In Open Spaces (Paperback)

by Russell Rowland (Author) "The windows of the old Model T rattled as the mail truck bounced along the winding gravel road from Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to Albion,..." (more)
Key Phrases: old homestead house, Belle Fourche, Art Walters, David Westford (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Sibling rivalry turns sinister in Rowland's outstanding debut, which follows a Montana ranching clan as it struggles to survive the Depression, two world wars and family tragedy. Narrator Blake Arbuckle finds himself torn between trying to preserve his tattered family and striking out to pursue a baseball career, after his older brother George drowns in the Missouri River near the family's ranch and his younger sister dies of spinal meningitis. George's death brings out the manipulative dark side in another of Blake's brothers, Jack, who is suspected of foul play in the incident, and after a series of bitter fights with his father about ranch work, Jack takes off and enlists in the army. He reappears several years later with a beautiful woman, Rita, in tow, and Blake's instant attraction for his brother's bride increases as Jack's various character flaws begin to resurface and he eventually leaves Rita. Blake turns down his chance to escape after a promising tryout with the Cardinals, and the family turmoil over the fate of the ranch increases exponentially when another brother, Bob, brings home Helen, a partner as devious as brother Jack. Rowland's examination of family dynamics is poignant and revealing, especially as he unveils a series of revelations about Jack's womanizing, his fraudulent war record and a series of unscrupulous business deals culminating in a scheme to take control of the ranch. Blake's compassion makes him a memorable narrator, and Rowland's sense of craft and control, as well as his ability to integrate the land into the tale, make his book a noteworthy debut.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A family epic that has a muted elegance. ... A gracefully understated novel." -- New York Times Book Review

A heartfelt debut...[An] unpretentious, involving story told with unfaltering authority. -- Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 365 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st edition (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060084340
• ISBN-13: 978-0060084349
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #539,566 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Story..., September 12, 2004

By	Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Kingsland, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book took me about 2 weeks to finish. Not because it's slow, or boring...just the opposite. This was a beautiful look at a ranching family in Montana, and the struggles they go through with the land and each other. I didn't want to rush this book in any way. I wanted to savor every chapter, which is just what I did. The detailed discriptions of the land, and how their life is run made me feel like I was right there.

Blake Arbuckle tells the story of his family that begins in 1916 when he's 13 yrs. old, and goes on to 1946. By the end of this book I felt like they were all part of my own family. I highly recommend this book. Even though it's not fast paced, or a riveting tale that you finish in one day, it's a fascinating look at what life was like on a ranch, and the trials this one family endures. I would love to see a sequel to this book to find out what happens to the next generation of Arbuckles.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opened a Door to My Heart, June 17, 2002

By	James J OKeefe (Port;and, ME United States) - See all my reviews

This breathtakingly good debut positively floored me. It is at once majestic and intimate. The author presents a family of strong, unique characters who must act as one to survive the unforgiving open spaces of Eastern Montana -- even as the family members increasingly form and break alliances with one another. Rich in detail, the author's ranchhand roots clearly run deep. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interst in "guy stuff" (ranching, baseball, murder?), "girl stuff" (unrequited love, intrafamily dynamics, handsome cowboys) or just stuff (life during the depression, hitching rides in mail trucks, how to hold a cigarette).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rising out of Montana prairie dust, November 13, 2007

By	Zinta Aistars "Writer & Editor" (Portage, MI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: In Open Spaces (Paperback)

We enter the scene with young Blake Arbuckle getting his head bumped. Repetitively. The driver of the Model-T mail truck, Alice, is chattering away, but he is trying to sleep, his head bobbing against the hard door as he bums a ride home. The road is leading them from South Dakota to Montana, where the Arbuckle family has lived and become a part of the land and the time (1916 through 1946), in a way that most transitory contemporaries never do. For this reason alone, I found it mesmerizing to join the Arbuckle family for a few "reading" years, vicariously experiencing the sense of being rooted in the soil of a ranch that has passed from generation to generation, as much a member of the family as its human members, imbued with history and family tradition.

Living rooted to land, however, does not prevent dysfunction from entering family dynamics. Indeed, it is the reason why much of the dysfunction enters: a rivalry, an ongoing and evolving competition for who will get the ranch. How does land and home get passed on? Which child gets it and which must find another home? These are the challenges that sometimes obsess and sometimes divide the Arbuckle family. Division lines occur when one son drowns, and no one can quite explain how or why, occasional suspicions pointing to another brother; that other brother becomes a womanizer, self-centered and cruel one moment, warm the next, like a Jekyll and Hyde, veering between lies, pretending a heroism he does not embody; a third, the narrator, is something of a lifelong bachelor, looking in on the relationships of others and sometimes craving to be on the inside, but mostly content to be but an observer from a safe distance, a baseball star one moment (some of Rowland's finer descriptions happen on the baseball field), but an avowed rancher most of the next. The patriarch of the family looks on and patiently keeps his hand on the reins, retaining control in gentle and unobtrusive manner. Mother has her ways, too, nurturing relationships, watching over her brood. Sons bring home wives, and some are good women, strong and soft simultaneously, while others seduce their way into the family, manipulating and lying without conscience and keeping their eye on the prize. Love happens, not along the straight and narrow, but too often proving to be less than originally hoped. Not the least of the love stories is the one between the Arbuckles and Montana. In fact, it is the love story that rules all the others.

Rowland's debut novel is a worthy one (it was published in 2002, and has since had a continuation in the just published "The Watershed Years"). He writes with that prairie peace that conveys distress in a critical scene without melodrama, sensuality without resorting to cheap graphic descriptions, emotional exchanges without bleeding into sappiness, all the while building tension with a keen sense of balance. Like the patriarch of the Arbuckle family, the author, too, holds a gentle rein on the family and unfolding scenes, maintaining literary skill in an array of scenes that would expose a lesser writer as beginner. Rowland is not that.

A pleasing read, and one that invites the reader to anticipate Rowland's next work. The closing scene of the novel is worth the entire read - a meaningful moment between man and land, the intimate connection between the two, poetically rendered, tender, satisfying to both mind and heart.

~ Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet