17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A noteworthy change of style, January 22, 2008
While I have not been a reader of Sara Paretsky's mysteries featuring private investigator V.I. Warshawski, I have long been aware of one of Chicago's finest writers. It was with great interest, therefore, that I received my copy of BLEEDING KANSAS, which represents a major departure for Paretsky. Instead of the grim streets of Chicago, the setting is Lawrence, Kansas, a community of farmers and University of Kansas students and teachers. Rather than a bang-bang mystery, it is a thoughtful work focusing on issues that paint the contemporary political landscape. The book's title reminds us of the Kansas territory of 150 years ago and the battle between pro- and anti-slavery forces. The novel itself serves as a thoughtful reminder to readers that the philosophical battle of that era in American history continues today.
Paretsky's father was a faculty member at the University of Kansas. Her family moved to Lawrence when she was four years old, and she resided there until her permanent relocation to Chicago. BLEEDING KANSAS, while not autobiographical in the purest sense, is a reflection upon what she experienced and observed in a unique community, a blue-state island in the red state of Kansas. The novel is a deeper exploration of many of the same issues discussed by Paretsky in her recently published WRITING IN AN AGE OF SILENCE, a series of essays that offer her views on a number of the hot-button issues that confront our nation.
BLEEDING KANSAS is the story of three families whose roots are deep in the Jayhawk State. The Grellier family has been farming in Kansas for generations. The father, Jim, his wife Susan, and children Lara and Chip seem to be the ideal American farm family, combining solid traditional values with a contemporary 21st-century view of life. But ugly events will doom their lives. Tension grows between the Grelliers and the Schapens, a neighboring farm family whose fundamental religious views are anathema to the Grelliers. The Schapen family includes the stern matriarch Myra, her deputy sheriff son Aaron, and his two boys, Junior and Robbie. The romantic relationship between Lara Grellier and Robbie Schapen serves as a Shakesperean-like backdrop to the conflict of Paretsky's narrative.
A third family, the Freemantles, appears mostly in a historical context through a diary and an ancient farmhouse that has been the site of mysterious historical events. The house will be temporarily occupied by Gina Haring, a Freemantle niece who has traveled from New York in an effort to re-focus her life. Haring's anti-war and liberal views are the flint that will spark confrontation in the community.
After the 2004 election, author Tom Franks used his home state of Kansas to ask crucial questions of political significance. Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where is the outrage at corporate manipulators? And what ever happened to middle-American progressivism? These were the riddles of WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?, one of the bestselling political tomes of 2005. BLEEDING KANSAS confronts many of those same questions and continues that discussion through Paretsky's fictional portrayal of the ongoing debate in our nation over the relationship between religion and public policy. Since the birth of America, citizens have debated these issues in discussions that have gone beyond words and ended in violence. For some, the debate has raged for so long that they have forgotten what they are fighting over.
For Paretsky, an accomplished and talented writer with a large following, BLEEDING KANSAS represents a noteworthy change of style. Perhaps that is why the novel seems to start slowly. But as the characters are fleshed out and we learn more about their lives, the book's insight and universal truths --- whether found in Chicago, Illinois, or Lawrence, Kansas --- become evident. Paretsky has traveled a long distance from V.I. Warshawski's Chicago, and her audience will enjoy the journey.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
all bled out, January 9, 2008
Maybe if I had hung in with this book longer, it would have become fabulous and engrossing but after 155 pages, it was just not worth the struggle. Sara Paretsky has taken a brave step in writing a novel that comes from her heart and history and should not be judged by the same standards as you would evaluate a chick-mystery. However.... The dialogue is tedious with far too many details, words and little content. There is not much depth to the characters and it is, even with concentration, a chore to bring everybody together in to a meaningful whole. It is grammatically flawed and I am quite certain that the 5th commandment deals with killing vs. one's relationship with parents. (p.72) All in all, an effort that really missed the mark for me.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dashed hopes for a good Kansas novel, June 24, 2008
I picked up this book not because I am a Paretsky fan (having never read any of her books before) but because I am deeply interested in Kansas and its history. My two years in Lawrence at KU in the 1970s made an indelible impression. This book was a crushing disappointment. The characters, with the possible exception of Jim, were monumentally annoying, the dialogue amateurish, the plot predictable (and ludicrous) and the almost satanic villainy of the fundamentalist characters insulting. Even the references to the real heartbreaking history of "bleeding Kansas" felt stilted and false. And to top it off -- and this is a really trivial point, I know -- the author repeatedly refers to the historical Indian character of Pocahantas as an expert tracker. Surely she means Sacajawea?
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