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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hopes and regrets on a ranch in Wyoming . . ., October 20, 2004
One of the finest books written about growing up in the West is Mark Spragg's memoir, "Where Rivers Change Direction." He's also a talented screenwriter whose "Everything That Rises" is a touching film about a rancher father and young son. So I've found myself expecting probably too much from his fiction. "The Fruit of Stone" and "An Unfinished Life" seem to lack the sparkling brilliance and deep truth of his earlier work, and I wish it wasn't so. When Spragg is good, he breaks your heart. "An Unfinished Life" reads much like a film script. It moves along in the present tense and is largely visual, describing behavior and capturing dialogue, but often staying just on the surface and not getting to the emotional heart of a scene. The characters and situations are often a little too predictable; you feel that you've seen and heard them already somewhere else. Dedicated to author Kent Haruf ("Plainsong"), the book seems rather much inspired by that author's small-town characters of three generations. You keep wishing Spragg would just yield to his own vision, which if his memoir is any indication, has to be deeper, darker, more troubling, and powerful. Having said all that, I won't discourage readers from enjoying many of the pleasures that are to be found in this novel. A master of quirky dialogue, Spragg writes several scenes, mostly between the two old men at the center of the story, full of quiet verbal sparring that makes their relationship spring to life. The tentative friendship between a young sheriff and a woman on the run from an abusive husband keeps us interested. And his journey into the mind of the husband who stalks her is thoroughly creepy and disturbing. But for readers who don't know Spragg, I'd point them instead to his memoir, "Where Rivers Change Direction." It's the real thing.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The search for the sense of Home and Family, January 27, 2005
Griff, a precocious 9yo girl who is determined to force Jean, her mother, to grow up and take responsibility for herself, is the main focus of this book that starts with Griff pretty much forcing her mom to drive away from her last abusive boyfriend and head toward California. They only make it to Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean grew up and married Griffin, Griff's dad, who died in a car accident before Griff was born. Einar, Griffin's angry old father (angry cuz he blames Jean for the death of his only son), reluctantly takes them in, and Jean begins working at the local restaurant. Griff falls in love with the ranch, the old man, his Vietnam War buddy Mitch who's been nearly killed by a grizzly, and with the sense of permanence that she's been lacking all her life - and she's determined not to leave. Good story-telling, good writing, good characters, good book.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read...family bonds & redemption in the west..., October 15, 2005
Though well written, this is not a challenging read, as I tore through the book in nothing flat. The characters are largely well developed and enagaging. I agree with another reviewer, this reads like a film script or could even be a play. Griff, the little girl is the centerpiece of the story and her brave, gutsy, irrespressible spirit is a delight. I felt the author captured that time in a little girls life where there's a fear of nothing-that is definitely the case with Griff. I loved this book for Griff-she's spunky & wise. You genuinely care about the characters and the two crusty old cowboys who are lifelong friends getting goo-goo over a little girl is sweet-I love Griff's observations of these two old coots. You really sense the patience and calm in these two older men that often in life only comes with age. There is some predictability to the story however, and I found some trouble with Jean's character. The constant bad taste in men when she'd been married to a good man who was not abusive I find a bit implausible, and what's the deal with her and the sheriff? Their relationship just seemed a bit flimsy for me, was it just for the sex or for protection from the nasty abusive boyfriend Roy, I couldn't really tell- it could have been fleshed out more. I look forward to the movie, but casting Jennifer Lopez as Jean??? She just doesn't strike me as the earthy ranch girl type from Wyoming...sorry folks. Maybe she'll surprise me.
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