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Laura Pritchett

Sky Bridge Hardcover – May 10, 2005

by Laura Pritchett (Author)

4.1 41 ratings

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Libby is a bagger at the supermarket in town. She is also a new mother - not of her own child, but of her little sister's. Tess did not want the baby, but Libby convinced her not to have an abortion by promising to raise it - a promise Tess thought was crazy and Libby believed she would not have to keep. Now Tess has left for Durango and Libby pays rent to share a house with her mother on land neither of them own. She drives into town a few days a week to work at the supermarket - where everyone thinks she's heroic - and sometimes sees her boyfriend, Derek, but for the most part is alone with Amber, the baby. A steady flow of Libby's dreams and worries about Tess wash over the baby like warm bath water.
Tess drops out of touch just when the baby's Christian rodeo-riding father appears to demand custody. The curious beekeeper, Ed Munger asks to keep a hive near Libby's house. Across the road, Miguel, another single parent, is raising money to bring illegals across the border and Baxter, the rancher on whose land Libby lives, has decided he wants to irrigate to provide water for coyotes and upland birds.
Sky Bridge takes readers inside the mind of a young woman with the possibly naive belief in the worth of her impulses and a community in which everyone is finding their own way of covering the gap between the horizon and the land at their feet.

Reading age

12 years and up
Print length

298 pages
Language

English
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches
Publisher

Milkweed Editions
Publication date

May 10, 2005
ISBN-10

1571310460
ISBN-13

978-1571310460
See all details

Laura Pritchett
44
Paperback
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"How do we people go around in regular life, anyway, when the truth is that we're wondering about love, and death, and things that are on the verge of smashing us to pieces?" Libby, the 22-year-old narrator of Pritchett's compassionate, finely observed first novel, finds herself asking the big questions sooner than she might have expected when her beloved younger sister, Tess, quits their one-horse Colorado town, leaving Libby to care for her newborn daughter. Tess had wanted an abortion, but Libby, a grocery store clerk, said she'd care for the baby; little did she expect that Tess would vanish the minute she got discharged from the hospital. Thoughtful, serious Libby muddles her way through mothering darling, colicky Amber, getting no-nonsense advice from her prickly ranch-hand mother, warm counsel from ranch owner Baxter and fumbling, halfhearted attempts at support from the boyfriend she isn't sure she really loves. The novel's graceful, leisurely pace and genial characters overlay darker, tenser narrative threads, which include Tess's involvement in smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. Pritchett, who proved herself an astute observer of rural Colorado's hardy inhabitants in her award-winning story collection, Hell's Bottom, Colorado, offers an amiable, moving story of love, duty and family. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This captivating first novel is the story of Libby, a 22-year-old checkout clerk who has been a mother figure to her younger sister. Now pregnant, 18-year-old Tess wants to have an abortion, but Libby convinces her to have the baby, saying that she herself will raise the infant. Within days of delivering, Tess indeed takes off to pursue her own dreams outside their small Colorado town, and Libby finds herself raising Amber while trying to deal with an alcoholic, abusive mother and make sense of her own life. Libby is a protagonist who is not afraid to confront her fears and loneliness; this very openness gives her a depth and strength that others draw on. At the same time that she is trying to make a life for herself and Amber, the baby's father reenters the picture, promising a custody battle, and Libby discovers that Tess has gotten involved in smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. The primary and secondary plots captivate readers and ensure an ending that is anything but trite. Reminiscent of Billie Letts's Where the Heart Is (Warner, 1995), this book offers a gritty but redeeming picture of a family that never quite lets go of hope, and characters who are not soon forgotten.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Even in the closest families, there should be limits as to what one sister can demand of another. When 19-year-old Tess becomes pregnant, Libby talks her out of having an abortion by promising to raise the baby herself. As Tess drives off to the big city, the reality of just what Libby has signed on for begins to hit home. At 22, Libby should be the one embarking on a life of her own, not abandoned in a rundown cabin on a two-bit ranch in rural Colorado, stuck with her own mother, who is unabashedly contemptuous of the challenge Libby has assumed. Proud and resolute, Libby struggles to raise Amber, a fight made harder by the loss of her boyfriend, her job, and a custody battle with Amber's father. In this spare yet haunting portrait of the American West, Pritchett's powerful, poetic voice speaks with clarity, wisdom, and passion about country, family, and one young woman's majestic spirit. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"'Sky Bridge' (strikes) a plausibe emotional balance...to her unending credit, (Pritchett) does not go for the easy wrap-up." -- The Daily Camera, August 14, 2005

"A spare, almost-too-sweet story that displays Pritchetts gift for dialogue and compelling characters." -- Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2005

"Pritchett defies any preconceived notions...about rural life...and brings the novels diverse characters to life with grace." -- Library Journal

"With an unerring ear for the undercurrents of small Western communities, Pritchett introduces readers to the gritty realities of life." -- Rocky Mountain News, June 13, 2005

"Written with a sensitivity that never strays to the sentimental, the novel is about human frailty and basic goodness." -- The Denver Post, December 11, 2005

"captivate[s] readers and ensure[s] an ending that is anything but trite. Reminiscent of . . . Where The Heart Is. . ." -- Library Journal

Friends debut novel stresses the need to talk about problems...bring them to the surface before they cause irreversible damage. -- teenreads.com

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Milkweed Editions; First Edition (May 10, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 298 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1571310460
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1571310460
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,906,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #229,375 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #261,551 in American Literature (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 41 ratings

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About the authors

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Laura Pritchett
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Laura Pritchett's newest book, Making Friends with Death: A Guide to Your Impending Last Breath, has just been released by VIVA Editions, 2017 -- more at www.makingfriendswithdeath.com.
She's also the author of five literary novels: The Blue Hour (Counterpoint, 2017), Red Lightning (Counterpoint, 2015) Stars Go Blue (Counterpoint, 2014), Sky Bridge (Milkweed Editions, 2009), and Hell's Bottom, Colorado (Milkweed Editions, 2001) - more at www.laurapritchett.com.
Awards for these novels include the PEN USA Award, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the WILLA Award, the High Plains Book Award for Fiction, the Colorado Book Award, and others.
She is also the author/editor of four books of nonfiction: Great Colorado Bear Stories, Pulse of the River, Home Land, and Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers.
Pritchett has also published over 200 essays and short stories in numerous magazines, including The New York Times Modern Love, The Sun, O (Oprah’s) Magazine, Orion, High Country News, Writers on the Range, Salon, The Normal School, High Desert Journal, OnEarth, Natural Resources Journal, 5280 (Denver's Magazine), The Pinch, and others. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart on several occasions. She is the recipient of several residencies, including Ucross (Wyoming), Earthskin (New Zealand), and Playa (Oregon), and has been recognized by several organizations for environmental stewardship.
She holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University. When not writing or teaching, she can generally be found outside in Colorado’s mountains.
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Laura Pritchett
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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

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jjob

Pritchett understands humans in this complex world

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

Laura Pritchett can communicate place and feelings as well as any writer I've read. Her protagonist chooses to be stuck in small town America with the burdens of responsibility and the limits of relationships. The issues she addresses parallel many of the issues our country addresses and the roll of an individual in a complex world. Love, sex, relationships (family and other), citizenship and the lack of all of these all have consequences and Pritchett's novel of a maturing young lady rings true and offers many insights. Current events and place are characters as important as those around the protagonist.

2 people found this helpful

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Miriam Murcutt

An intriguing scenario with characters that grow on you

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2022

This novel is built around an unusual scenario that intrigued me. It took a little while for me to appreciate all of the characters who crowd the opening pages of the book, but I was gradually drawn into Libby's world and the dilemmas both she and her family created.

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MaryCO

Excellent - Pritchett has Been There

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent book, well written and very touching in a western stoic kind of way. I love her style; simple, thoughtful and sneaks back up on you to contemplate some more. She knows her subject and that is probably what brings about the haunting effect.

2 people found this helpful

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Margie

A book to be savoured

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a beautiful yet gritty book.
A 'life is tough' story with a great big loveable heart at its centre.
The writing is clear and flows beautifully with sentences that can take your breath away.

2 people found this helpful

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Sue D. Mackenzie

This was a book club selection, otherwise I would ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

This was a book club selection, otherwise I would not have read it. It moved too slow for me. That type of life does not appeal to me.

One person found this helpful

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Billy Jones

A Great Unknown

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

Laura Pritchett might be the best author you've never heard of. A dry and very touching, character-based story. Check it out!

2 people found this helpful

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Malcolm McCollum

"People look out for each other"

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2018

Laura Pritchett’s first novel, Sky Bridge, is set in “Nowhere, Colorado,” on the ranchland east of the plains town of Lamar. In this tiny place assaulted by big forces — climate change, the global economy, federal policies — narrator Libby finds prospects slim: “… all my old schoolmates are either doing drugs or working minimum wage or in jail....”
But the central characters of the story — Libby, her younger sister Tess, their mother Kay, and Baxter, the rancher who provides Kay both a job and a ramshackle house — have neither time nor inclination to analyze the forces that are “crashing up their lives.” They have only hope, compassion (with the exception of Tess), and a stubborn determination to cope with what must be coped with, including the results of their own bad decisions or inattention.
One of these results is baby Amber, brought into being by Tess’s casual one-nighter with Simon, proud member of the Cowboy Christian Coalition, and kept from abortion by Libby’s promise to raise her.
Putting cans of baby formula away in the cupboard, reluctant new grandmother Kay observes, “ ‘ I don’t know why they take the thing that’s most important to an infant and kill us with the price.’
‘Who?’ Libby inquires.
‘Them,’ she says, her hands flying around to the outside world.”
Pritchett captures the rhythms and emphases of everyday speech with perfect pitch. And for the most part, her characters live up to their description by Libby’s employer, Frank, who says “... people look out for each other.”
Abandoned to their own devices by a government owned and operated by multi-national corporations, these people retain a dignity that makes them impossible to dismiss. By novel’s end, the reader may recall Faulkner’s words in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: “I believe that man will not only endure: he will prevail....because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.” Sky Bridge bring these abstract virtues to vivid, concrete life.

2 people found this helpful

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Linda Christian

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2016

It was a gift

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