Customer Reviews

Heart of the Beast: A Novel

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This beautifully written book tackles hard family issues of love, acceptance and devotion. Joyce Weatherford brings the Eastern Oregon landscape alive with colorful descriptions and a true understanding of life in the wild west, its hardships and its beauty. Her story of the relationships developed there combined with the area's history is told in a way which keeps you on the edge of your seat. The plot twists and turns as the characters learn more about themselves and each other. As if helping you explore your own roots and personality, Joyce Weatherford develops her characters in a way that makes you feel as if you have not just observed their development, but have grown and matured with them as well. A wonderful read; very inspiring.

Joyce Weatherford's gripping drama about ranching, legacy, adversity, love and sacrifice, invites us to the family farm -- a place that is so fundamental to our society, yet so foreign to most of us. Heart of the Beast is profound and eloquent, and challenges each of us to consider our place and impact on our family and society, past and present. It is one of historic relevance, yet written with a contemporary flare with humorous references that help ease the intense pain that you feel about the characters' realities. It is also beautiful, visual and vivid -- a picture book without the pictures.

Don't plan on doing anything when you pick this book up because you won't want to put it down until the last beautiful word. It's like a rich tapestry of words. I heard Joyce Weatherford speak at a luncheon about this book. She said her publisher called early one morning and woke her up with the words, "you are one hell of a writer." She was right. The imagery and character development are terrific. The beginning feels almost a little too dark, but hang on. Soon the story will grip you and you will find yourself absorbed in Iris Steele's life. My book club recently read this book. A few members couldn't get past the morose beginning, those of us who finished it, loved it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I thought the beginning was a bit slow and meandering, but once the characters and the story line were more fully developed I found it a riveting story with incredibly realistic imagery. The author's descriptions of life on an Oregon ranch are so rich and realistic (she even describes the manure caked on the haunches of the cattle) that the reader really feels he is on the ranch -- I felt I could smell it! There is also a contemporary irony that I really enjoyed; while Iris (and the author)is certainly sympathetic to the plight of the Indians, she acknowledges some of today's more controversial realities -- for example the "sacred land" the Nez Perce tribe tries to reclaim (that has been Iris's mother's family ranch for generations) will, it is implied, likely end up as a casino (that may be run by "Indians" with only the remotest trace of Nez Perce blood).

The story-line of Heart of the Beast exists on many levels: the Indian's pursuit of Iris's land, Iris dealing with the ghosts of her deceased family, particularly her militaristic father, Iris's inability to commit to the man she probably loves -- and ultimately learning to submit herself, (and give up her precious land!!) to the ones she loves, and culminates into a courtroom drama in which we finally learn the history (including the climactic Nez Perce legend of the Heart of the Beast) that has led to the "way things are" today. Like the imagery, the plot is mostly starkly realistic, but it provides enough unexpected turns to make the book an interesting page turner as well (with admittedly a few disappointing leaps of reality, but they move the story along nicely).

Heart of the Beast is a novel which raises numerous questions, and provokes the reader to think about many issues both within the context of the book, and more broadly, about American life as well as our own personal lives (and ghosts). In my opinion it is an outstanding work of contemporary American literature, of an unexpectedly high quality (comparable to the works of Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Smiley, and Philip Roth) for a first-time novelist.

All in all, an excellent read; interesting enough if you don't want to think too much and fascinating if you are prepared to really dig deeply into it.

Joyce Weatherford's descriptive use of words touch the reader's senses with their imagery. We are at the harvest, in the fire, at the river, smelling the land and seeing the sky. Her characters battle each other with intensity. Some say that the history of the United States is told through its land and as "Heart of the Beast" moves between time periods, it portrays this old yet continuing conflict of settlers and Native Americans. A strong female protagonist tells the tale along with her own story.

...that I've read in a long time! Joyce Weatherford does an amazing job of throwing you down smack dab in eastern Oregon and immersing you in the farm life of Iris Steele and her family. Oodles and oodles of meaning and layers are fun to decipher as the author shows both sides of many controversial issues in the present and historic West. This is a beautifully written book!

If you want read a book--no--step inside a world other than the one you probably live in, then Heart of the Beast is for you. Smart, lyrically written, the story will take you places deep and wild, and like the character-rancher Iris, no matter how stubborn or damaged by the past, you'll feel the pull (or curse) of family and land and love. But down to the nitty-gritty: Chapter 11 will have you gripping the armchair over the showdown between machine, man, beast, and nature. Chapter 14 sizzles...like my friend said, "Simply the hottest sex scene ever written."

As a 4th generation Oregonian from a ranching family, I found Ms. Weatherford's novel to be a gripping and realistic portrayal of the drama actually experienced by such hardy families. Her vivid descriptions capture the reader's imagination. Iris Steele's family conflicts, her vulnerability, and commitment to the land forge her character in the mind of the reader.
Even a city slicker would enjoy this 'read' over the holidays. What an outstanding novel from a first time author!

I'm rereading Heart of the Beast because I tore through it too fast the first time to savor it fully. Told in first person, it's the story of hard-headed, vulnerable Iris Steele who's trying to run the family wheat farm/cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon and struggling against a natural world as ruthless as her kinfolk.
The land itself is a major character, cherished and fought over for four generations. As Iris discovers how they got the land from the Nez Perce, who are suing her to get it back, her struggles to save it illuminate her understanding of her father, violent, driven Ike Steele, and her own nature.
In a series of dramatic, wonderfully detailed scenes we are Iris delivering a calf, caught in a wildfire, connecting with her long-yearned-for lover, trying in a little twin-engine plane to rescue a wounded Indian on a reservation with no landing strip.
This novel is one of those rare total immersion experiences. Not to be missed.

I loved this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I liked the characters -- so real and so involving. A superb job of writing about people and a place I know little about and making me feel as if I did know them. The book is gritty and lyrical at the same time. After I'd finished the novel, I felt as if I had been to that place. I can't wait for her next book.