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The Last Cowgirl: A Novel

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I recently reviewed two memoirs, mentioning that they read like novels. Now I have found a novel that felt like a memoir. In The Last Cowgirl: A Novel, Jana Richman has brought her main character, Dickie Sinfield to life through a combination of contemporary narrative and flashbacks to childhood memories. The Last Cowgirl is a book about a woman coming to terms with her childhood on a cattle ranch, and her life in the 30 years since she left it.

When she was 7 years old, Dickie's father George moved the family from a suburb of Salt Lake City to a ranch in the rural town of Clayton, complete with cows and horses. Dickie tells us at the beginning of the novel:

Since then - nearly forty-six years ago - I've blamed anything that needed blaming on what Annie refers to it as Dad's "Gil Favor complex."

Dickie's older brother Heber thrived, loving the change, while older sister Annie and mother Ruth ignored the move, continuing to be fashionable and ladylike. Dickie was stuck in the middle, and ended up torn between the two extremes. While she would say that she hated life in Clayton, she loved riding in the wilderness with her new friend Stumpy and helping their neighbor, Bev, with her garden and ranch. Dickie was a sensitive child who had thrived on orderliness of the green grass, sidewalks, and curbs, and felt out of her element in the relative wilderness of Clayton. Dickie's character comes across well in this quote about her unsettled feelings during childhood:

It was the last three words that got to me. The three words I'd been hearing my entire life. Dropped off a horse onto her head. She'll be fine. Dragged by a steer. She'll be fine. Lost in the mountains. She'll be fine. Branded. She'll be fine. Shot at. She'll be fine. At what point, I wondered, do the actions of grown-ups add up to a child who actually won't be fine?

Dickie leaves Clayton right after graduation with a college scholarship for a journalism program, then leads a very orderly life in Salt Lake City as a prominent writer for a Mormon newspaper. She has a house, a yard with a garden, a couple friends, and a neighbor who she has been casually dating for over 10 years. Dickie's orderly life is reminiscent of her suburban life prior to the move to Clayton. She has also tried to leave behind any emotional messiness; we are left only with hints about a past relationship. Dickie's liberal beliefs set her apart from most of the people at work and help her keep her distance from others, making her life very compartmentalized. The Last Cowgirl challenges its narrator to let go of her control, and brings the reader along for the wonderful ride, galloping beside her.

Using Dickie's voice to tell the story, Richman makes The Last Cowgirl very personal. As we read her memories from childhood, we build a strong connection with her. Dickie's friends, family, and neighbors become like friends to us as we see them from her childhood through her adulthood. Richman writes very detailed descriptions, and while I've never been to Utah, I can now picture the landscape around the ranch in great detail; Richman has painted vivid images that have stayed in my mind long after I closed the book. My mind's eye is stuck on a hidden canyon with wild horses...

I'm glad I took The Last Cowgirl off my shelf on a day when my daughters weren't home, because nothing could make me put it down! As it was, I ignored my husband, dogs, and computer while I was caught in the world Richman spun around Dickie Sinfield. The Last Cowgirl had me laughing, crying, and reading quotes out loud, completely enraptured by the story. Make sure you've got some free time when you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down.

I strongly recommend reading The Last Cowgirl, not only so you can read about Dickie's unique childhood escapades, but also to read her journey from keeping everyone at arm's length to trying to achieve happiness. As you follow your own trail, spend a few hours reading The Last Cowgirl to help bring you some smiles along the way.

I ordered this book by author Jana Richman, having so thoroughly enjoyed her non-fiction work Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman's Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail. I was hoping for more of her thoughtful insights into the Mormon culture in particular and human nature in general and 'The Last Cowgirl' did not disappoint.

With a light and compelling style and clear prose, Richman weaves a tale loosely based on her own experiences growing up in rural Utah to fulfill her father's life-long dream to live the American cowboy life before it was lost forever. The story is a short epic, covering as it does the lives of its main characters over a span of 40 years or so. Along the way, the reader learns more about the uniquely Mormon culture, the difficult but sometimes fulfilling life of the small rancher in the American West, and the US Army's secretive and flawed chemical weapons testing program in the desert west of Salt Lake City in the '60's.

The characters themselves are endearing, approachable and well developed for such a compact work, and I found myself wanting to jump in the car and drive out to that rugged valley where the story plays out in the hopes of running into one or more them - they are that appealing and believable.

As with her earlier work, Ms Richman has written a book that is entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. I look forward to more from this talented writer.

Dickie Sinfield is currently pretty happy with her life. She has a job as a journalist that she loves. Her house is wonderfully messy and chaotic. Michael, her boyfriend of twelve years, lives right next door and is always there when she needs him. Dot, her best friend, keeps her life moving with her advice and no-nonsense attitude. Everything has been going pretty well for Dickie until she gets the word that her brother, Heber, has died.

When Dickie goes back home for the funeral, she's faced with her family and friends, but most of all she's faced with her childhood. Years of trying to forget have gone out the window the first moment she steps foot back on the ranch. Now Dickie must deal with a past that has always haunted her. Is the old adage true that you can't go home again?

Or is it true that home is where the heart is?

While reading the first chapter, I was actually very disappointed. I felt it was dry and didn't sink its teeth into me. But by the time I started the second chapter, I changed my mind, and then had a hard time putting it down.

Jana Richman has a wonderful way with words that allows you to visualize exactly what is happening and to sympathize with the characters. You know how everyone is feeling, looking, and acting throughout the entire book, though sometimes you don't understand their motivations.

The problem I had with this book was the constant flashbacks. I understand they needed to be there, but it took me until the end of the book to figure out that there was a pattern for which they emerge. Overall I really enjoyed the book and thought it was a great story that makes you examine your own life and what it holds.

Jane and her husband live in Utah, and she invites readers to email her at last [...].

Armchair Interviews says: The Last Cowgirl is Jane Richman's third novel.

Even if you have never ridden the range, The Last Cowgirl lets you feel what it would be like to live there, do that. With believable characters, making interesting sometimes upsetting choices, even a very contemporary "in the news" plotline, Richman has a lot to offer here. I did find some of the conversation between the 12-year-old Stumpy and Dickie too mature, but that's not a big deal. And at the end I wanted the "bad guys" to get punished, but of course that doesn't always happen in real life either.

When I picked up this book, I felt like I did when I first read Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. At last, here was a voice that both told me what life is about and seduced me with a terrific story. I've given this book to several people, and everyone loves it. With a quick sense of humor, Richman follows her characters into a West that includes not just cowboys but military bases. The themes would make any book group stay long past their alloted time: fathers who are bullies; beautiful landscapes that hide deep poisons; and the humanity that makes surviving it all worthwhile.

Now fifty-two years old and never married Dickie Sinfield looks back on her childhood when her father moved the family from the burbs to a Utah cattle ranch; at seven she went from suburban princess to mucking cowgirl. Over a decade after the transformation, eighteen year old Dickie had enough with the rough lifestyle and fled the ranch for Salt Lake City where she became a reporter.

Over the decades Dickie wants nothing much to do with her family and denies her feelings for her childhood friend Stumpy Nelson. However, her mortality comes home to roost forcing her to reexamine her feelings when her brother, Hebert dies in a poison gas accident at Dugway Proving Grounds. She returns to the ranch for his funeral and to face her family, her friends, and mostly herself.

This is an interesting family drama that looks deep at the impact emotionally on decisions in which people have reasonable choices to make; of fascination is how easily humans rationalize the selection vs. the rejections. In an aside subplot related to Herbert's death, the Feds are nuked by Jana Richman for their disregard of safety when it comes to handling of chemical and biological weapons, but the prime plot is people justifying poor choices.

Harriet Klausner

This novel really does read like a memoir as another person has already stated. It is a memoir of growing up on a ranch in 1960s Utah. Yes, it is a Mormon family or "jack Mormon", however you wish to call it, but the religion plays a very small role in the novel. Bascially, when it comes to Utah, you can't have one without the other. The Mormonism in this novel is very tastefully mentioned here and there and the author never portrays the religion as saintly or without its flaws. I was surprised and very pleased to find that the author never "preaches" and comes across as honest and even sometimes sarcastic regarding religion. Most of the novel is about ranch life and cows and the Army doing illegal testing with nerve gas. The story opens with Dickie dealing with her brother's death and within the course of a month, she loses her boyfriend and her job while readers get an in depth look at her childhood and her life as a cowgirl. There is a moral or two in this story. "Get over it" would be one moral. Dickie realizes at the age of 52 that the grudge and hate she has been carrying around over 40 years of her life has prevented her from truly living it. The second moral: It is never too late to let someone in your heart and maybe fall in love.

Excellent character development with accurate protrayal of the independent personality found so often in out-of-the-way parts of our country. Her writing made me ache with the main character and at times I felt like shaking her. Now, that is writing.

This is one of those books that takes you out of your own world for a while and lets you immerse yourself into a different one. And the different one is an interesting place filled with interesting, and very genuine, people.

I thought the gift in this book was how well Richman explores personalities of people who are at various degrees of being comfortable living in their own skin. I am always fascinated by this aspect of humanity and this is a substantial exploration of that.

Beyond that, it's fun! I found myself reading passages aloud to others.

Jana Richman's The Last Cowgirl, chronicles the Sinfield family's move from the Salt Lake City suburbs to a small, ill-equipped ranch near Clayton, Utah. The novel spans over a forty year period, toggling from Dickie Sinfield's career as a successful journalist in Salt Lake City to flashbacks of her childhood. A family tragedy takes Dickie from her comfortable city life to visit the family ranch, and forces her to come to terms with her childhood.

The move from city to country satisfies her father's cowboy fantasies. Dickie's older brother thrives and happily sheds his city skin while her mother and older sister ignore the move and manage to carry on their lives as before. Seven years old at the time of the move, Dickie finds herself excluded from either extreme. Although there are good times with a neighboring boy, Stumpy, and a wise neighbor, Bev, Dickie, accident-prone and without a shred of self-confidence, spends much of her childhood in fear of her environment.

The novel is at times hilarious with the enactment of the cowboy lifestyle, at times sad with the struggle of being placed in an environment foreign to familiar comforts. The Last Cowgirl, however, is always entertaining with its strong characterization, vivid images of the countryside, and deep personal insights. Jana Richman's honest approach to her characters make you feel like you've known them for years.

The Last Cowgirl (William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers) won the 2009 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction.