Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still

by Kent Nelson

Having lost her husband in a farm accident, Mattie is forced to confront his hidden past and enlists their daughter, a woman ranch hand, and a runaway Native American boy to keep the family alfalfa ranch in business. By the author of Language in the Blood. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setting is perhaps the most important "character" in this novel. The land, the water, the history. The land is southwest South Dakota, 4000 acres southeast of the Black Hills and west of Pine Ridge. The water is scarce, it has to be guarded from theft and coaxed into irrigating marginal land that maybe shouldn't be farmed anyway. The recent history involves the Lakota, Custer, Wounded Knee. The ancient history is found in the bones and fossils found in a sinkhole on the property.

Mattie and Haney started their marriage in Maine only coming to South Dakota after the death of Haney's father. They had a son and daughter and led an ordinary life, not unhappy except for the tragic death of their son. Then Haney dies in a tractor accident and Mattie learns of his secret life.

Mattie and her daughter, Shelley, struggle to keep the ranch going and deal with their own personal demons. They take on the mysterious Dawn as a hired hand and also an Indian boy named Elton. The four of them learn to survive and build a life together.

I gave this book five stars because it is rare to find a book set in the plains states and rarer still to find one so well done. Nelson's writing reminds me of Kent Haruf's Plainsong.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another entry in a long string of DNF's recently. Again, I wanted to like this one, but the writing was really clipped and moved fairly fast without much impact on me as a reader. There was a scene were some people from the state archeological department arrived on Mattie's farm to discuss digging into a sinkhole for Indian artifacts and yet prior to that, there was no mention of the sinkhole that I could find. These people just showed up and were like "hi, your dead husband gave us permission to dig your sinkhole, here's some maps, okaybyeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" And the Dawn character just shows up to be a farmhand and Mattie hires her without question. A lot of times a good writer can get a lot across in the things that are left unsaid, but in this one, too much was left unsaid and it made for a bumpy read.

[JennanneJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of my life. I don’t know why books about the Midwest/west ranch life are either syrupy sweet or depressing as all get out. Didn’t really like these characters or understand their life choices.

[Cheryl Nelsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it interesting that Kent Nelson excellently developed strong, female characters. He seems to understand women. Two things I really enjoyed about the book are the way he described the life and work on a farm, and the knowledge that sometimes comes to some people only after losing a spouse. I don't want to spoil the secret of the lives of the main character and her husband.

[Lorraine McCleary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life on the South Dakota plains is beautifully rendered in this novel. A rancher/sculpture dies under his tractor and the wife discovers he had a secret gay lifestyle. She is stricken. With her daughter, women friends and neighbors along with a run away young native boy, she struggles to continue ranching. Along the way a new family is created.

[Roxanna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still draws readers into the harsh yet stunning plains of South Dakota, blending heartfelt character journeys with tension and mystery. Kent Nelson’s writing captures both the weight of human struggles and the quiet beauty of the land. A moving and immersive novel that stays with you long after the last page.

[Megan Geissler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow burner, plot was entertaining with variety of social issues weaved in - racism, child abuse, homosexuality, farming. The stuff with the daughter was a bit much - too much male-centric lurid detail of her sexual adventures. Little Free Library read.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great story spoiled by gratuitous animal killings. Not a single killing advanced the story line or added to character development. I don't often review books, but this one needs to come with a warning.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the setting, the narrative—heard Kent Haruf’s voice!—and plot advancement. Some of the characters I found annoying. Maybe that was the author’s intent.

[Susan Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange group of characters living on a South Dakota ranch. Considerable violence.

[Mary Dayhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

My ķind of book. My husband read it first, he prefers contemporary who-done-it books.

[Kathy Troyer Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author was an unexpected pleasure! A story of love and healing.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the characters. I want to like this book but then I read the passage on page 19
“That week they sailed to Bar Harbor and played mixed doubles with Arlo and Jen and camped near Mt Katahdin and climbed it the next day via the Knife Edge. Evenings their friends came to the beach and ate and drank and sang”

It’s a long ways between Bar Harbor and Katahdin and to do this in a day and be back at the beach at night is implausible.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

After her husband, Haney, is killed in a farming accident, Mattie Remmel is left with a 4,000 acre alfalfa farm on the South Dakota plains. Haney's death, while devastating, is only the beginning of Mattie's heartache. While going through Haney's papers Mattie learns that Haney was not the man she had always believed him to be but that he had another life that she had known nothing about. Mattie forges ahead with the farm, enlisting the help of her college-aged daughter Shelley who returns home after breaking up an unsatisying relationship with her unemotional boyfriend. The Remmel women advertise for a handyman and are surprised when the ad is answered by a young woman named Dawn who has a knack for engine repair and construction but also has a past that threatens to catch up with her before too long. A teen-aged Indian boy, Elton, definitely a runaway from a painful homelife that he refuses to talk about, joins up with the women to keep the farm running. The four form a strange family unit that stands strong against weather, theiving neighbors, and Dawn's past.

I found this story bleak and tedious and I did not like any of the characters. Mattie is not too bad but she carries a lot of anger and distrust which makes it hard to feel any warmth toward her. Shelley is rather spoiled and whiny but she does show a lot of growth during the novel. Dawn is just plain weird and she lost me quickly with cruelty to a cat. I suppose Elton is the most likeable even though he doesn't talk about himself at all but you know there is a great deal of pain underneath his reticence. This one is definitely not recommended by me.

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. I wouldn't have picked this up if I hadn't read a review--in Book Magazine, which is gone now. A moment of sadness in its honor....

This is a book that fits in with Atticus and Plainsong and Mavis about strong, modern westerners. This follows Mattie and her life directly before and after the death of her husband, Haney. It also climbs inside the heads of her daughter and the "hired man" she hires who calls herself Dawn in this incarnation of self. With the addition of a runaway Indian boy, they run the ranch through the spring and summer following Haney's death. Between rotten-awful neighbors--balanced by good-people friends--a secret uncovered in the trunk of Haney's Lincoln (the Doom Car itself), absolute hard work, mourning, and trying to find the pieces of oneself....well. The ending is horrific but happy. The only drawback was the relatively neat romantic package we are presented with at the end, with the exception of Shelley, the daughter. But one can see her as happy too... grr.

Still, a very effective evocation of the West: the space between people and places, the sweat and labor involved in doing anything worthwhile. The real story is how survivors feel about things they find out about the dead after the funeral is over. Very complicated. Like life.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first saw this book when it was in hardback - I wanted to read it bad, but waited for paperback. Then it got shelved. Finally, what, 4 years later - I grabbed it off the shelf and dug in. Once past the first chapter or so, I was totally hooked. Mattie and her husband have a farm/ranch in S. Dakota. Unexpectedly her husband dies. Her daughter Shelley comes home from college for the summer and helps out. They hire Dawn to help fix things and kind of adopt a runaway Indian boy and together, they're a bunch of broken people who pull through together. Mattie finds out her husbands life was a lie - full of secrets. Each of the characters have their problems, their messes and their secrets. Together they pitch in, pull together, work hard at the farming work that needs done and triumph together in their own battles. I was totally hooked on the pace of this. The chapters were fairly short and I couldn't put this down. The characters were likeable, believable and memorable. This is the kind of story that will stick with me and linger and I'll wish that there was another book that followed their lives further. Excellent.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggie Remmel, newly widowed when her husband dies in a farm accident, decides to try to keep running their farm in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Her college-aged daughter Shelley is the only help she has, until an adrift young woman named Dawn turns up, is able to repair a piece of farm machinery for Maggie, and convinces Maggie to hire her. Shortly after, a young teen Indian boy is seen around the farm, and Maggie leaves food for him. Gradually, she wins the boy’s confidence and takes him in. This unlikely trio lives together and forms a relationship that works, despite all their differences. There are many memorable characters here; they deal with two brothers who are lawbreakers, an archeologist who believes he has permission from Maggie’s late husband to excavate part of the farm, Dawn’s angry former boyfriend, to name a few.

[d Kate dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been on my shelf awhile. I read part of it long ago. When I started reading it this time, I thought I'd watched the opening in a movie. It's well written. I like Dawn, whose name isn't Dawn. Dawn who came form North Dakota, never having been there, and who wants to raise Buffalo, who chooses rocks as allies, who fixes machines, sleeps on the ground, and always fights back. She's a minor character.

I'll finish this one. I'm 3/4 of the way through it and to the point where I'm thinking about the book when I'm not reading it. Books like that, when you don't finish them, follow you home and wake you up ten years down the road. So, yeah... this one I'll finish.

[Su · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so enjoyed my time spent reading this novel. The author was so gifted with his ability to turn mere words into a vivid picture in my head. The story takes place on a 4000 acre ranch in current day South Dakota. A husband dies, his secret is discovered, and the remaining characters form a deep and unusually strong bond that gives each of them something to rely on when adversity strikes. Again, the writing was terrific.

[Mom2nine · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Author made a risky move, with all of his main characters being female. I think that he proves that a man can write female parts and do it well. Book should appeal to a variety of readers, as the three female lead characters are all searching for meaning, on some level. It is not too heavy on the romance, but there are definitely romances. Also, some scenes with "bad guys" and a solid story on the difficulty of running a ranch. I did not want to put this book down, very well done"

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's the story of a woman and her daughter who are left behind to run a ranch in S.D. after husband/father dies in an accident. His well-hidden secret eventually comes out and has a profound effect on both mother and daughter. Interesting characters - both the mom and her daughter and their friends, neighbors, and hired staff.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book set in South Dakota as a woman discovers after her husband's untimely death that his life held major secrets. She manages with help to run their ranch, and develops relationships with some interesting people. I didn't like the manipulative bad guys thrown into the story or the ending tying up all most all of the relationship conflicts, etc.

[Kyle Gutek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a novel as delicate and honest as this. Each character has similarities in that they're searching for something--love, acceptance, home, and one another. Nelson's elegant details pull the reader into cracked arroyos, sweeping plains, and open skies. Readers will have fallen in love with the land that moves by the final page.

[Elsie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really expected something more dramatic to happen but it was a good read and shows how we can be as strong as we need to be and it always helps to have friends along the way.

When someone says "let me know how I can help" you really should consider taking them up on the offer.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think my favorite part of this novel was the author's description of plains geography and rural living - the good along with the bad, and there was certainly plenty of both. There are lots of plot turns and sidebars, so my best advice is to expect the unexpected!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeke got me this for Christmas. He likes to pick out books for David and I for Christmas from used book sales. This one was a real winner. Thoroughly enjoyable read. I even recommended it for book club.

[Ursula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great story of three women; their strengths and their weaknesses and a run-away young Native American boy. The way the author has these characters come together is jst wonderful and a definite good read.

[Laura Stenzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one for book club... Definitely enjoyed the language and the imagery... Still not sure how I feel about the characters themselves or the plot line.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW. This book was great. It was like Anna Karenina's agriculture turned down a notch w/ some non-corny love stories. Loved it. I was pleasantly surprised.

[JQ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unpleasant people doing unpleasant things and having unpleasant things done to them.