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Meadowlark
Based on a true story, the author provides a captivating and crystal clear window into the lives of some of the early settlers on the plains of South Dakota. In 1911, sixteen year old Grace has the same hopes and dreams as any other bride for a future built on love, commitment and family. But she also knows that a life of ranching on the magnificent prairie she loves so deeply will require years of perseverance, hard work and suffering. What she doesn’t expect is how quickly she will be required to confront these threats to her heart and her soul.Despite challenges that often seem insurmountable, Grace builds two abiding friendships in a land where other women are very few and rarely seen. Daisy, a half Lakota widow befriends her and Grace also recognizes a kindred spirit in her nearest neighbor, Mae Thingvold, a young doctor, on her own. It is these women and their connections to each other that will sustain all three through unimaginable pain and loss and bring them joy in the sharing of small victories and celebrations of milestones along the paths of their lives.Dawn Wink to introduces you to Grace and allows you to share her journey as you walk the rolling hills of her beloved prairie at her side. You will laugh and cry with her and share her deep connection the land that is the anchor to the ship of her life on which she sails the endless sea of grass.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
296 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
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September 20, 2013Meadowlark is a beautiful and at times grisly telling of one woman's story as she survives the constant trials of homesteading on the Great Plains. I especially was interested in the life lived in a sod house, as that is how my great-grandparents started their lives in America, too. Author Dawn Wink is a personal friend and relentless supporter of other artists and writers. I appreciate getting to know her more through her first novel.
May 9, 2020
Loved this one! Takes place so close to home.
October 17, 2014
My great-grandparents moved to far northern North Dakota in the early 20th century. I’ve often wondered what life was like for my great-grandma, battling wind, humidity, and brutal winters without any of our modern conveniences. She had five children in quick succession. Five little ones on a farm in North Dakota in the early 20th century—this woman must have been a saint.
I’m not the only one to wonder what life was like for farm women on the Plains more than a century ago. In MEADOWLARK, Dawn Wink uses her imagination to bring readers into the life of Grace Robertson.
Grace is a 16-year-old bride who, on her wedding day, discovers the type of man her husband really is. Not only does she have to deal with the harshness of the South Dakota landscape, she has to deal with a brutal home life, too. Her anchors are her son, James; her horse, Mame; and the company of neighbor women who check in on her, including a doctor from out East and a Lakota woman.
Wink describes in stunning detail the scenes that confront Grace: the weather, her husband’s actions, and tragedies that befall neighbors.
Despite the darkness and harshness that surrounds Grace, hope appears in the form of a ranch worker—an ex-boyfriend of Grace’s. Will Grace ever be able to extricate herself from a loveless marriage and find the happiness she deserves?
It’s hard for me to read about women who are trapped. My instinct is to scream, “Just leave him!” But I know it’s not that simple even today, and it was far harder in a time when women had few rights. Grace tries to leave and goes to her neighbor, Mae, for help. But Mae tells her the truth: if Grace left her marriage, Grace’s son would end up with her husband. Custody rarely went to the woman when the woman was the one who left. Readers clearly feel Grace’s frustration and hopelessness.
Anyone fan of historical fiction would enjoy this book. Readers familiar with the Great Plains will find extra resonance, as it’s filled with beautiful descriptions of the wide South Dakota prairie.
I especially enjoyed the author’s note at the end of the book. It turns out that Grace is the author’s great-grandmother. Wink used her imagination to wonder what Grace’s life might have been like. The connection the author has forged with Grace’s presence is strong. As a memoirist, I find myself wanting to know more about the author and her family. She provides some intriguing hints in the afterword!
Overall, this lovely book with lovely writing brought me right into a time and place that has gone past. I look forward to reading more from this author.
I’m not the only one to wonder what life was like for farm women on the Plains more than a century ago. In MEADOWLARK, Dawn Wink uses her imagination to bring readers into the life of Grace Robertson.
Grace is a 16-year-old bride who, on her wedding day, discovers the type of man her husband really is. Not only does she have to deal with the harshness of the South Dakota landscape, she has to deal with a brutal home life, too. Her anchors are her son, James; her horse, Mame; and the company of neighbor women who check in on her, including a doctor from out East and a Lakota woman.
Wink describes in stunning detail the scenes that confront Grace: the weather, her husband’s actions, and tragedies that befall neighbors.
Despite the darkness and harshness that surrounds Grace, hope appears in the form of a ranch worker—an ex-boyfriend of Grace’s. Will Grace ever be able to extricate herself from a loveless marriage and find the happiness she deserves?
It’s hard for me to read about women who are trapped. My instinct is to scream, “Just leave him!” But I know it’s not that simple even today, and it was far harder in a time when women had few rights. Grace tries to leave and goes to her neighbor, Mae, for help. But Mae tells her the truth: if Grace left her marriage, Grace’s son would end up with her husband. Custody rarely went to the woman when the woman was the one who left. Readers clearly feel Grace’s frustration and hopelessness.
Anyone fan of historical fiction would enjoy this book. Readers familiar with the Great Plains will find extra resonance, as it’s filled with beautiful descriptions of the wide South Dakota prairie.
I especially enjoyed the author’s note at the end of the book. It turns out that Grace is the author’s great-grandmother. Wink used her imagination to wonder what Grace’s life might have been like. The connection the author has forged with Grace’s presence is strong. As a memoirist, I find myself wanting to know more about the author and her family. She provides some intriguing hints in the afterword!
Overall, this lovely book with lovely writing brought me right into a time and place that has gone past. I look forward to reading more from this author.
July 3, 2014
"The beauty. The bitterness. Not a land of mediocrity, but of stunning beauty and brute force. Any living thing that can't survive and appreciate both, will find little to love or live for on the plains." So writes Dawn Wink in her beautifully crafted novel Meadowlark.
Meadowlark is the story of Grace, who in 1911 moves to a farm on the South Dakota plains with her new husband Tom. At 16, Grace embarks on this adventure full of hopes and dreams of a life full of love and joy.
I was captivated by the author's descriptions of the plains of South Dakota. Her words so clearly describe the curves of the land, the powerful forces of nature, and the vastness of the wide open spaces. As I read, I could almost feel the prairie winds howl through and around her sentences. Grace's life mirrors the intensity of the land. From the very first page we see that she will be challenged to survive with her spirit intact. Luckily, she meets two women, a doctor and a Lakota Indian widow. The three share a strong and beautiful friendship that helps them face the harsh realities that come with life as a pioneer woman.
Many times I was hesitant to pick up this book and find out what almost unbearable struggle Grace would be facing. But Dawn Wink has created in her heroine an amazing sense of strength, courage and fortitude, much like that of the prairie. And so Grace lives and learns. She writes in her journal, "Women's tears brought more water to the parched earth than any summer thunderstorms or winter snows ever did. Women nourish these plains with tears and blood."
Meadowlark is based on the true story of Dawn Wink's great grandmother, Grace. Her family still ranches the prairie farm where Grace lived. Stories of Grace's life were part of the author's childhood and this book came from those memories.
by Tiffany Benton
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Meadowlark is the story of Grace, who in 1911 moves to a farm on the South Dakota plains with her new husband Tom. At 16, Grace embarks on this adventure full of hopes and dreams of a life full of love and joy.
I was captivated by the author's descriptions of the plains of South Dakota. Her words so clearly describe the curves of the land, the powerful forces of nature, and the vastness of the wide open spaces. As I read, I could almost feel the prairie winds howl through and around her sentences. Grace's life mirrors the intensity of the land. From the very first page we see that she will be challenged to survive with her spirit intact. Luckily, she meets two women, a doctor and a Lakota Indian widow. The three share a strong and beautiful friendship that helps them face the harsh realities that come with life as a pioneer woman.
Many times I was hesitant to pick up this book and find out what almost unbearable struggle Grace would be facing. But Dawn Wink has created in her heroine an amazing sense of strength, courage and fortitude, much like that of the prairie. And so Grace lives and learns. She writes in her journal, "Women's tears brought more water to the parched earth than any summer thunderstorms or winter snows ever did. Women nourish these plains with tears and blood."
Meadowlark is based on the true story of Dawn Wink's great grandmother, Grace. Her family still ranches the prairie farm where Grace lived. Stories of Grace's life were part of the author's childhood and this book came from those memories.
by Tiffany Benton
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
November 13, 2015
This book was wonderfully written and deeply moving! I was drawn in by the first page and I read it all in one sitting. I've met the author and consider her a friend, and I can't wait for what she writes next. She is a sweet, kind, passionate woman, and Meadowlark, was amazing. I loved Grace's character, and everything she went through and overcame. I can't imagine my life being as hard as her was. Then you find out this was based on a true story of Dawn's great grandmother. I very much enjoyed the setting which was as much part of the story as each character, and since I live in an area much the same, I could picture it and even imagine myself in it. I bawled like a baby when I read the last chapter and ending. I was heart broken, and also relieved. Poor Grace, yet she was strong and powerful in her our right. I recommend this book!! 5 Stars!
August 24, 2013
Meadowlark is not only a journey back in time, to a place where women had to fight for their independence, but also a journey into the life of the author. Dawn Wink deftly weaves the story of many women into the main character, Grace, as she shows us how to listen to our hearts, find and follow our song, and create the life we desire. An amazing book.
October 29, 2013
Grace has an amazing and inspiring story. I can tell when the author came across her great-grandmother's journal that writing this book became a labor of love.
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April 21, 2017a novel based on true story of settling the Dakotas. Abusive husband whom she killed with Indian friend's poison
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 12, 2014
STRONG STORY, WELL TOLD
Meadowlark (Pronghorn Press), by Dawn Wink, tells a story that is hard to read, but not for the usual reasons. To the contrary, the prose is lyrical; the imagery vivid and memorable; the characters well drawn and very human. Why does it not carry the reader smoothly along from opening to ending? The difficulty lies is the pain that is at the heart of the story, the pain of a young woman (sixteen years old in 1911 on the plains of South Dakota) who learns too late that the man she has married is broken and cannot be healed. She experiences abuse, fear, and depression, in all the ways that those who are physically weaker and morally constrained to persevere so often do. And every scene detailing the physical and emotional toll her situation extracts from her made this reader put the book down long enough find equanimity to return and read the next.
The power of Grace’s character compels the reader to move on, move forward, with her. She learns the true value of friendships with women; she approaches the limits of her willingness to continue; she protects her son and the tiny core of the person she was; and finally she gains peace. In the process, the reader comes to appreciate the author’s skill as a storyteller. Wink explains in the book’s front matter that she has drawn from family history for this tale, although the story itself is fiction. In writing Meadowlark, Wink honors the woman who was her great-grandmother and all women who have managed to find beauty and strength and sources of personal growth in the often harsh environment of the western high plains.
Meadowlark (Pronghorn Press), by Dawn Wink, tells a story that is hard to read, but not for the usual reasons. To the contrary, the prose is lyrical; the imagery vivid and memorable; the characters well drawn and very human. Why does it not carry the reader smoothly along from opening to ending? The difficulty lies is the pain that is at the heart of the story, the pain of a young woman (sixteen years old in 1911 on the plains of South Dakota) who learns too late that the man she has married is broken and cannot be healed. She experiences abuse, fear, and depression, in all the ways that those who are physically weaker and morally constrained to persevere so often do. And every scene detailing the physical and emotional toll her situation extracts from her made this reader put the book down long enough find equanimity to return and read the next. The power of Grace’s character compels the reader to move on, move forward, with her. She learns the true value of friendships with women; she approaches the limits of her willingness to continue; she protects her son and the tiny core of the person she was; and finally she gains peace. In the process, the reader comes to appreciate the author’s skill as a storyteller. Wink explains in the book’s front matter that she has drawn from family history for this tale, although the story itself is fiction. In writing Meadowlark, Wink honors the woman who was her great-grandmother and all women who have managed to find beauty and strength and sources of personal growth in the often harsh environment of the western high plains.
May 1, 2017
This is a book I have wanted to read for a long time. Dawn Wink found the journal spanning Grandmother Grace's Dakota Territory reality from 1911 through 1930. From that base she has fashioned a novel that is warm, realistic and flowing through time and lives that you care about, heart and soul. Grace is special but I adored Mae as well, and Daisy too. The children are - children. Not small adults, just kids looking for joy and entertainment and encouragement. They do their chores without much whining and want a dog. The life is hard. The weather is, too. Everyone has to work all the time to make it through the awful winters. But summers....
Meadowlark is a Southern Women's Novel except it's not in the south. Anyone who enjoys memoirs, Southern Women's Novels, and historical fiction is bound to love this book.
Meadowlark is a Southern Women's Novel except it's not in the south. Anyone who enjoys memoirs, Southern Women's Novels, and historical fiction is bound to love this book.
August 12, 2016
Dawn Wink contacted me last August. I was really eager to read her historical novel, especially as it is set in South Dakota, a state I enjoyed a lot for hiking a few years ago. But with book tours and a huge TBR, here is finally my review!!
The novel is set at the beginning of the 20th century, and is based on the journal of Grace, the author’s great grand-mother. It opens on Grace’s wedding, on which she is faced with a major and quite unpleasant surprise.
Basically, the whole novel is how she copes with this discovery, through a lot of suffering, but also comfort from...
read my full review:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/12/21/b...
The novel is set at the beginning of the 20th century, and is based on the journal of Grace, the author’s great grand-mother. It opens on Grace’s wedding, on which she is faced with a major and quite unpleasant surprise.
Basically, the whole novel is how she copes with this discovery, through a lot of suffering, but also comfort from...
read my full review:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/12/21/b...
January 22, 2014
Ms. Wink does a beautiful job of capturing Western South Dakota, both from standpoint of describing the landscape, to profiling the people and the society they lived in. The time frame of the novel, the early nineteen hundreds, reflects the growing pains of a culture. The land is settled... only its not. Men, as a group, don't come across as very compelling characters in this story, but Meadowlark provides an entertaining and inspiring story about one woman growing with the culture. I could see this novel being a very good book club selection.
May 8, 2014
Author Dawn Wink takes readers of Meadowlark on a journey with Grace Robertson, whose life is portrayed on the rugged, sometimes unforgiving, landscape that is the South Dakota prairie of 1911. Within the first pages of this novel, we meet Grace as a young bride. Her dreams, hopes and promises for the future soon clash with the reality and hardships of this time and place in history; a time, too, when women bonded with one another to give their lives meaning against all hardship.
November 26, 2013
This lyrical novel transported me to the plains of South Dakota. The heroine is a tough, sensitive woman who reminds us all of the tenacity of pioneer women and those who even in modern times have to protect themselves and their children from domestic violence.
October 19, 2014
Awesome, true account of a family's history wrote as a novel. One of those "hard to put downers". Back in 1910 as early settlers and the hard life they endured in South Dakota.
January 11, 2022
One of my all time favorites.
May 29, 2019
The plains of South Dakota - quite the setting for a novel. I was excited to read, as my family originally hails from the region of the book. It ended up mostly being a book NOT about homesteading/pioneer life, but about domestic violence. So...I adjusted my expectations, but I never really connected with the book. And the last 2 chapters really felt like the author got tired of writing and decided to wrap everything up real quick. Not my cup of tea.
April 3, 2021
It reminded me of the Four Winds.. the level of strength a woman HAD to be and CHOSE to be in those days is beyond remarkable and admirable...if it were me, I would've said "well, that was fun" and walked back to town on the first day. I really enjoyed this book and I loved that it was based so close to home!
February 10, 2019
Good book if you can get past all the typos.
June 9, 2023
This book shows the harsh reality of living on the northern plains in the early 1900s. Well written even if there were some typographical errors.
March 31, 2024
Such a gorgeous novel. It renders land/ place (and the grit it takes to live in such a place) in prose that feels like poetry. Loved it.
February 26, 2017
Meadowlark’s power lies in the protagonist’s steadiness and perseverance, both of which are buffered with her awareness of life’s fragility. Grace, an achingly young prairie wife, suffers physically and emotionally in the early years of her marriage, yet never loses sight of the importance of love, connection with others, and devotion to the land and those that live upon it. Grace’s delight in and need for beauty weave tendrils of hope into her life, from the zinnias she struggles to grow in the bone-dry ground surrounding her homestead, to the beads and fabric and dried herbs with which her friend Daisy lines her walls, to the ribbon she wraps around her hidden journal.
Meadowlark paints prairie life in stark colors, and filled me, immediately, with compassion for every character in this richly drawn story of life in South Dakota a hundred years ago. Thank you, Dawn Wink, for bringing these lives so clearly and beautifully into my own.
Meadowlark paints prairie life in stark colors, and filled me, immediately, with compassion for every character in this richly drawn story of life in South Dakota a hundred years ago. Thank you, Dawn Wink, for bringing these lives so clearly and beautifully into my own.
January 20, 2016
I loved this book. So beautifully written, Dawn Wink tells us the story of her great-grandmother based on her journals, stories and life on the prairie. A must read.
November 27, 2013
This is a book by my teacher at college. Not what I usually read, but quite moving.
May 3, 2017
Can't put this book down until it is completely finished...a sad but inspiring book...Grace was a women be!!!
I would like to read more like this. I come from around Faith SD I can imagine while reading the area the whole story took place. Very sad book but a true comparison to what many of the Pioneer women went through. Maybe not the abuse but a lot of loneliness on the prairie.
I would like to read more like this. I come from around Faith SD I can imagine while reading the area the whole story took place. Very sad book but a true comparison to what many of the Pioneer women went through. Maybe not the abuse but a lot of loneliness on the prairie.
October 25, 2016
Please proofread manuscript.
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