are leading. The troll characters have the gambit of moods. They grow and change, as good characters should in a story. Belief in trolls dates back thousands of years, especially in Scandinavia, but Mr. Thiessen tells Orso’s story in 21st Century language. Illustrator Jeremy Balzer sets the tale in a world neither ancient nor modern. His pictures are spooky in a fun way. They catch Orso’s feelings from the joy he gets while swinging on a tree branch, to the terror he experiences when his father roars at the driver of a horse and wagon. The effect gives ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN’T SCARE a timeless sense, and a sense of the harmless fun found in a scary, but make believe, Halloween costume. It delivers the gentle message that being truly mean is not necessary--even for a troll. There is another way to get through life. Everybody, even a three-year-old, can find it. TITLE: ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN’T SCARE AUTHOR: BRAD THIESSEN ILLUSTRATOR: JEREMY BALZER PUBLISHER: CDS BOOKS 425 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10017 ISBN: 1-59315-142-X LIST PRICE BOOK STORES: $16.95 AMAZON PRICE: $11.53 B AND N PRICE $13.56 TITLE: Kristin Lavransdatter A Good Long Winter’s Read. Many novels set in the Middle Ages happen to have a few people and a few human values in them. Authors dwell upon the trappings of the times, ensnaring their characters in endless descriptions of clothing and castles, until the stories read like a 6th Grade history text, in which a child hero takes the reader through the facts and figures of the era by recreating A Day in the Life of A Knight. Or a Monk. Or a Serf. Then, there’s Sigrid Undsett’s ‘Kristin Lavransdatter,’ written in the 1920s and winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature. This novel contains strong people with real attitudes, who happen to live in 14th Century Norway. Universal themes create a link between the Medieval era and modern times, the same way the motifs of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ or ‘Othello’ link the Renaissance to the 21st Century. The epic story (over 1100 pages) focuses on Kristin, the strong-willed and somewhat spoiled daughter of the knight, Lavran. Intelligent but impetuous, Kristin struggles through her teenage years, breaks an engagement to the embarrassment of her parents, and marries Erland, a man of whom they disapprove. Kristin and Erland have a rocky, but at the same time joyous marriage. In some ways, he is a disappointing husband. He is a passionate lover, but cannot manage money or land, and has no common sense about people. Forced to become the brains of the family, Kristin constantly struggles between keeping her place as a woman, and managing finances and fields. As her children grow up, Erland gets on the wrong side of national politics and plunges the family into poverty. She copes. Eventually he dies in a fight. She becomes a nun. . Sigrid Undsett takes Kristin through every phase of development, from a little girl terrified when she thinks she sees a forest nymph, to a teen refusing to see the wisdom in guidance her parents are trying to give her, to becoming a mother and understanding exactly what they meant, to making peace with herself at the end of her life. More exciting, the author places other characters, Erland, Kristin’s parents, her children, siblings, family priests, in-laws, and friends, in situations very similar to hers. But they have their own ways of reacting, depending on their temperaments and backgrounds. This creates layers and layers of human thought and action for a reader to compare and contrast in ‘Kristin Lavransdatter.’. Undsett also varies the pace of the book, balancing character action with contemplation. She holds the description of Kristin’s surrounds to what she needs to drive plot and character, giving a picture of 14th Century material culture without excessive detail. She manages this in part because she grew up with an archaeologist father, who specialized in the Medieval Period. From early childhood she heard about artifacts of the Middle Ages and their uses. When she did her own research for ‘Kristin Lavransdatter,’ she had long passed infatuation with castles, and could concentrate on the humanity of the knights living in them. ‘Kristinlavransdatter’ was written in Norwegian. The original English translation, dating to 1951, imitated Medieval grammar and usage. The result was a dense and complex tangle of phrase, paragraph and sentence, which made the book difficult to read. A translation finished this year by Albuquerque writer Tina Nunnally stripped away the faux Old English. Ms. Nunnally used simple, modern language with an occasional nod to earlier forms. The combination of skillful author and sensitive translator makes ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ an attention-holding read despite its length. Students of human nature will love the story. So will people who like historical fiction. Young adults will identify with ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ as will their grandparents. Author: Sigrid Undsett Title: Kristin Lavransdatter Hardcover: 1088 pages Publisher: Penguin Classics Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 405 Murray Hill Parkway East Rutherford, NJ 07073 Language: English ISBN: 0394432622 Price: $44.95 Amazon “Cottonwood Saints” by Gene Guerin came about when the author asked his mother to write her memoirs about growing up in northern New Mexico during the early part of the 20th Century. He found her recollections so compelling, he turned them into a novel. “Cottonwood Saints” begins with the birth of this mother, whom he calls Margarita Juana, then follows her growing up, marrying, having children of her own, and dying. Sometimes books based on family history end up a personal narrative with meaning for the authors, but few others. Gene Guerin avoids this trap by focusing his story on universal issues. His mother copes with things everyone faces. She just happens to do it in a unique part of the Southwestern United States. At the same time, Gene Guerin offers a vivid picture of life on one of the last American frontiers, describing in vivid detail the rutted roads over which Margarita Juana and her father drive to bring loads of lumber into town, trips to an Indian Pueblo to visit friends, and the arduous process of washing clothes and preserving food in a time before electricity and refrigeration. Labor is back breaking both in the barn and in the house. Tempers flare. Parents slap. Children learn to obey, and help do chores without argument. When someone gets sick, people cope as best they can. On-the-job safety doesn’t exist. The wise woman, or curandara, brings herbs and teas to the rescue. The doctor comes as a last resort, often when it’s too late. Strong personalities, not all of them likable, fill “Cottonwood Saints.” Margaritas mother, Tamara, is about as nasty as they come. Margarita’s husband, Miguel redefines bland and meek. Nash, Margarita’s Indian nanny, is a woman anyone could love, as are Margaritas doting aunts and uncles. The reader sympathizes with Margarita’s feelings of abandonment when these kindly people die. Bit by bit, Margarita learns to cope with her life, and make what she can of it, just as everyone does. Her varying degrees of success and failure make her an everyday hero, and keep the reader turning the pages of “Cottonwood Saints.” Author Guerin tells Margaritas overarching story in the first person, the voice of Michael, her son. But he also has the knack of stepping into the third person to relate portions of the novel that happened before Michael was born. The technique gives “Cottonwood Saints” a wonderful flow. The reader can smell the chili roasting, and see an old family hacienda crumbling. By the end of the book, Guerin has summed up the triumphs, failures, glories, and horrors of a woman’s life. It happens to be Margarita Juana’s, but it could be anybody’s. New Mexico’s frontier families were tough. But so is human nature, or their descendants wouldn’t be around to write about their ancestors. Title: Cottonwood Saints Author: Gene Guerin Paperback: 344 pages Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (November 16, 2005) 1601 Randolph Rd SE Suite 200S Albuquerque NM 87106 English ISBN: 0826337244 Price: $19.95 Amazon Title ‘The Sorrow of Archaeology.’ Author Russell Martin Pages 271 List Price $29.95 Available Amazon B&N.com and book stores ISBN: 0826337252 Language English Publisher University of New Mexico Press UNM Press 1601 Randolph Rd SE Suite 200S Albuquerque NM 87106 1-800-249-7737 “In the dry early summer of 1992, I am still nominally a physician, but I dig in dirt these days, instead of taking stock of my patients’ bodies, attending only to bones stripped of muscle, blood and brain...” Sarah MacLeish says this because she can’t maintain her medical practice. She is a Multiple Scleroses victim, no longer able to use her hands in diagnosis. She is also the main character in Russell Martin’s novel, ‘The Sorrow of Archaeology,’ recently released by the University of New Mexico Press. The story is set in Southern Colorado, and drawn from several of the author’s interests, including archaeology, medicine, and disability, particularly Multiple Scleroses. For him, these topics become metaphors for our constant struggle to sort out our lives. Knowing she may eventually use a wheel chair, and terrified of the idea, Sarah determines to be normal as long as possible, before she must give into her disease. She becomes a member of an archaeology dig team her husband, Harry, is supervising at an ancient pueblo site in a canyon near Cortez, Colorado. She worries about her relationship with Harry. He jumps from project to project and adventure to adventure, seizing life with both hands, and riding it like a wild horse. She lives carefully, avoiding surprises, and searching for security. She and Harry share a deep bond. Still, troubling moments have arisen between them, over their differences, and she senses his unhappiness with her. As a physician who has treated patients with illnesses like hers, she knows she will probably face divorce, though Harry denies he will ever leave her. On the dig, Sarah discovers the remains of a pre-teen-age girl, with a severely deformed leg, which Sarah believes congenital. The girl also has a shattered skull. Immediately, Sarah connects with her, wondering how she lived, how she died, and above all, how she coped with disability. Harry says that Sarah will probably never know. Bone fragments and grave goods cannot possibly explain the girl’s emotional state at death, why she died, or how she lived with her crippled leg. Sarah insists on trying to find out. One of the dig team members, the flamboyant Alice, agrees to send the remains to a friend in a forensics lab. The gesture both comforts and troubles Sarah, who suspects Alice and Harry have begun an affair. Harry must replace the sex that no longer interests Sarah. Driven by her fear, Sarah struggles harder and harder to understand the child’s story, and through it, her own. The mosaic of personal and archaeological past and present interweave tightly in her mind. Finally, an MS attack does put Sarah in a wheelchair, for a short time. As she begins to recover her mobility, a beloved family member faces her own mortal illness, and makes a choice Sarah does not realize she is still capable of making. The resulting catharsis leads Sarah to discoveries and decisions concerning her life and illness, the people around her, the crippled Pueblo child, and Harry and Alice,. ‘The Sorrow of Archaeology’ comes to a powerful, and satisfying conclusion. To give Sarah the full range of emotions she needs as she struggles with her issues, Russell Martin constructed her story in a series of short chapters. The book draws its title from one of these, in which Sarah laments the fact that archaeologists must try to learn about peoples’ lives from fragmented evidence. Harry points out that everyone else must do the same from bits and pieces of experiences, during his or her time on earth. Flashbacks written in the past tense, interweave with current details, stated in the present. Martin also lets Sarah narrate the novel in the first person. Throughout ‘The Sorrow of Archaeology,’ Russell Martin uses simple and direct language that never becomes simplistic. Sentences such as “The only thing worse than being an acne-plagued freshman in high school is being a freshman whose father is principal of the place,” give his pages an excitement that nears F. Scott Fitzgerald’s intensity. Like Fitzgerald’s Martin’s intensity is gentle, and very ordinary. Readers looking for an action-packed Indiana Jones archaeology tale will not find it. Instead, they’ll discover a story in a real place about real people. As the action gently unfolds, Martin presents the universal emotions that connect readers to characters. ‘The Sorrow of Archaeology’ is Russell Martin’s second novel. He published his first, ‘Beautiful Islands,’ in 1989. He has also written nonfiction articles and books. If you went to school east of the Mississippi as I did, you probably learned your US History something like this: The Spanish came to the Southwest looking for gold in the late 1500s. They explored, found none, and left. The English arrived, and colonized what would one day be the Eastern United States. From there, they spread west, along with other immigrants. The Spanish dropped out of American history. Later, if you were lucky like I was and got to live in a place like New Mexico, you realized what you learned in history class was dead wrong. The Spanish who arrived in the late 16th Century stayed in New Mexico. They’re still here, 17 generations later. Many of New Mexico’s modern Hispanic families trace their heritage directly to the Conquistadors. Many books, most of them published in New Mexico, tell this story. They range from scholarly histories to novels, to discussions of how the Spanish frontier influenced the growing United States, to personal accounts of lives. Two especially good publications present a tender, and intimate look at Hispanic Culture in New Mexico, both historical and modern. The quarterly magazine, “La Herencia Preserving Our Past-Promoting Our Future,” offers photos, poetry, essays, and thoughts in English and Spanish on Hispanic life. ‘La Herencia’ is edited by Ana Pacheco. The book ‘Saints & Seasons A Guide to New Mexico’s Most Popular Saints,’ written by Ana Pacheco, explores the importance of saints, their feast days, and the Roman Catholic Church in New Mexico. Neither ‘La Herencia’ nor Saints & Seasons is scholarly, but each offers a vivid sense of the Hispanic soul and psyche. In Saints and Seasons, Ana Pacheco shows us how ordinary people view the saints--have always viewed them--beginning with her own mother’s feelings. “My mother kept an arsenal of saints...To ensure that we always had protection, she moved the saints to different parts of the house....A few had their heads broken, being moved around so much. My mother would glue their heads back on...after a while they just fell off. Eventually she let their heads rest next to their bodies, and that’s how she prayed to them...” From this introduction, Ms. Pacheco presents a calendar of saints’ feast days, including an image of the saint celebrated that day, and a brief note on his or her history and powers. Where applicable, she lists the locations of New Mexico parish churches and missions dedicated to the saint. In addition, she subtly shows the power of these saints’ living tradition. Each image that she has selected for her book is made by a living New Mexico Santero--an artist who creates devotional images. The end of the book offers a short biography of each artist. Many Santeros come from families who have made saints for generations. The tradition is passed from grandparents, to parents, to children. Ana Pacheco’s explanation of this, combined with the saints’ stories and pictures, give us a new gut-level respect and understanding for the saints, and the people who worship them. In a similar fashion, ‘La Herencia Preserving Our Past Promoting Our Future’ presents additional aspects of Hispanic history and culture, tying both firmly to all of us in modern New Mexico. In any given issue, articles can range from genealogical studies of surnames to stories about forgotten cemeteries, to the retelling of traditional tales called cuentos, to recollections of grandparents, to descriptions of the recipes used by traditional cooks. “Every time I return to my hometown of Pena Blanca, N.M., I learn a little more about the town and the people who preceded me,” writes Elaine Flores in a story entitled ‘El Baile de Tio Roberto,’ in the Winter, 2005 ‘La Herencia.’ The tale relates an escapade at a local dance in the 1930s. The opening sentence defines the purpose of the magazine, to teach about a unique part of America, settled by people who became very special Americans. As the editor of ‘La Herencia,’ Ms. Pacheco draws upon many writers for material, including herself. The mix of voices and blend styles create a lively read. They also create a universal read. Every town, no mater where it is, or who lives in it, has its long-standing, important families, its lost burial grounds, its Christmas pageants, its special foods. Each of us, no matter who or where we are, has a special memory of Great Grandma, or a lingering recollection of the last time we saw Uncle Joe alive. Through ‘La Herencia,’ we identify with these commonalities. We also learn about differences--about how specifically New Mexico Hispanic Culture shows respect to a grandmother, boils a pot of soup, or creates a play celebrating the arrival of the Shepherds at the Manger on the first Christmas. The combination of unique and universal reminds us that often feelings across time, space and culture are similar. Ways of acting upon and expressing those feelings can differ greatly. That’s a valuable lesson in our tumultuous times. So is becoming aware of tradition. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing to hang on to--nothing to build from as we sort through, and reinvent our constantly changing modern world. ‘Saints & Seasons A Guide to New Mexico’s Most Popular Saints,’ or ‘La Herencia Preserving Our Past Promoting Our Future’ are available on the web at http://www.herencia.com Saints and Seasons’ ISBN number is 0974302236. Contact ‘La Herencia’ via snail mail at Gran Via Inc., PO Box 22576 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502. ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) ;void(0)) | Resources for Writers | Write On Southwest...Book Reviews | Reader Views | Book Reviews by Mr. P | | Return Home | The BOOK DOCTOR | The BANYON NETWORK | The Banyon Buzz Newsletters | The Aton Project Newsletters | Contact Us | |
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