Customer Reviews

Bleeding Kansas

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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

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.

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?

Setting aside V. I. Warshawski to allow her to recuperate from her travails in the last episode, Sara Paretsky has written a novel of monumental proportions. It is set in the Kaw (Kansas) River Valley, where the author grew up, and traces the lives of several founding families who settled there in the pre-Civil War days when the pro- and anti-slavery forces vied against each other.

The novel takes place in current times, with references to the past, and looks at the social politics and farm life of the area, including religion, pro- and anti-Iraq War, persecution, the hard lives of farmers and other themes. It is a far cry from Dorothy's Kansas which, at least, had a rainbow.

The characters are well-drawn, the story engrossing. The novel raises a variety of questions on a broad array of themes, including fundamentalism and scientific evolution, but more importantly, hope. The book should be read and is highly recommended

Best known for her V.I. Warshawski detective novels set in Chicago, Sara Paretsky recently took a left turn out of her driveway and headed south on an old gravel road until she discovered the Grellier farm in Kansas where she spent time becoming friends with the Grelliers and their neighbors. The novel, Bleeding Kansas, was the result. And nowhere is Warshawski to be found.

With this novel, Paretsky has stretched her writing legs and discovered a whole new world. Many writers, artists and musicians long to break out of the mold that created their success and create something new, exciting and different. This is probably one of the reasons Sara Paretsky wrote this novel. And she succeeded. On one level it is a cross between Judith Guest's Ordinary People and Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres with some of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet thrown in for good measure.

Unlike the Warshawski novels which are told in the first person through the voice of the detective, this story is told in the third person from the point of view of multiple characters -- mostly the Grelliers. The reason I love the Warshawski novels is that I love V.I. Warshawski. Unfortuately, there is no one character in Bleeding Kansas that I can love unconditionally. I enjoyed being in the company of Susan Grellier, the mother and farmer's wife, until her son is killed in Irag and she goes off the deep end and almost disappears from the story. She is replaced by her daughter and her husband who have problems coping with their strong mother and wife becoming weak and pitiful.

I recommend this novel to all fans of Paretsky and hope that it garnishes her a whole new group of fans as well.

As a native Kansan, a dairy farmer's wife, and a former (6+ years# resident of Lawrence I've found the book to mildly entertaining at best and outright insulting at worst. I'll admit that I'm only about halfway through, but so far it has been one giant, annoying, stereotype.

While Paretsky claims to have interviewed local farmers as part of her research her resulting characters are such a stiff, clichéd, overly romanticized bunch of caricatures, it's hard to imagine that she actually listened to what any of her interviewees had to say. Instead of truly experiencing the thoughts and life of a Kansas farmer, the reader instead gets to learn all about Paretsky's ideals, morals and hatreds, all wrapped up in an empty flannel shirt and a John Deere cap. I can't begin to explain how irritating and unlikely the majority of these characters are- Arnie Schaepen and his family are obviously based on the real-life Fred Phelps clan in nearby Topeka. The Gelliers are meant to be good, honest folk- they don't gossip, they work hard, always get their crops in on time. Neither family presents an accurate portrayal of real Kansas farmers or the hardships they face, in essence this is exactly the kind of wannabe tearjerker crap I'd expect an NYC 9th grader to come up with when asked to write a story about Kansas #yes, I realize that now I'm stereotyping).

It is obvious to me that while Paretsky may have grown up in the country near Lawrence she never really interacted with or truly understood her neighbors and their work. In Paretsky's world there is no grey- there are only ultra-fundamentalist bigots, Bible-thumping Jesus lovin' good guys, and weird lesbian witches. It's good to know that since I'm not a lesbian, or a member of Fred Phelps' church, then I must be going to heaven along with the Gelliers!

And finally, in one of the most annoying errors I've found so far, oats are not grown in Kansas! It is too hot for them here; the plants would bake long before they reached maturity. Way to do your research Sara!

I've read most of Paretsky's VI Warshawski novels, and looked forward to reading something of hers in a different genre. I found the story choppy and disjointed, the characters wooden and unsympathetic. Didn't seem like the work of an experienced novelist--just a big disappointment.

I bought this book at the airport in Dallas enroute to Kansas to visit my parents in Eudora. I make the trip there several times a year. I read the first couple of lines of her thanks to the Pendleton family and decided to buy the book because I used to know the family. What fun reading a book about my home area. Or, so I thought!
I grew up in Eudora in the 50's and 60's, then lived in Lawrence until the middle 80's. I certainly do not have any memories of Douglas County that are like of the author's. She says in background that Lawrence and KU became the site of some of the bloodiest campus battles in the nation in the 60's and 70's. There was a lot of unrest and some battles like most campuses at the time, but not even close to being the bloodiest. She then says that people were so frightened of women's right and African-American rights that they thought the Communists had taken over. I have never heard anyone in that area say that. She then goes on to say that this is when the big, bad Republican revolution began. If you look back in history for over 70 years, you will see that Kansas has voted for a Democrat for President only twice, Roosevelt in 1936 and Johnson in 1964. It has always been a Republican state. Lawrence, however is a very liberal city.
I spoke to many people about this book while I was in Kansas. She came across to everyone as someone who for some reason had an unhappy childhood and was looking for revenge.
Her characters are not at all like anyone I know in Kansas. Another reviewer said it was frightening to think there is an area like this. He is right. It would be frightening, but it is not Douglas County and Lawrence.
An author has a right to write fiction, but with what she says in her background she makes it sound like this is fact and it is not.

I was really looking forward to reading this book as I'm a long time fan of Sara Paretsky. However, this book was a huge disappointment. Characters were either vile and evil or misguided and stupid. Lots of stereotypes. Fundamental Christians can be accused of going to extremes but it is doubtful that a whole church would look on cheering in support of arson and murder. Similarly, Jewish fundamentals were given the same negative stereotypes and were painted as fanatical "loonies". The dialogue was often stilted. Elaine's character was grating and Myra's character was unredeemably evil. As other posters have noted, the first 100 pages contained so many characters that it was hard to know which character was important. The rest of the story is implausible at best. Don't waste your time.

I have read many of Ms. Paretsky's Warshawsky novels so was anticipating a good read. However, there is not a single realistically likeable character in this book, and they all act as if they have IQs of 75. Myra was unbelievably evil, Jim was unbelievably good, every time Lara set out and didn't tell her parents where she was going that was the tipoff that she was going to get into big trouble. I would start shouting "Don't do it, Lara!" as I read. The Civil War history didn't really mesh with the plot and the letters sounded like they were written by someone in our present trying to pass themselves off as a 19th century farmwife.