Customer Reviews

Across Open Ground

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This novel is quite good. And it's fun to read, even with some limitations. My favorite books are ones that make me think about the world around me and the experiences of people in it in new ways, and this one certainly does. The settings are evocative and shape a sort of scenery of the West as the novel unfolds, almost like a film. The characters make the novel though, and have a simple wisdom that is admirable and rare. From Walter Pascoe, the young shepherder who is becoming a man, to his newly discovered love Trina Ivy, a young woman whose sense of self is quite amazing in someone her age, to the man who teaches Walter about life as he understands it; each character adds something, and each one is interesting. The characters seem like people you know, or would like to (mostly, although even the antagonists are special that way).

Of course there are some inevitable comparisons with Cormac McCarthy- both authors write about the West as it was and maybe still could be if not for the exigencies of life, their stories both involve a mythic coming-of-age for young men, and they both have a smooth rythym that makes a kind of poetry of space with each turn of the page. And while it is notoriously difficult for young writers to instinctually develop a voice that is uniquely their own, McCarthy is an author worth emulating. As far as overdoing style, McCarthy is an estimable writer, and All The Pretty Horses is one of my favorite books, but sometimes McCarthy's writing can be a bit overwrought as well.

Every now and then, Across Open Ground does seem to be striving a bit too much for the "deep" thing when just keeping it so without such a carefully rendered explanation would have been enough. For example, one rather less-realized scene involves a group of soldiers on a train, and the spiritually bereft experience of war. This is one section where the dialogue isn't spare, but it seemed to miss something about men and how they speak to each other. The care that is evident is such places though(and there aren't many), also reveals itself in the construction of the rest of the novel. The story is enveloping, the characters endearing, and the dialogue has an even flow that makes the novel move nicely as you read it. And sometimes there is a certain sentence or a paragraph that asks to be read again and again, when the writing is damn good. Overall, Across Open Ground has much to recommend it, and is an enjoyable, involving read about life in the Old West and love and war and becoming an adult in a strange world. As a debut by Heather Parkinson it is very promising, and the author's next book will have me eagerly anticipating its arrival.

The descriptions of the country, of horse and dog life, of sheep herding are often quite good, written with real authority. The book has a couple of well-realized and sinister bad guys. The first half is considerably stronger than the second half, and her male characters stronger than her female characters. The latter portions of the book become diffuse and the scenes dealing with a group of returning WWI veterans are not as strongly conceived as the earlier Idaho passages. She surely does set herself up for comparisons with McCarthy, who himself can get overwrought. Her main character is a young man on horseback coming of age. She wants to write in the high-literary style. But lots of the passages in this book are downright meaningless, amounting to less even than pure bombast, and the further one reads the more tiresome these passages become: As the highly negative reviewer writing just below me noted, there are problems with unity and focus, but there are also page-turning, tense portions of the book and several well-defined secondary characters. Some scenes are genuine, and not every one seems to come ready-made for movie adoption and screenplay "treatment" (though some do). There aren't that many good fiction writers out there, so here's hoping that she turns down the volume on her LITERARY knob and pays more attention to the basic necessites of narrative next time around. It's damn hard to write a good novel. I'll give her next book a fair chance.

Across Open Ground is a launch pad for a New Voice in writing about the West. Heather Parkinson captures the beauty of why we live in Idaho and reinforces it with an historical richness that steps back four generations. Idaho sheepherders don't say much -- particularly in 1917. Somehow, she leaned down the dialogue to single strands of sinewy muscle. She reduced her word recipe to the skinny bare-bone necessities of communication. Yet, her imagery of nature, animals and the landscape flood the page with three dimensional story telling.

Parkinson has an uncanny understanding of horses and dogs. She describes sheep and lambing with the visual clarity of the big screen. Horses are saddled and you can smell the leather. She is equally adept at tough and tender. From gnarly to nubile, the detailed realism never begs expansion or lacks clarity. She has a visceral understanding of the human experience that is usually reserved for storytellers 2 or 3 times her age. Parkinson conveys a respect for her readers and her characters, always using nuance rather than a 2 X 4. She provides trust and promotes intelligence among her readers. The result is an enjoyable and balanced tale with broad appeal. Literary fans from junior high to geriatric will enjoy Across Open Ground.

I am not qualified to judge what makes a Great novel. I do know a good novel will make you late -- late for work, school, meetings, TV and even sleep. It's a tough book to put down. My guess is that it is the first of many.

This book was absolutely fabulous.

I was struck when looking in the bookstore by an author with the same last name, and bought the book. While I am a Southerner, and know very little about the West, the author clearly has a deep and vivid understanding of Western life, culture, and imagery, as evinced in her detailed prose about pre-WWI western life.

As the New York Times book review said, this is an author with a bright future, and I highly recommend the book.

This is a book for both men and women. A gripping story which captures the realities of relationships torn apart during the drafting period of WWI. It has great tension, moments of sadness, poignant descriptions of the Idaho land, and strong life-like characters that make you feel you're living their life. This is a book you don't want to end.

First novels always intrigue me. There is so much energy in them. This one does not disappoint. Her descriptions of the land and the area in the west are beautifully done. You can almost smell the sagebrush. Totally well done and a joy to read. I will look forward to more work from this young woman.

What a powerful and well written novel. I was really fascinated with the style of writing and her ability to tell about the land and people with a blend of drama, poetic beauty, and humor. Life in the West had its hardships, but there is wisdom in the telling, and she does that so well. This is a prize of a novel and I loved every page of it.

Our book club recently chose Across Open Ground as our monthly selection -- and we were not disappointed! It was truly amazing. The author is a fellow Idaho-an which was the original draw, yet anyone, no matter where you are from, can appreciate the rich prose and crisp dialogue. This is a must read for any book club, or anyone wanting an escape from the daily grind to the grandeur of the old West! We absolutely LOVED this book and highly recommend it!

Parkinson has created two memorable characters in Walter and Trina, seventeen year-olds who come together in 1917 rural Idaho and discover the aching sweetness of young love. But there is brutality, violence and heartbreak here too, as the world and the war all too soon intrude on these two young peple's idyllic relationship. Parkinson displays a remarkable facility for dialogue, and her male characters are as fully developed and real as the women in this respect. This is especially noticeable in the rude and rowdy exchanges between the young doughboys made old before their time by the horrors of combat. The sloping mountains and grassy pastures of Idaho, as well as the cratered landscape of war are made equally real in turn. This is quite simply a beautifully told story that left me hoping for a sequel.

There is a new breed of novelists who specialize in mimicking the style of Cormac McCarthy, Charles Frazier being the most notable.
Parkinson also falls into this group of unfortunates.
"Across Open Ground" -the jacket illustration even mimics McCarthy's `Cities Of The Plain'- is so derivative as to be laughable. Which I did, laugh, out loud several times so ridiculous is the sophomoric pseudo-prose.
This book reads like a ninth grade English assignment to read one of McCarthy's Border Trilogy books, and then do the best possible version of the story as a bad imitation. It's
like reading a parody of a parody.
The author gets so lost in bad attempts at aping McCarthy, her verbose descriptions of landscapes, sunsets and the characters cease to make sense. There is little continuity to this novel, and the author contradicts herself often in the plot and scenario.
This is bad writing. Very bad, and totally unoriginal.
If you haven't read McCarthy, please do so. Then, come back to `Across Open Ground'.
While I laughed at parts of this book's stylistic absurdity, I was crying for the pain of reading it. The most interesting thing about this novel, is the lack of quotation marks. Sadly, another McCarthy stylistic trait, stolen and misused