Prairie Reunion [Paperback]

Barbara J. Scot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997

A poignant homecoming story tells of the author's return as a middle-aged woman to the farming community in Iowa where she grew up and her quest to understand her mother's acceptance of her father's desertion and eventual suicide. Reprint. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scot (Notes from Nepal) evokes a vivid sense of place in this haunting memoir set on the Iowa prairie. She returned to her childhood home, located in the Presbyterian farming community of Scotch Grove, to understand her mother better. When Scot was a baby and her brother only two, her father deserted his wife for another woman after he had mortgaged her farm and left her saddled with debt, committing suicide a few years later. An old trunk filled with family pictures, letters and other memorabilia left to her by her mother stimulated the author to investigate the reasons for her mother's regard for her father and her lack of bitterness while Scot was growing up. Through visits to family members and research into the area's history, she came away with a better understanding of her father's good qualities and his inability to live up to his own expectations, as well as a respect for her mother's forgiveness and enduring love. 40,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In the 1940s, when Scot (The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes: Notes from Nepal, LJ 11/15/93) was a young girl in a small town in Iowa, her father abandoned the family, leaving behind a pile of debts for his devoted wife. It was not until the 1990s that Scot returned to her childhood home to investigate her parents' bittersweet relationship and try to understand her mother's unabated love for a man who deserted her for another woman and who subsequently killed himself. In this memoir, Scot also mulls over her own failed first marriage, recollects growing up in her grandmother's house, and sorts out her ancestors' history. The result is a hodgepodge of reconstructed dialog from the past, conversations with relatives in the present, and sensory perceptions of the landscape, with notes about local folklore and geography thrown in. Scot's personal musings lack real coherence and fail to arouse the reader's interest. Not recommended.?Ilse Heidmann, Kyle Community Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; 1st Riverhead ed edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573225827
• ISBN-13: 978-1573225823
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,406,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Prairie Why?, February 8, 2003

By 

Harvey S. Jacobs (Potomac, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie Reunion (Hardcover)

This book is not my usual genre, but thought I'd stretch a bit. A few chapters in, I felt that I should not be reading Barbara's private diary. Several chapters later I was wondering WHY I was reading Barbara's private diary. Several more chapters in, I was wondering why Barbara felt we all should be reading her private diary. I am confident that Barbara got more out of writing this book than I got out of reading it.

While I was aware that this was a memoir, my assumption was that something interesting must have happened to the author, or her immediate family, or her friends, or her neighbors, or her not so immediate family, or ANYONE! But that was not the case. While Barbara does a very good job of recalling various parts of her childhood, the reader is not really provided any reason to care about any of the characters. Unless you grew up in the Midwest, or were divorced once or twice, or had a parent die young or commit or attempt suicide, there was no real "hook," no connection to the author or her life. We don't really learn anything or take anything away from this book, nor do we learn that the author learned anything but a few missing facts about her past. We don't get any inkling of how that information and/or revelations will benefit her or the reader.

Despite her inclusion of geographic maps and genealogical family trees I had no idea who was related to whom, nor which generation was involved with which other generation. I'm sure it all made sense to her extended families, but to the moderately engaged reader it was very disjointed.

Though this volume was self-absorbed and narrow, Barbara's other volumes may be worth a read assuming that she has an actual story to tell in them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex truths, December 21, 2007

By 

Story Circle Book Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie Reunion (Paperback)

In the mid-'40s, Barbara Scot's father abandoned his wife and two children and ran off with another woman, leaving behind a mortgaged farm and a pile of debts. He committed suicide in 1950, but his wife Katherine continued to live in the small Iowa town and to attend the Presbyterian Church that was witness to her shame. Years later, Scot returns to the town, to her grandfather's house, and to the farm that her mother defended, to try to understand the truth. What compelled her mother to remain? What compelled her father to flee? What combination of church and land loyalty and family heritage created this singularly American tragedy?

As she answers these poignant questions, Scot also movingly discovers a real father: her uncle Jim, who kept her safe and taught her to love nature and the world. Scot's story reminds us that the truth is never simple, and that we are all woven into an intricate web that stretches back into time and deep into community and culture. If you're looking for a book to help you understand a father's abandonment, a mother's determination, and the power of place, this story offers some important insights.

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good read, March 8, 2000

By 

julie harris (paso robles, california) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie Reunion (Paperback)

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. i am not an expert critic, but i found myself wanting to go"home" again after reading her book. very nostalgic and bittersweet.