Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Set in the high mountain country of Oregon during the 1890s, this first novel is a quiet, unsparing portrait of pioneer life, recounted simply and without romanticism. Drawing on pioneer diaries, journals and hand-me-down stories of her own ancestors, Gloss displays a deep awareness not only of the brutal hardships of frontier life, but also of the moral codes and emotional attachments of the people who settled there. Drawn by the freedom the West offers, Lydia Sanderson leaves a disappointing marriage in Pennsylvania and comes to Jump-Off Creek to homestead a place of her own. Tim Whiteaker, ``gone cowboying'' since the age of 13, and his partner, the half-Indian Blue Odell, raise cattle nearby. Three wolfers, squatting on abandoned property near Jump-Off Creek and walking the thin edge of the law in order to earn a marginal living, provide much of the tension within the novel. The author's intimate understanding of the harsh physical conditions and of the rituals and practices of frontier life (there are long descriptions of how to brand cattle and how to mend a roof) sometimes overshadows a deeper delineation of character. However, most of the scenes are handled with a restraint that communicates the characters' endemic loneliness, and the dialogue, though spare, is rich enough to convey their emotional conflicts. (Sept.)
Library Journal
Not a standard ``Western,'' but a novel of the West notable for its accurate portrayal of life on a homestead and for the quality of writing that will make readers linger. At the height of the Depression of 1895 Lydia Sanderson, freed by the death of her husband, travels to Oregon where she homesteads on a mountain, living in a wretched hovel on land not fit to grow even a vegetable garden. Her companions are two mules, two goats, and hard work. Lydia's neighbors are few and far but bound together by a common struggle to survive. Their life is one of terse converse, kindness, and quick response to one another's needs. A rare treat of a first novel.-- Sister Avila, Acad. of Holy Angels, Minneapolis
From the Publisher
"A rare treat to find characters we can care about this much." — Philadelphia Inquirer
"As authentic as sand in one's shoes." — Edward Hoagland
"The book is a prism of loneliness in the form of a novel." — Los Angeles Times
"Drawing on pioneer diaries, journals and hand-me-down stories of her own ancestors, Gloss displays a deep awareness not only of the brutal hardships of frontier life, but also of the moral codes and emotional attachments of the people who settled there." — Publishers Weekly
"There is a gentle, touching overcast to this raw-knuckled pioneer story of a lone (but, she insists, not "lonely") hardship-honed widow homesteading in 1895 Oregon. . . . Gloss's conscientious McPhee-like detailing of hand-blistering homesteading toil is achingly effective; but it's the author's reading of lives locked in by hardship, loneliness, and real danger, and of their careful steps toward community, that is so appealing. A moving and engrossing first novel." — Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful novel of struggle and loss." — Dallas Morning News
"Every gritty line of the story rings true . . . extraordinarily fine writing." — Seattle Times
