An undertaker lobbies to bury a convicted murderer in a Kansas public cemetery. In the Black Hills, a lawyer prods her Native American grandmother for clues about a family death. An injured dancer waits to hear whether her cousin has survived a dangerous trip out on the lake. Trusting in his estranged daughter, an Oklahoma father attempts to save his farm. A cancer patient revisits her grandfather’s struggle to preserve Ozark wildlife. In Beulah Land’s thirteen stories, lush country settings are juxtaposed against taut urban landscapes. Every character speaks out with their own unique, inimitable and intimate voice. Between New York City and Key West, between the Dakotas and Oklahoma, Krista McGruder’s prose creates a literate, disparate landscape of people both wandering and entrenched. In Beulah Land, geographic and emotional desolation are always present and surmountable.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In McGruder's imaginative but overwritten debut, the complex relationships between lovers and family members, between people and the land around them, link 13 stories of hardship, moral doubt, intergenerational conflict and defiance. In the title novella, narrated in a second-person voice that darts from intimacy to abrasiveness and back, New York stockbroker Amanita Buell survives a double mastectomy only to be fired for her bad attitude. Without missing a beat, she breaks up with her boyfriend, sells her condo and returns to her childhood home in Arkansas, in the shadow of a gigantic statue of Jesus, where she takes a stand against the townspeople, just as her grandfather did. In "The Bereavement of Eugene Wheeler," the question of a convict's right to be buried in a community cemetery causes a rift between Eugene, the funeral director, and his righteous son Scottie, who is dating the convict's daughter. McGruder's memorable-and amusing-narrative of the burial renders the land as much a participant as the protagonists. Several of the stories question humans' treatment of animals; in "Divination," for example, an impoverished father struggles with drought and his trucker daughter's views about cattle farming, while in "Dirty Laundry," a malnourished mother cat and her three small kittens allow two very different and prickly women a moment of tender connection. Though the prose bears marks of a beginner's heavy hand ("I feel cold, in this moment, as I relate the story that springs from the destruction I can cause with my slight indifference," thinks the narrator of "Dirty Laundry"), McGruder proves she can spin a fine yarn.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Krista McGruder invests her stories with incredibly rich situations and complex, extraordinary characters." -- Ken Foster, author of The Kind I'm Likely To Get
many of these stories have a compulsive narrative and consistently vivid imagery that make them natural contenders for movie adaptation. -- David Jones, Director of 84 Charing Cross Road
we want to hear more from Krista McGruder - soon and often." -- Frank McCourt, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes
many of these stories have a compulsive narrative and consistently vivid imagery that make them natural contenders for movie adaptation. -- David Jones, Director of 84 Charing Cross Road
we want to hear more from Krista McGruder - soon and often." -- Frank McCourt, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A finely written debut,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beulah Land (Hardcover)
It's a fine collection, perhaps not the greatest book ever but interesting writing. I've noticed that Krista McGruder has given several negative book reviews and wonder if the Park Slope/Hoboken literary set and friends have decided to flame her in the online forum. Beulah Land got a decent review elsewhere, so it's interesting that the piling on comes from New York environs. Of course, maybe the author should watch herself in when giving negative reviews to other writers.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Undercurrents,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Beulah Land (Hardcover)
I found Beulah Land reminiscent of some of the earlier works of Eudora Welty. Southerners enjoy quirky characters and their reflection of the human soul. I enjoyed the book and recommend it to the intuitive reader.
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
a promising, but even collection,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beulah Land (Hardcover)
Apparently, a reader is unable to receive a fair review of Ms. McGruder's book as it appears that there are a slew of those that know Ms. McGruder personally - either as a friend or as a detractor. As I do not know Krista McGruder or have never had a book of mine reviewed by her, I will render what will hopefully be a fair review.The collection, although well-written in many spots, is frankly uneven. There are some notable standouts: "Clan of Marsupials" which renders an interesting depiction of urbanities with a killer first line - red wine getting words faster on a page..."Dirty Laundry" for its character depictions and an O'Henry-esque quality about "The Bereavement of Eugene Wilder" where the burial is cleverly depicted as a fully-realized character. However, "Divination" and "A View from Eagle Rock Mountain" are less successful with winded narratives and some awkward turns and cliché phrases in her prose. "Host" reads entirely rushed and overwritten. The second person/distant narrator technique does not gel with the rest of the collection and feels as if it were a last minute inclusion. To note that those that cannot handle dense prose should read Danielle Steele is a ridiculous and insulting comment - as if these two writers comprise spectrum ends in literary fiction and those that do not accept Ms. McGruder's prose are somehow flawed, they are reduced as readers. There is a difference between the lyrical poetry of Faulkner and some of the heavy, dense exposition in McGruder's work as in "A VIEW FROM EAGLE ROCK MOUNTAIN" which doesn't propel the narrative forward, and at times, pulls the reader out of the story. People are too quick to tout new writers as brilliant, the best of their generation. Ms. McGruder's book is promising and exhibits her fine talent as a writer; however, it is not by any means a dazzling work of new fiction from a brilliant mind. Phrases like incredible debut, startling, astonishing are so overused in reviews that they've lost their luster. Keep it simple: it's a good book from a talented writer who perhaps needs to grow a bit more as a writer.
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