Customer Reviews

Crows Over a Wheatfield

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

 

 

This is definitely a five-star book. As an attorney who works in the Ohio courts, I found Crows over a Wheatfield amazingly accurate - we're lucky that someone who knows the courts writes so well, too. The portrait of Mildred Steck's abusive husband Daniel is ingenious - he really does talk and act like such people do. I love the way he contradicts himself without even realizing it, the way he seems completely disassociated from his own nastiness. In real life, I think men like him would probably be more dangerous, although I can see why Sharp would have wanted to rein him in a little, to draw a more subtle portrait. My favorite character in this book is Daniel's wife, Mildred. I like her because she defies all stereotypes of battered women - she's just an ordinary person who had the misfortune of marrying someone who was not so ordinary. Mildred is so full of life and humor - the best thing about this book is the way Sharp, astonishingly, keeps you laughing even in the worst of times. The novel's fourth book, in which Mildred starts an underground railroad for battered women, was the best of the four books of the novel. The detailing of how the railroad was set up was so ingenious, and its architects and philosophy so wry and amusing. Quite an indictment of the legal system. Anyone who ever thinks they might end up in a matrimonial court case should read this book.

This the best book I've read in many years. It tackles a difficult subject -- how domestic violence is mishandled by our courts in custody cases -- but somehow Sharp takes on this topic in such a way that you never feel overwhelmed by it. Her characters are riveting. She has an uncanny ability to step into the skin of her narrators and to deliver a perfectly convincing story from their points of view -- and you never question their perspective as long as they've got hold of you. Whether or not you agree with the views of this novel's narrator, you certainly come to understand them in a detailed, intelligent way. You are moved. This must be very hard for authors to pull off, because when you see the real thing in a book liike this, you realize how rare it is.

This is a big book -- it spans 30 years in a family's life, and you get to know and care about people who surprise you -- Matt Ratleer, the schizophrenic brother of the narrator Melanie, must be the first really psychotic person I've encountered in a novel, who is presented with such breathtaking realism and compassion and without condescension. You don't just get to like him -- you love him. Melanie's friend Mildred -- who starts an underground railroad for battered women fleeing unjust and dangerous custody rulings -- is so unique, so zany and passionate and brilliant that you wish she was your friend.

And the villains! No one writes villains like Paula Sharp! This book has one of the best villains I've seen in years -- Mildred's increasingly violent husband Daniel. What makes him so scary is he's so real. He's surely a sociopath, but I've never seen a sociopath laid out so carefully and convincingly, without the gore and fanfare of Hollywood, but intelligently, realistically. Every action he takes is both surprising and completely credible.

This book is a masterpiece. Read it and tell everyone you know about it.

Paula Sharp's 1996 novel Crows Over a Wheatfield tells the story of Melanie Ratleer, daughter of an extremely successful -- but abusive -- trial lawyer father, who rises in her profession to become first a big-firm lawyer then a U.S. District Judge nominee. Throughout her life, both in her own household and later through her practice, she encounters situations where unfair or bigoted judges control case outcome, where money conquers justice, and where the law finally just wears litigants down. In one particularly telling passage, a senior, very compasionate, lawyer explains why a case should be tried before a jury, rather than a judge alone:

"A bench trial! That would be worse. [T]he face that leans over the bench, swaddled in black rayon, is not Solomon's It's a lawyer's. A lawyer dressed up in a black costume. And what kind of judge would we get? How much will he know about people? Is he stupid? Prejudiced? Failure of imagination is the heart of the law."

The last sentence -- about failure of the imagination being the law's lifeblood -- really gives one pause. In many respects, I cannot disagree, at least as the system often works. In the end, Melanie first becomes aware of then involved in a widespread plan of civil disobedience, a group of persons who, having concluded that the courts cannot protect themselves or their children from violent abuse, must take the law in their own hands. Sharp writes with great passion and vision, and draws a cast of believable and sympathetic characters. I suspect any reader will finish the book either agreeing with her point of view (I did) or throwing the novel aside in disgust. I recommend this novel very highly.

I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I found it a very enthralling, believable read. The characters were so real and loveable, while some remained hated, it's what made it real.

This was not a book drenched in legal terms, I would have expected a book by a lawyer to be very legal and politically correct. This was a story about Melanie Ratleer finding out who she is, during her childhood with an abusive father, to her adulthood following in his professional footsteps. In the present, Melaine is a newly appointed judge, who upon repeated trips back home to her step family sees abuse in others, and people who do things about it through any means necessary.

This was a very well written novel, that kept me very interested. I would definitely recommend this book.

Crows over a Wheatfield captures perfectly the chilly broken thing that a person can become, given some time and inhospitable surroundings. It also affirms that tragedy isn't the only ending possible, that life can be a renewable resource. The first two-thirds of this novel has all the suspense and drama of a really good, well, suspense novel. In the last third, however, things fall apart. The domestic abuse drama at the center of the story turns into messy damage control; a bizarre hostage/bomb threat episode is disorderly, improbable and just plain weird-a lot like reality. The narrator's mentally disturbed brother recovers, in a fashion. The narrator, for no good reason except a glancing proximity to it, chooses life instead of the permanent winter of the soul. Peter Hoeg's recent novel Smilla's Sense of Snow echoed in my mind while I read this book. Both feature an intelligent, rational, yet nearly crushed heroine. When you read closer, however, Smilla Jasperson is quite a bit more lively than Melanie Ratleer. Smilla cares enough to tell us what she wears, most days. In contrast, Melanie permits her cancer to occupy mere paragraphs of her story, although it haunts the book like the absent Joel Ratleer. Hoeg offers the requisite closure of contemporary political/criminal thrillers: a crushing world-weary knowledge of evil. Closure in Crows Over a Wheatfield is happier, more hopeful, and more fulfilling. All of the evil characters are not dead. All of the good characters are not made whole. A lot like reality. Why didn't this book draw more critical attention? Because ugly truths far from home are easier to look at than those in our own kitchens? A fine fiction

I would read anything written by this author, for her masterful art of storytelling and for her brilliant writing. I couldn't put it down.

Melanie grows up with a "mean" father and a recluse of a step-mother, who is the mother of her half-brother Matt. Matt is the same age as Melanie, and there the plot begins.

Melanie's father wants Matt to be a lawyer as he is; Matt struggles with the mental torture and suffers a breakdown. Melanie grows up to be a judge, surpassing her abusive fathers wonderful reputation as a defense lawyer.

The book touches on the legal system and abuse where women and children are concerned. The story dives into the depths of what is not seen in abuse, making the novel at times suspenseful. Melanie's character is so strong.

I may have read this book at the wrong time, as I found it a little dry, though the writing style was perfect. The characters are strong, but I still feel I may have missed the "riveting" story beneath the story!

-Definitely a "reread" one day book. -- 4 out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book, and looking foward to the next Paula Sharp novel that I have ( I Loved You All).

I would recommend this book very highly. I think you will enjoy this book even if you do not agree with the point of views that are in the story.

I really enjoyed the book for the most part, the first two sections were very good. The detail that the author goes into describing the horrors of domestic abuse is rather chilling. However I was disappointed with the third part. It almost seemed like the author was trying to finish the book and just end it. I was actually left with more questions about the railroad and how an organization like this would function. The first two parts though were very enjoyable.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am looking foward to the next Paula Sharp novel (I Loved You All)that I've purchased. I would recommend this book very highly. I think you will enjoy this book even if you do not agree with the point of views that are a big part of the story.