From Library Journal
The loss of a child, a horse, and a marriage provides the framework around which Esstman drapes insightful writing and fine storytelling. Set in Missouri in 1947, the story is told by each character in turn?a mother, a father, a daughter, a grandmother, and a potential lover. Each contributes his or her own version of a marriage's disintegration, accelerated by the untimely death of Simon, the golden boy. Simon's mother, Nora, and her mother, Maggie, have drifted through life, never fighting for anything, defined by husbands and fathers. But when Nora's husband threatens their continued ownership of a ranch passed to them from Maggie's mother, the two women reclaim their matriarch's "terrible strength and efficiency" to ensure their survival. Although the time period is not as richly detailed as one might wish, the ranch setting is marvelously alive. Add to this mix a compelling love interest and film rights sold to Hallmark, and this novel is an essential purchase.?Terrill Persky, Woodridge P.L., Naperville, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The flood-soaked ground is so slippery near the river town of LaCote, Missouri, in the late 1940s that Simon Mahler falls to his death from his mother Nora's horse. Angered by this senselessness, his father, Neal, takes revenge and shoots the beloved Arabian in the head. Nora is devastated. With both her son and her horse gone, she withdraws into herself and is eventually admitted to a mental hospital, where she undergoes electroshock treatment. When her globe-trotting mother, Maggie, realizes what is happening, she arranges for her release. In an attempt to force Nora to sell the farm, Neal moves himself and their daughter, Clea, to Chicago. Ozzie Kline, Nora's childhood sweetheart who never quit loving her, returns to the farm as a hired hand. He takes on horses to board and finds her a new filly. Their emotional relationship changes as she allows herself to feel something beyond her sorrow. Each chapter, presented in different narrative voices, reveals aspects of Nora's disintegrating marriage and her growing affection for Ozzie from several points of view; however, the progression of the narrative of this two-hankie, horse lover's tale is also impeded by that structure. Hallmark Productions has acquired the film rights.
Jennifer Henderson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
