From Publishers Weekly
In the final story ("Learning the Names of Things") in this compelling first collection set in the Southwest, the narrator remarks that the pioneer women settlers "did what they had to do, and if they shed tears over being uprooted and leaving loved ones, they did it in silence, inside where no one could see." It is an accurate description of Coleman's ( No Roof But Sky ) protagonists, both male and female, through whom she invigorates the traditional western with fresh perspectives. The six stories that comprise the section called "Mesa Country Then" focus on characters who have been historical footnotes. 'Tumbleweed" brings us inside the head of Mattie Earp on the day her husband Wyatt participated in the shootout at the O.K. Corral. In "Prickly Pear," Catharine Bascom observes, "There is a peace in being alone, in having the home to myself, empty of husband and sons." Yet her fate is to make love with the outlaw Johnny Ringo on the last day of his life. The remaining eight stories, which take place in the present, are generally less powerful: for one thing, the setting is no longer a wild, untamed place of epic proportions. But the desert landscape remains a place for the quiet heroics of survivors.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Coleman's collection of 14 stories, set in the Southwest, are divided by time. The first six stories take place in the 1880s and are about the early settlers. For instance, "The Voices of Doves" describes the stoicism required of early women settlers and the interdependence of the American settlers and the Mexicans, "who know how to survive no matter what." "Tumbleweed," a story of the unhappy marriage of Wyatt and Mattie Earp, told from Mattie's point of view, culminates in Mattie's suicide in 1888. The last eight stories take place in Mesa country 100 years later. Conestogas have been replaced by pickup trucks, but the essential battles--between men and women, between people and the land--are the same. Though regional in setting, these stories are universal in subject. They offer an unusual glimpse into the minds and hearts of the women who went West 100 years ago and the women who go West today.
- Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
