Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
At his death, O'Rourke (1916-1989), prolific author of mysteries, sports books and westerns, left the three interlinked, robust love stories that are published here for the first time. Set in and around the same generic and atmospherically detailed Midwestern town of Bent Fork, they follow three strong female protagonists from the false prosperity of the 1920s through the Depression. Dress-shop salesgirl Ellen Kellner, heroine of the title piece, on the rebound from a fling with her high school's football coach, defies the town's hypocritical propriety by carrying on a furtive affair with a married barber whose sideline is bootlegging. The surprise ending is heartwarming. Touching and tender, "Miriam" features pragmatic hog farmer Miriam Allen, who weighs her prime responsibilities--caring for her dying father and their farm--against a marriage proposal from the man she dearly loves, the town's high-school principal. In "Vera," the suspenseful final story, amoral Vera Stensrud, whose idol is Amelia Earhart--symbol of her own unfound freedom--abets her parents, bankrupt farmers who have turned to armed robbery. O'Rourke's writing is smooth, briskly paced and enlivened by strong characterizations of even the minor players. He writes realistically about sex, depicting it as a source of solace, connection, compensatory pleasure and communication-- yet an act only fitfully linked to genuine lasting love. Editor, Ruth Cavin; agent, Carlson and Nichols. (Sept.)
Library Journal
Although O'Rourke (1897-1985) published more than 60 novels during his lifetime, he left these short works unpublished. One wonders what St. Martin's thinks it is adding to the literature by publishing them at this time. All three novellas feature a female protagonist, acting against the backdrop of America during the time of Prohibition and the Depression. In the title story, Ellen is chosen by the high school football coach to be the object of his annual summer fling with a graduating senior. As he moves back to football, Ellen moves on to the local barber and bootlegger, despite her friends' warnings about the consequences of love with a married man. Ellen's arrest with her lover on a rum-running trip convinces the coach she was the girl of his dreams after all, and he should take her as his wife. What's the point? To show that women made both bad and good choices in the Thirties as well as today? Not recommended.--Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll., OH
Kirkus Reviews
Surprisingly wonderful posthumous trio of love stories by the late O'Rourke (over 60 books, including mysteries, westerns, etc.), who had a keen eye for female psychology. All three tales, set during the Depression, seem written fairly near to the years described, with characters about as weighty as Willa Cather's. The title story, set in the Midwest, begins before the Wall Street crash as the beautiful Ellen Kellner, a high- school senior, is chosen as the object of his seductive powers by the school's handsome and famously talented bachelor coach. Twelve years her senior, he year after year (and quietly) seduces a selected beauty, say the Homecoming Queen, on the day after her graduation. Now, he wins Ellen, only to drop her after selecting his next victim and preparing his trap. Ellen by then lives alone with her older sister, Twila, whoþs been conducting a frank and longstanding affair with a married traveling man, and after business college must settle for a job at Rosensweig's dress store. The handsome married barber down the street, who is also a bootlegger, has an eye for her and sets up a pleasant, if unromantic, liaison. When he's arrested with her on a trip to Chicago to pick up alcohol, their names are published in the local paperþand then Ellen's real problems begin. In "Miriam," we find a young farm girl caught up in the sexual undertow of small-town life; and in "Vera," the independent daughter of bank robbers pursues a man pledged to another. Readers will slowly but surely find themselves spellbound by these period dramas, by their tight storytelling, their strong female focus, and their forthright sex (unlike the women's magazine fiction of the day).
