Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still [Hardcover]

Kent Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2003

Mattie Remmel, who loses her husband in a farm accident, discovers and confronts his hidden past, which darkens her own vision of the future. Deciding to keep their alfalfa ranch running, Mattie enlists the help of her daughter, Shelley, who's returned home from college, and hires a ranch hand, Dawn, a young woman who has a penchant for mechanics. A fourteen-year-old runaway Native American boy joins the three women, and together they forge an unlikely family, facing whatever life throws at them, from the trials of independent work to the arrival of a former lover bent on revenge. A powerful novel about the search for home, authenticity, and love, Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still is as evocative of place as it is of the vagaries of human emotion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The bleak landscape of South Dakota comes alive in this absorbing novel, the affecting tale of three women at life's crossroads. Mattie Remmel is the protagonist whose life is transformed by tragedy when her husband, Haney, dies in a farming accident. That shock is followed by another when Mattie goes through Haney's letters and discovers his secret life as a gay man. Although she's devastated, Mattie is strong and decides to try to keep the family's alfalfa ranch running with her daughter, Shelley, who has returned home from college, and the help of a mechanically adept handywoman named Dawn whose chaotic past casts a long shadow over ensuing events. The emotional arc of the novel builds slowly, so that Mattie's stoic character is well established by the time she discovers Haney's true sexual orientation, and her stifled, anguished reaction rings true. There's also credibility in Shelley's sudden breakup with her boyfriend and a subsequent affair with her old English teacher, Bryce Adler. The novel gains a piquant edge with the arrival of a reticent teenaged Native American runaway named Elton, who becomes indispensable to other characters' lives and whose loyalty nearly leads to tragedy. Nelson (Language in the Blood) gracefully weaves the plot threads with his earthy writing about farm life on the Western plains. His skill in delineating three different, complex female protagonists is remarkable, and many of his precise, dialogue-driven scenes are little gems. Yet this is not frothy woman's fiction, but an authoritatively controlled tale with mounting suspense and violence that builds like a thunderstorm in the Black Hills. Combining quirky charm and matter of fact detail, the novel is a heartwarming portrait of an unusual kind of contemporary family.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Nelson makes every element urgently interesting, from a stone to a tractor, a field of alfalfa, a South Dakota sunset, the sting of a clever retort, the touch of a loving hand. And he tells a western tale unlike any other thanks to a remarkable cast of on-the-run, battered, grief-stricken, resourceful, smart, and sharp-tongued skeptics. Abruptly widowed at 44, Mattie not only has to struggle to keep the ranch running but she also must come to terms with hurtful and confounding revelations regarding her late husband. Her college-age daughter, Shelley, moves back home to help out, and to mourn, and as she pushes herself by mending fences and baling hay, gets into a barroom brawl, and discovers good sex, she begins to envision a desirable future. As do the hired hand, the fabulously scrappy Dawn, a gifted mechanic with a mystical streak, and Elton, a runaway Native American teenager to whom the women become profoundly attached. Nelson perfectly dovetails different points of view into a richly faceted plot as his witty and resilient characters survive encounters both hilariously awkward and terrifyingly violent, practice both courage and tenderness, and look to the earth for guidance. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (July 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670032263
• ISBN-13: 978-0670032266
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real People!, November 4, 2003

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still (Hardcover)

Kent Nelson handles setting about as well as any writer I've ever read. This is the South Dakota Badlands and the main characters raise alfalfa, and other crops. The plot revolves around the accidental death of Matti Remmel's husband and a secret he's been hiding from her the past few years. That plot thread soon runs out of steam, and the book becomes more of a relationship novel: Matti and an archeologist who wants to dig on her land; her daughter Shelley and her former high school English teacher; and Dawn, Mattie's eccentric hired hand, and a Mexican neighbor with a secret of his own. Then there's the runaway Indian boy Mattie takes in. All of them are working on building trust.
Sometimes Nelson spends too much time trying to prove he knows all about alfalfa ranching, as he devotes pages and pages to irrigation, fixing flat bed trucks, and building a new kitchen after Dawn sets fire to the ranch house. Otherwise, he does a bang-up job writing women characters and sex from a woman's perspective.
Nelson throws in a brutal ex-boyfriend for Dawn who is instrumental in moving the novel toward a climax. Dawn is perhaps the most self-sufficient and toughest of the three women. She can fix anything and she adds a bit of humor to an otherwise angst-filled novel.
These characters are so real they make those on the MTV program seem cartoonish.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a story of women; a story of the land..., October 27, 2003

By 

bcg (salt lake city, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still (Hardcover)

Kent Nelson's new book is a good read. That is the best thing I can say about a book. It is hard to put down - I want to finish it, but then I am sad when I have finished it because it is the end of the story. Every reader must know this feeling. Kent Nelson does an incredible job of getting into the mind of women. I read this and want to be more like Shelley, more like Dawn - even more like Mattie. Shelley could be my daughter - I remember being that age and some of it is just exactly how it was; there is a braveness in his character of Dawn and a sense of knowing exactly what one wants to do - I always want to be strong like that; but I think the central core of a woman in this story is his character Mattie. His conversations flow in such a way that reading becomes almost like watching a movie - it is that smooth. He is funny and witty and sad in ways that always move me. His love of the land, and his knowledge of the land, comes through. I know this land - I can feel it in my bones just from the way he writes.
I read a lot. I follow a lot of writers closely and read everything they publish. Kent Nelson is the best of them. It is a real treat to have a new book by him because they are very rare. He also writes short stories and has a few collections of these stories published, and they are just as wonderful as his novels. Kent Nelson has a style that gives us, as readers, credit for our own intelligence - he gives us room to think about his stories and even to sometimes think about how and why, or even what, happens.
I go in bookstores and wander around - I am sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer number of books out there. This is a book I so highly recommend. It is a good story, sometimes it reads so smoothly it is almost like poetry. Kent Nelson knows how to tell a story - how to put people in a place and time and show us a part of their lives. And he makes us, as readers, interested. He makes us care.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, October 20, 2003

By 

Laurel (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still (Hardcover)

Kent Nelson's LAND THAT MOVES, LAND THAT STANDS STILL reads like a
grass
fire. Nelson makes it difficult to put down. Master craftsman, he
interweaves each character with the theme, plot, and setting so that
the
reader feels and sees everything in the character's world. From the
first
page the reader cares what happens to these people who make their
livelihood on this beautiful ranch in South Dakota. The reader is well
cared for and always knows where she is in story and place. Nothing is
superfluous and all things work together to support the mysterious
transitory nature of the land and the people who live in relation to
it. No one can control their environment, the only choice becomes to
move
with it.

Mattie is a marvelous creation full of contradictions, puzzlements, and
needs that resonate with the reader. She lives in harmony with the
people
and the land as she struggles to understand those around her and to
make a
go of the ranch on her own. This novel is richly populated with other
characters who help or hinder her, and they, too, are also fully
realized
and each distinct from one another. At no time is one character
confused
with another. The land itself becomes a character as it carries the
theme
and moves the plot forward. It's wonderful how all things and
characters
exist and happen because of this place. Even the vivid, lyrical
language
is an integral player here. LAND THAT MOVES, LAND THAT STANDS STILL is
a
rewarding and satisfying read.