Kingdom Come [Paperback]

Laura Chester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

It was the worst Christmas of her life for many reasons. With little to keep her on Beacon Hill, Joanna Hawkins leaves her comfortable, false life and heads west into often threatening territory. Here she takes over her aunt's small cattle ranch, and soon rediscovers her teenage flame, Samuel Harrigan Sixkiller Mendoza, a complicated loner.

Kingdom Come is not only a contemporary western with a Traviata twist, but the story of a woman in search of her mother, while struggling to become one to her own estranged children. Fast-moving, heart-breaking fiction, Chester's best to date.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Just as Chester's heroine so accurately refers to grooming one's horse as an act of meditation, so too is this novel of quest a meditation on the complex nature of love and yearning. Joanna Hawkins barely makes it through the worst Christmas of her life. Her estrangement from her college-student daughter and polite distance from her husband are routine, but her first-time separation from her beloved son, Jovey, as he leaves for prep school in midyear, brings sharp, new pain. His rebellion, her disillusion about her marriage, and her inheritance of a ranch she fondly remembers from childhood lead inexorably to her leaving the material comforts of a Beacon Hill home to find her own inner way among the rocks, cacti, and canyons of her land along the Mexican border. Joanna encounters no easy situations or easy answers. Indeed, Chester depicts the randomness of the universe as a life-shattering force in this deeply satisfying and mature work about self-knowledge, and learning to let go as a form of healing. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Laura Chester had been writing, editing and publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction since the early 70's. Her volumes include: a new edition of Lupus Novice, Station Hill Press, 1999; The Story of the Lake, a novel from Farber and Farber, as well as several books of poetry and fiction from Black Sparrow Press. Recent works include a chapbook of prose poems, All in All, from Quale Press, and Holy Personal, (with photographs by Donna DeMari), Indiana University Press, 2000. She has edited four major anthologies: including Deep Down, from Farber and Farber; and The Unmade Bed, Harper-Collins. Chester grew up in Wisconsin, and now travels between southern Arizonba and western Massachusetts.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Creative Arts Book Company; First Edition edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887393594
• ISBN-13: 978-0887393594
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,815,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Song, October 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Hardcover)

Laura Chester writes with a deep commitment to lyrical language. Reading Kingdom Come felt as if I were listening to a wistful, beautiful country song. This is a confident, sure-footed, tender love story that evokes life, life-style, and loss on two sides of the continent.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a MARVEL!, September 6, 2000

By 

Marie Harris, poet laureate (Barrington, New Hampsshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)

Chester deftly and completely captures the innards of the relationships between men and women, between children and mother, among friends and lovers-- I was left breathless. More than once I found myself stopping mid-sentence to re-read a particularly brilliant part (one tour de force that sticks in my mind is on page 199... that perfect, quirky, exactly right list of memory evokers). The writing is terrific. Chester has told my story, practically moment by moment. The growing/grown children parts are amazing. She has told the story of almost every woman of our age that I know. I'm insisting everyone I know should read this book. Wonderful, wonderful.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rave Reviews, January 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)

Whitney Scott for BOOKLIST writes: "Chester depicts the randomness of the universe as a life-shattering force in this deeply satisfying and mature work about self-knowledge, and learning to let go as a form of healing." Rachel Barenblat writes in THE WOMEN'S TIMES: "This is one beautiful, well-written midlife coming-of-age novel that is worth having on the shelf." And Steve Louden of the Oconomowoc Enterprise Staff says: "While Kingdom Come is a sad love story that delves into the spiritual aspects of dying, Holy Personal is a book of life."

See HOLY PERSONAL, looking for small private places of worship, for more detailed reviews of that book.