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The Pull of the Earth
A family's dark secrets are at the root of this rich novel set in rural Illinois. Alternating between the mysterious past and the unsettled present day, a father and son contend-individually-with complicated loyalties to parents, friends, lovers, and the land itself. What can a young man do? This is the central question of a complex story about love and obligation.
236 pages, paperback
First published November 30, 2006
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 7, 2013
“It’s been said that reality can never live up to the fantasies that we imagine for ourselves, and while perhaps we didn’t do everything I’d dreamt of in the past few years, it was enough.”
In The Pull of the Earth, Teague Bohlen unravels relationships and history, alternating between past and present through the eyes of father and son, respectively. Set in rural Moweaqua, Illinois, from 1932 to 1987, Bohlen depicts the lives of two men who share the same name. In the third-person past, we see Reese the father deal with the consequences after he witnesses and subsequently agrees to a false cover regarding the true details of a murder. In the first-person present, Reese the son returns home after the town doctor tells him that his mother who is presenting signs of dementia/Alzheimer’s is asking for him. Little does he know that she is actually asking for his father who had passed away when young Reese was a child.
Bohlen depicts the small town setting craftily, inviting the reader to emotionally bond with each of the characters. He explores thoughts and questions that many people have, making the reader feel as though the words on the page belong to our minds.
Farming is significant to the narrative, but at the heart, it’s about hard decisions that people must make and live with for the rest of their lives, yielding effects that transcend their own time. Sometimes it is best to let secrets live in the past.
Bohlen’s best success in his first novel is developing two distinctive voices. Although they are different, the line can blur because of the parallels in their lives despite being separated in time. We sympathize with both of the Reeses as they grapple with obligation and family, love and heartbreak, tradition and change, and morality and sin. Written in clear prose, we are left wondering what pulls each of us home.
Review by Mai-Quyen Nguyen
In The Pull of the Earth, Teague Bohlen unravels relationships and history, alternating between past and present through the eyes of father and son, respectively. Set in rural Moweaqua, Illinois, from 1932 to 1987, Bohlen depicts the lives of two men who share the same name. In the third-person past, we see Reese the father deal with the consequences after he witnesses and subsequently agrees to a false cover regarding the true details of a murder. In the first-person present, Reese the son returns home after the town doctor tells him that his mother who is presenting signs of dementia/Alzheimer’s is asking for him. Little does he know that she is actually asking for his father who had passed away when young Reese was a child.
Bohlen depicts the small town setting craftily, inviting the reader to emotionally bond with each of the characters. He explores thoughts and questions that many people have, making the reader feel as though the words on the page belong to our minds.
Farming is significant to the narrative, but at the heart, it’s about hard decisions that people must make and live with for the rest of their lives, yielding effects that transcend their own time. Sometimes it is best to let secrets live in the past.
Bohlen’s best success in his first novel is developing two distinctive voices. Although they are different, the line can blur because of the parallels in their lives despite being separated in time. We sympathize with both of the Reeses as they grapple with obligation and family, love and heartbreak, tradition and change, and morality and sin. Written in clear prose, we are left wondering what pulls each of us home.
Review by Mai-Quyen Nguyen
August 19, 2020
My keenest wish for this book was that it be written with beautiful, lyrical writing, and convey a sense of place and time. Bohlen certainly delivered.
This story resonates across years, and we readers learn family secrets that have faded away, so our understanding is deeper than that of the characters. That is unusual enough to be intriguing.
The writing is lush and evocative. Here’s an early instance:
“Central Illinois demands its own rules. Forget Chicago and the cities to the north. This is the land of one-way bridges. You meet someone on the road, the only thing between you and disaster is good manners. It’s always been this way, like everything else here. Things remain because they remain, because they’re good enough. Because no one has the heart or the money to replace them, these obsolete bridges lined by the autumn with skeletal tees, dead men surrendering. “ page 18
Only the ending felt a little incomplete.
I found myself distracted too many times by errors, making my library book seem like an ARC. Better proofing was needed.
4.5 starts rounded up to 5
This story resonates across years, and we readers learn family secrets that have faded away, so our understanding is deeper than that of the characters. That is unusual enough to be intriguing.
The writing is lush and evocative. Here’s an early instance:
“Central Illinois demands its own rules. Forget Chicago and the cities to the north. This is the land of one-way bridges. You meet someone on the road, the only thing between you and disaster is good manners. It’s always been this way, like everything else here. Things remain because they remain, because they’re good enough. Because no one has the heart or the money to replace them, these obsolete bridges lined by the autumn with skeletal tees, dead men surrendering. “ page 18
Only the ending felt a little incomplete.
I found myself distracted too many times by errors, making my library book seem like an ARC. Better proofing was needed.
4.5 starts rounded up to 5
July 27, 2019
One of the best-written books I've read this year. A moving piece about the language and life of the midwestern United States. There are still lines in this book I replay in my head.
April 11, 2008
I really enjoyed this amazing book. Author is a professor of creative writing at UCD and won the Colorado Award for Creative Writing with this one.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews