Blue Rodeo [Hardcover]

Jo-Ann Mapson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

The past catches up with Margaret Yearwood after she abandons her orderly life in California for rural New Mexico, falls in love with her neighbor despite her misgivings, and begins a tentative communication with her newly deaf son. $20,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bittersweet story of middle-aged romance and family relationships, Mapson's second novel (after the praised Hank & Chloe ) is an engrossing, affecting story that should have solid popular appeal. Set in the Tony Hillerman and Barbara Kingsolver country of Southwestern small towns and Indian reservations, it chronicles the unlikely love affair of recent divorcee Margaret Yearwood, who has fled her chic California life and hopes to begin painting again, and former alcoholic Owen Garrett, now a sheepherder and hardware store clerk. Both Maggie and Owen are hiding troubled pasts and think themselves failures. Ditched by her husband for a younger woman and heartsick over the fact that meningitis has left her teenaged son Peter totally deaf, Maggie has come to the little town of Blue Dog, New Mexico, to be near Peter's boarding school, but he refuses to see her. Owen once accidentally killed a man and has been on the run ever since; he is the Marlboro man with a tender and sensitive streak. These two lonely, displaced people heal each other with passionate love (Mapson doesn't stint on the sex scenes), but circumstances preclude immediate happiness. Meanwhile, both Maggie and her son move toward maturity, learn to cope with loss and acquire the wisdom to understand "the necessity of grief, and its partner, joy." Maggie's reckless, charismatic sister Nori and Owen's best friend, Navajo Joe Yazzi, are supporting players, each emotionally scarred and searching for soul's peace. Mapson's affection for the Southwestern landscape and for the Native American culture is palpable. She has a particularly acute ear for the attitudes and lingo of teenagers, but her writing sometimes veers toward the saccharine. On the whole, however, she has proved herself wise in the ways of the human heart. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Love and loss after the age of 40 is the subject of this satisfying novel by the author of Hank and Chloe (LJ 2/1/93). Recently divorced Margaret Yearwood moves to a small New Mexico town so that Peter, her newly deaf teenage son, can attend a private school in Santa Fe. After killing a man in a bar, recovering alcoholic Owen Garrett has come to Blue Dog to hide. Owen and Maggie fall in love, despite their best intentions to keep themselves separate and their pasts a secret. One of this novel's strengths is the portrayal of Peter, whose anger and sadness at losing both his family and his hearing is sensitively and realistically described. Sympathetic characters, an interesting setting, and good writing combine to make this an appropriate purchase for public libraries.
Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060169443
• ISBN-13: 978-0060169442
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,616,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Southern California and lived there for most of my life, the middle child in a pack of five. Early on, my mother made a reader of me, with weekly library visits. I thank her for me becoming a writer. Her willingness to read to me, her funny sayings, and endless patience telling me stories, turned me into a storyteller. In elementary school I discovered clever poems and stories could get me out of homework assignments, and took complete advantage of that.

My first published book was Fault Line (stories) and until recently difficult to find. I've now obtained several cases of the book and hope to get it up on Amazon for sale soon. Since then I've published ten novels: Hank & Chloe, Blue Rodeo, which was made into a CBS TV movie starring Kris Kristofferson, Shadow Ranch, Loving Chloe (and a sequel to Hank & Chloe), The Wilder Sisters, the Bad Girl Creek trilogy, which includes Bad Girl Creek, Along Came Mary, and Goodbye Earl, The Owl & Moon Cafe and Solomon's Oak.

My eleventh novel, Finding Casey, will be published by Bloomsbury USA and UK in October 2012.

In 2000, my husband/artist Stewart Allison and I (and our four dogs--do not try this at home!)loaded up the car and drove the Alcan highway to Anchorage, Alaska. We lived there eight years, enjoying the Northern Lights, visiting moose, amazing glaciers and the occasional bear (honest!). When my job changed, we took advantage of the opportunity to move to the place my husband wanted to retire, Santa Fe, four Mexico. We live in a little pueblo-style house on the prairie with our five dogs and many "projects-in-progress." Stewart and I have been married thirty-six years. We have a grown son, Jack, who is an RN.

Everyday I pinch myself that I've somehow managed to end up a writer, my life's dream. Thanks to all of you who read and buy my books, it's a dream come true.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mapson's best, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Rodeo (Paperback)

This is Mapson's best. Each character is multi-dimensional, emotionally complex and just plain interesting -- they develop and grow over the course of the story, which is plausible and well thought out. An enjoyable read; I was sorry when I reached the last page. I've recommended this one to many people!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a deeply written novel of art, spirit, truth, change, and yes, love, July 4, 2005

By 

Julie A. Earhart (St. Louis, mo United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Rodeo (Paperback)

I found this book in the bargain bin at one of the local bookstores. I'm not overly fond of

romances but I do enjoy rodeos so, for a quarter, I felt like I had nothing to lose. However what I

gained from reading Jo-Ann Mapson's Blue Rodeo was much more than a contemporary

romance; I found a deeply written novel of art, spirit, truth, change, and yes, love.

Margaret Yearwood thinks she has reached the bottom. Her marriage to Ray Sweetwater

has crumbled. Her son Peter has been left deaf after nearly dying from a bout with meningitis due

to a truant outing. When Peter decides that he wants to immerse himself in the deaf culture, the

only way to do so is by living in a boarding school and residing with a foster couple who are also

deaf. Only problem is that they live in California and this facility is in New Mexico.

Peter's defiance and need to cut the apron strings tears at Margaret's heart. This tears

Margaret to the quick as she had given up grad school to have a home and a family. To abide by

the residency requirements, Margaret gives up a life of luxury and comfort, which includes a

waterfront home and a sailboat, to try and put down roots in Blue Dog. Since she'll do just about

anything to be part of her son's life, she rents an old farmhouse. Her nearest neighbor is a fifty-

two sheep rancher, Owen Garrett, with a past he's running from and secret that haunts his every

fiber.

There in the desert, the art and creative nature that Margaret has so long tried to deny.

"But what came to her now as she lay in bed was another shock, strangely related. For years, she

had shunted aside brief, awkward glimpses, peter's going deaf had provided her with an

understanding of the reason she abandoned art when she married Raymond. It wasn't about Ray's

insistence that she stay home and devote herself to having his babies, a decision she'd ultimately

embraced as sensible and desirable. When Peter went away she could no couch her excuses under

the heading of motherhood. Art took time away from other things, certainly, but creativity was a

state of mind you fertilized and tended, not something you made room for."

So she started painting again, learning the true value of the heart's inner passion as well as

the physical passion that Own re-ignited in the love-staved woman. First, with both the art and

Owen, her strokes are safe. But soon she learns that as she delves into the sunshine, so must she

step into the heart's darkness to really love and create.

I found Blue Rodeo spoke to my creative soul much more than my romantic one. Unlike

most romance novels, Blue Rodeo has a surprise ending that left me feeling hopeful.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Mapson, September 25, 2000

By 

Patricia Kay "author and avid reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blue Rodeo (Paperback)

I think I liked BLUE RODEO better than THE WILDER SISTERS, and that's saying something. I absolutely and emphatically disagree with the review by the woman who said Mapson repeated things too many times. As an author myself, I know good writing, and this book is filled with great writing from an extremely gifted writer. I took it along with me on vacation, and I liked it so much I found myself anxious to get back to the hotel in the afternoons so I could read more. I especially loved the relationship between Margaret and her son and the way it developed over the course of the story. I'm now hooked on Ms. Mapson's writing and am looking forward to reading SHADOW RANCH, which is next on my TBR shelf.