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Valley Fever
Ingrid Palamede never returns to the places she's lived. For her, "whole neighborhoods, whole cities, can be ruined by the reasons you left." But when a breakup leaves her heartbroken and homeless, she's forced to return to her childhood home of Fresno, California. Back in the real wine country, where grapes are grown for mass producers, Ingrid must confront her aging parents and their financial woes, soured friendships, and the blissfully bad decisions she made in her past. But along the way she unearths her love for the land, her talent for harvesting grapes, and a deep fondness for and forgiveness of the very first place she ever left.
With all the sharp-tongued wit of her first novel, Rules for Saying Goodbye, Katherine Taylor examines high-class small-town life among the grapes-on the vine or soaked in vodka-in Valley Fever, a blisteringly funny, ferociously intelligent, and deeply moving novel of self-discovery.
With all the sharp-tongued wit of her first novel, Rules for Saying Goodbye, Katherine Taylor examines high-class small-town life among the grapes-on the vine or soaked in vodka-in Valley Fever, a blisteringly funny, ferociously intelligent, and deeply moving novel of self-discovery.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2015
14 people are currently reading
1270 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Taylor
24 books46 followersKATHERINE TAYLOR is the author of the novels Valley Fever (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2015) and Rules for Saying Goodbye (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2007). Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Elle, Town & Country, ZYZZYVA, The Southwest Review, and Ploughshares, among other publications. She has won a Pushcart Prize and the McGinnis Ritchie Award for Fiction. She has a B.A. from University of Southern California and a master’s degree from Columbia University, where she was a Graduate Writing Fellow. Katherine lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
June 30, 2015
3 1/2 stars. For me, the main character in Valley Fever is the Central Valley in California as depicted in Katherine Taylor's novel. Ingrid and her sister grew up on a ranch in the Valley where grapes were the primary crop. Strongly encouraged by their mother, they have forged artistic lives in major urban centres. After yet another bad relationship, Ingrid reluctantly returns to live with her parents. This is a bad year for crops in the Valley, and Ingrid's father's health is failing. Ingrid slowly gets pulled into the life she had tried to avoid. I loved the depiction of life in the Valley and the valley itself. Taylor conveys a very strong sense of place -- the dependency on weather and a good market -- and it made me hungry for fresh fruit and thirsty for good wine. In terms of the story, it was a bit predictable but it was greatly assisted by some good dialogue -- which is very prevalent in this book -- and good characters -- my favourites being Ingrid's parents. There is something both tragic and comic about this book that works quite well. And the cover is kind of fabulous in its simplicity. A quick read that's worth the trouble. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.
May 23, 2015
Read on the WondrousBooks blog.
No. No, no, no.
A tragicomedy? This book is a damn farce. I wish there was something good I could say about it. Oh, yeah, pretty cover! Had me fooled.
What you need to know about Valley Fever is that it tells the story of a very dysfunctional family, comprised of retards. Actual retarded people. Well, not actually actual but it would have been easier to grasp why they make the decisions they do and say the things they do if they were with challenged development.
What's also notable is that this is the book with the WORST dialogue that I've had the displeasure of reading in my entire life. In all truth, the dialogue just proves my point about the mentally challenged characters.
Or,
I feel like I've stepped into an alternate dimension where "said" is the only verb that exists and people like to repeat the same thing over and over and over and over again in order to formulate a conversation. These two are not in any way the only examples. This is how EVERY single conversation looks in this book. It's bloody disgusting.
When we are not reading about these brain-dead idiots that the characters are, we are talking about grapes. It's a book about a family which works with fruits and such, but that still doesn't mean that one of the two main plots in this book should be when grapes are picked. And I'm not talking about the problems with the picking or whatever you do with grapes, I'm talking about the random and pointless trivia told by none of the characters in particular. The author just starts yammering about fruits and nuts when she doesn't know what to do to add 3 pages more to each chapter.
As I already said, the family of the main character Ingrid is comprised of insane people. Ingrid herself is a bitter and selfish crybaby, her mother is a bitter, selfish and mean old hag, her sister is a bitter, selfish, mean and nasty bitch, and their father is a naive idiot who gets screwed over by everyone and instead of some poetic justice, all we see is him, forgiving the people who have ruined his life.
Which brings me to my conclusion. What is the damn point of this book? There isn't one. You read a full account of one summer in Ingrid's house, experience the horrible dialogue, and are left with nothing. Good luck! (You are lucky. Are you lucky? You should be lucky. Feel lucky. Oh, by all means, you cannot be lucky. The moon is blue.)
No. No, no, no.
A tragicomedy? This book is a damn farce. I wish there was something good I could say about it. Oh, yeah, pretty cover! Had me fooled.
What you need to know about Valley Fever is that it tells the story of a very dysfunctional family, comprised of retards. Actual retarded people. Well, not actually actual but it would have been easier to grasp why they make the decisions they do and say the things they do if they were with challenged development.
What's also notable is that this is the book with the WORST dialogue that I've had the displeasure of reading in my entire life. In all truth, the dialogue just proves my point about the mentally challenged characters.
"I'm saying no one is unhappy. No one is angry."
"I'm a little bit angry," Anne said. Her cheeks were red from drink and from keeping everything from Mother and from herself.
"Don't be angry," Mother said.
"Oh, all right. Thank you. I'm not angry."
"You have nothing to be angry about."
"Oh, I know," said Anne.
Or,
"I feel like I'm really lucky."
"You are really lucky," Elliot said.
"We're all lucky," I said.
Then George arrived.
"Ingrid's extra lucky," Bootsie said as George made his way to the bar. George swayed when he walked, that languid way he had about him. He raised his hand hello.
"George," Elliot said. "Are you feeling lucky?"
"I'm not especially lucky," said George.
"You certainly are," said Bootsie. "You have all of us."
"It's true," George corrected himself. "I'll be luckier when I get something to drink and a plate of fritters."
I feel like I've stepped into an alternate dimension where "said" is the only verb that exists and people like to repeat the same thing over and over and over and over again in order to formulate a conversation. These two are not in any way the only examples. This is how EVERY single conversation looks in this book. It's bloody disgusting.
When we are not reading about these brain-dead idiots that the characters are, we are talking about grapes. It's a book about a family which works with fruits and such, but that still doesn't mean that one of the two main plots in this book should be when grapes are picked. And I'm not talking about the problems with the picking or whatever you do with grapes, I'm talking about the random and pointless trivia told by none of the characters in particular. The author just starts yammering about fruits and nuts when she doesn't know what to do to add 3 pages more to each chapter.
As I already said, the family of the main character Ingrid is comprised of insane people. Ingrid herself is a bitter and selfish crybaby, her mother is a bitter, selfish and mean old hag, her sister is a bitter, selfish, mean and nasty bitch, and their father is a naive idiot who gets screwed over by everyone and instead of some poetic justice, all we see is him, forgiving the people who have ruined his life.
Which brings me to my conclusion. What is the damn point of this book? There isn't one. You read a full account of one summer in Ingrid's house, experience the horrible dialogue, and are left with nothing. Good luck! (You are lucky. Are you lucky? You should be lucky. Feel lucky. Oh, by all means, you cannot be lucky. The moon is blue.)
January 24, 2016
Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Books like this justify the existence of programs like NetGalley: what an unexpected delight, and one I'd likely never have unearthed had it not been "gifted" to me via NetGalley. As it happens, I've put the author's first book on request at the library, and I'll certainly keep an eye out for her future work.
This book was reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath as it might have been written by Wes Anderson.
It is largely the story of protagonist Ingrid, a young woman who has something in common with a typical Anderson character in that she is a bit of a late bloomer, an individual of some talent and ambition who has never quite managed to productively channel all that potential, or to find her own row to hoe - though she's traveled half the world looking for it since fleeing her typically-eccentric family's Central California farm.
Ingrid also seems to have some history of being unwise or unlucky in love, and the deadly combination of being overly aspirational and overly romantic has turned her rather itinerant and melancholy, a person who is so filled with self-doubt and so accustomed to looking for Something Better that she now feels cursed to never know whether she is actually happy until after she has already left a person or a place.
This might sound a bit chick-litty, but it's not, for several reasons. First, Taylor is just a really fluent writer whose literary pedigree is evident. For instance, she is able to knowingly write scenes that riff on Hemingway - like, scenes where people drink gin in the heat while talking in short sentences about how they are drinking gin in the heat - without sounding like a bad Hemingway contest. And, again like Anderson, she is able to create characters who are realistically flawed, characters who are smart and bored and insecure and uncertain and who talk to others in the self-conscious way that people might when they are still trying to figure themselves out across a variety of adult developmental stages and are trying to fake it while they make it.
But most of all, Taylor has a great ability to create a place and stuff it with sensory details. (There are SO many descriptions of drinking and eating in this book that it nearly puts the whole Farm to Table thing to shame: you're practically just standing in the field eating some utterly amazing sun-warmed thing that hasn't even gotten to anyone's table yet. Barbara Kingsolver would be super proud.)
And the specific setting of this book was incredibly interesting to me: the Central California wine country, in and around Fresno - the dusty, sultry, downmarket, red-headed stepchild of Napa/Sonoma. It's a setting worthy of Edith Wharton, or Downton Abbey, in that you have the sometimes uncomfortable and always incompatible mingling of folks from different social strata. You have the (still relatively new) old money, such as the famous farm families like Mondavi who pioneered the California wine scene; the striving new money folk, who've figured out more vulgar and cutthroat ways to get rich on wine, like making cheap Trader Joe's-style plonk; the clueless idealists who move to wine country with an ill-advised Frances Mayesian dream of owning a vineyard; and then the longstanding farm families who have been there through it all since the beginning, the ones whose finances unpredictably go boom and bust, who farm apricots, peaches, pistachios, and almonds alongside wine and table grapes and are outside of, yet profoundly impacted by, the baggage of the booming wine industry. And then, of course, there are the grown-up, sometimes prodigal farm family kids, like Ingrid, with their ambivalent and evolving relationships to the inheritance and legacy of farming. And the countless, usually immigrant laborers and migrant farmers who often remain anonymous but without whom this whole scene would be utterly impossible.
Like farming, this is a book that requires some patience; you will learn a lot about agriculture and viticulture and if you don't care about that stuff like I do - I care deeply about all things viticultural! - maybe you'd be bored? The story, like farming, also demands some acceptance of the limits of human control, both in the man vs. man sense as well as the man vs. nature sense. There is a plot, but a quiet, French-film, slice-of-life kind of plot. But it is also suspenseful the way farming can be suspenseful: never did I think I could be so riveted by the progressive weight and sugar content of grapes.
Finding this book was kind of like happening across a delicious and beautifully-labeled bottle of three-buck-chuck in a bin at a Trader Joe's: it's an immersive, escapist treat of a summer read that I didn't feel a whit of guilt about consuming.
Books like this justify the existence of programs like NetGalley: what an unexpected delight, and one I'd likely never have unearthed had it not been "gifted" to me via NetGalley. As it happens, I've put the author's first book on request at the library, and I'll certainly keep an eye out for her future work.
This book was reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath as it might have been written by Wes Anderson.
It is largely the story of protagonist Ingrid, a young woman who has something in common with a typical Anderson character in that she is a bit of a late bloomer, an individual of some talent and ambition who has never quite managed to productively channel all that potential, or to find her own row to hoe - though she's traveled half the world looking for it since fleeing her typically-eccentric family's Central California farm.
Ingrid also seems to have some history of being unwise or unlucky in love, and the deadly combination of being overly aspirational and overly romantic has turned her rather itinerant and melancholy, a person who is so filled with self-doubt and so accustomed to looking for Something Better that she now feels cursed to never know whether she is actually happy until after she has already left a person or a place.
This might sound a bit chick-litty, but it's not, for several reasons. First, Taylor is just a really fluent writer whose literary pedigree is evident. For instance, she is able to knowingly write scenes that riff on Hemingway - like, scenes where people drink gin in the heat while talking in short sentences about how they are drinking gin in the heat - without sounding like a bad Hemingway contest. And, again like Anderson, she is able to create characters who are realistically flawed, characters who are smart and bored and insecure and uncertain and who talk to others in the self-conscious way that people might when they are still trying to figure themselves out across a variety of adult developmental stages and are trying to fake it while they make it.
But most of all, Taylor has a great ability to create a place and stuff it with sensory details. (There are SO many descriptions of drinking and eating in this book that it nearly puts the whole Farm to Table thing to shame: you're practically just standing in the field eating some utterly amazing sun-warmed thing that hasn't even gotten to anyone's table yet. Barbara Kingsolver would be super proud.)
And the specific setting of this book was incredibly interesting to me: the Central California wine country, in and around Fresno - the dusty, sultry, downmarket, red-headed stepchild of Napa/Sonoma. It's a setting worthy of Edith Wharton, or Downton Abbey, in that you have the sometimes uncomfortable and always incompatible mingling of folks from different social strata. You have the (still relatively new) old money, such as the famous farm families like Mondavi who pioneered the California wine scene; the striving new money folk, who've figured out more vulgar and cutthroat ways to get rich on wine, like making cheap Trader Joe's-style plonk; the clueless idealists who move to wine country with an ill-advised Frances Mayesian dream of owning a vineyard; and then the longstanding farm families who have been there through it all since the beginning, the ones whose finances unpredictably go boom and bust, who farm apricots, peaches, pistachios, and almonds alongside wine and table grapes and are outside of, yet profoundly impacted by, the baggage of the booming wine industry. And then, of course, there are the grown-up, sometimes prodigal farm family kids, like Ingrid, with their ambivalent and evolving relationships to the inheritance and legacy of farming. And the countless, usually immigrant laborers and migrant farmers who often remain anonymous but without whom this whole scene would be utterly impossible.
Like farming, this is a book that requires some patience; you will learn a lot about agriculture and viticulture and if you don't care about that stuff like I do - I care deeply about all things viticultural! - maybe you'd be bored? The story, like farming, also demands some acceptance of the limits of human control, both in the man vs. man sense as well as the man vs. nature sense. There is a plot, but a quiet, French-film, slice-of-life kind of plot. But it is also suspenseful the way farming can be suspenseful: never did I think I could be so riveted by the progressive weight and sugar content of grapes.
Finding this book was kind of like happening across a delicious and beautifully-labeled bottle of three-buck-chuck in a bin at a Trader Joe's: it's an immersive, escapist treat of a summer read that I didn't feel a whit of guilt about consuming.
June 28, 2015
This is a very dialogue driven book and there is very little plot. Most of the time the characters are either complaining about their lives or talking about when the grapes should be picked. There's also a lot of talk about toast. Seriously. There are at least a dozen conversations about eating toast throughout the book. In a way this book reminded me of To the Lighthouse because the characters spend all their time talking about something they don't get around to doing. For the first half of the book I enjoyed the characters and their bizarre conversations, but after that I just wanted something, anything, to happen.
May 26, 2015
Read through netgalley.com
I consider a book to be successful if I feel like I am growing and learning along with the main character, which in Valley Fever is Ingrid. In the case of this book, I did not.
Even through Ingrid's journey during a rough time in her life, it seemed she was the same at the end as she was in the beginning.
From poorly developed characters, to amateur dialogue, I was surprisingly disappointed in Taylor's second novel.
I consider a book to be successful if I feel like I am growing and learning along with the main character, which in Valley Fever is Ingrid. In the case of this book, I did not.
Even through Ingrid's journey during a rough time in her life, it seemed she was the same at the end as she was in the beginning.
From poorly developed characters, to amateur dialogue, I was surprisingly disappointed in Taylor's second novel.
July 23, 2015
I'll never eat toast again. Ok, I will, but I'll certainly never read about it.
Rating 2/5
At the start of this book I honestly didn't think I would finish. The characters were shallow. The plot was not urgent. The word said was used an awful lot in the first chapter as well as the confident repetition of other words used during choppy, useless dialogue. However, at the beginning of chapter two on her way to her families land in Fresno, my pet peeves lessened. I found humor and even the beginnings of vivid descriptions.
Still, the first half of the book was a struggle for me. The first 100 pages were largely inconsequential to the plot. You don't even need to know about Ingrid's recent breakup, her sister's marriage, or the fact Ingrid can't return to places she's experienced pain. None of this matters. The dialogue never improved, and the characters didn't capture my attention.
What kept me reading was the focus on Fresno farms. Descriptions about farming made me want to grow something of my own and gave me just enough information to make me believe (falsely) that I could. This is the only part of the novel I enjoyed. Whenever Taylor wrote about the land- weather conditions, sugar content- the story came alive. It became about more than these vapid characters deciding where and with whom they were going to live. Trust me- weather conditions and grapes are not two subjects I usually find interesting, but I did.
Halfway through the novel, I was determined to find out if these damn grapes would get sold. The vines to which I had gotten so attached were in jeopardy, and Ingrid was the only one left to save them. She became (slightly) more tolerable. The end was satisfying. I don't regret reading this book in the same way that I've never regretted drinking a glass of wine. Read under the influence at your own risk.
-----------------------------------------------------
Read this book if: you have an interest in grape farming, you like toast and love reading about it, or are into the sauce and out of things to do.
Don't read this book if: you have no wine.
Rating 2/5
At the start of this book I honestly didn't think I would finish. The characters were shallow. The plot was not urgent. The word said was used an awful lot in the first chapter as well as the confident repetition of other words used during choppy, useless dialogue. However, at the beginning of chapter two on her way to her families land in Fresno, my pet peeves lessened. I found humor and even the beginnings of vivid descriptions.
Still, the first half of the book was a struggle for me. The first 100 pages were largely inconsequential to the plot. You don't even need to know about Ingrid's recent breakup, her sister's marriage, or the fact Ingrid can't return to places she's experienced pain. None of this matters. The dialogue never improved, and the characters didn't capture my attention.
What kept me reading was the focus on Fresno farms. Descriptions about farming made me want to grow something of my own and gave me just enough information to make me believe (falsely) that I could. This is the only part of the novel I enjoyed. Whenever Taylor wrote about the land- weather conditions, sugar content- the story came alive. It became about more than these vapid characters deciding where and with whom they were going to live. Trust me- weather conditions and grapes are not two subjects I usually find interesting, but I did.
Halfway through the novel, I was determined to find out if these damn grapes would get sold. The vines to which I had gotten so attached were in jeopardy, and Ingrid was the only one left to save them. She became (slightly) more tolerable. The end was satisfying. I don't regret reading this book in the same way that I've never regretted drinking a glass of wine. Read under the influence at your own risk.
-----------------------------------------------------
Read this book if: you have an interest in grape farming, you like toast and love reading about it, or are into the sauce and out of things to do.
Don't read this book if: you have no wine.
February 1, 2017
This book provides a realistic depiction of the trials of farming life in central California. Ingrid, the main character of this book, was self absorbed and I didn't find her to be an enjoyable character. Ingrid come home to Fresno to nurse her broken heart and find her place in the world without her former boyfriend. Anne, Ingrid's sister, appears to be living a good life with her husband in Los Angeles but as the novel progresses, the reader finds cracks in the relationship as well.
Overall, the book presents a glimpse into the inner workings of a family struggling to survive in the midst of drought and being stiffed on payment for their crops. I feel horrible for their father watching all he's worked for decrease with each passing time year. Their mother seems to just be existing on the farm and has accepted that their best years are behind them. For me, it was cooler read a book and personally know the various local surroundings counties and landmarks mentioned throughout the book since I've been to these places before.
Overall, the book presents a glimpse into the inner workings of a family struggling to survive in the midst of drought and being stiffed on payment for their crops. I feel horrible for their father watching all he's worked for decrease with each passing time year. Their mother seems to just be existing on the farm and has accepted that their best years are behind them. For me, it was cooler read a book and personally know the various local surroundings counties and landmarks mentioned throughout the book since I've been to these places before.
June 24, 2015
A fantastic story of a family and their differences trying toy keep the family farm in the Central Valley of California. Of the two sisters, only one, Ingrid really felt the call f the land , the grapes and seeing them harvest4ed at the right time. She was almost too late. She was left with the original 100 acres. Not the Twenty thousand acres her father once had. I won this Free book through Goodreads-First reads.
October 23, 2015
This sensory novel explores heartbreak and home as protagonist Ingrid Palamede navigates a torturous landscape where brawn, swagger and grapes rule. Lush with quirky characters and vivid scenes, “Valley Fever” takes us into the hearts of a close-knit community, a lovably flawed family and a spirited heroine.
Ingrid has no place of her own to seek refuge when her boyfriend dumps her after she’s moved in. She turns first to her sister in L.A., then heads north to her childhood home in Fresno to forget Howard’s character flaws (“his stupid flat stomach” and “the idiot way he brought [her] coffee in bed”). In the city she loves to hate, Ingrid mourns her relationship, pens a genocide comedy and slowly recognizes that her parents are grappling with heartbreaks of their own.
The dialogue is appealingly droll and author Katherine Taylor, thankfully, doesn’t spend much time parsing Ingrid’s interior life in the aftermath of the breakup. There are grapes to pick, after all, and we’re quickly immersed in action on the farm. Ingrid’s dad is a great farmer who has 20,000 acres at risk, hurt by his aversion to business and reliance upon antiquated gentlemen’s agreements. Her mother plays solitaire in worn hotel slippers and “doesn’t even care for the people she likes.” Her godfather Felix, known for his ruthlessness and criminal company (her father excluded), warns: “You think you’ve got more than two friends, you’re fooling yourself.”
Ingrid stumbles, but never shrivels, in the 100-degree heat. It’s a testament to Taylor’s skill in describing the Fresno landscape that Ingrid’s hard-knock education in pricing and negotiations is as memorable for the vineyard backdrop as for Ingrid’s personal development.
Taylor masterfully builds a story to be savored by grounding the enormity of the Palamede family’s challenges in the steady rhythms of daily life. Her research shows in spot-on depictions of the tastes that enliven the community: The hot sweetness of end-grapes picked right from the vine. The perfect bite of prosciutto cured from almond-fed pigs. Vodka poured over table grapes by valley farmers hesitant to drink anything but California wine. In Taylor’s account, even betrayal captures the senses. It tastes like cold-poached Alaskan salmon and smells like cigars and grease.
This is a lovely quick read–well-imagined and well-written. Pair with an old Mondavi, Ingrid’s drink of choice.
Ingrid has no place of her own to seek refuge when her boyfriend dumps her after she’s moved in. She turns first to her sister in L.A., then heads north to her childhood home in Fresno to forget Howard’s character flaws (“his stupid flat stomach” and “the idiot way he brought [her] coffee in bed”). In the city she loves to hate, Ingrid mourns her relationship, pens a genocide comedy and slowly recognizes that her parents are grappling with heartbreaks of their own.
The dialogue is appealingly droll and author Katherine Taylor, thankfully, doesn’t spend much time parsing Ingrid’s interior life in the aftermath of the breakup. There are grapes to pick, after all, and we’re quickly immersed in action on the farm. Ingrid’s dad is a great farmer who has 20,000 acres at risk, hurt by his aversion to business and reliance upon antiquated gentlemen’s agreements. Her mother plays solitaire in worn hotel slippers and “doesn’t even care for the people she likes.” Her godfather Felix, known for his ruthlessness and criminal company (her father excluded), warns: “You think you’ve got more than two friends, you’re fooling yourself.”
Ingrid stumbles, but never shrivels, in the 100-degree heat. It’s a testament to Taylor’s skill in describing the Fresno landscape that Ingrid’s hard-knock education in pricing and negotiations is as memorable for the vineyard backdrop as for Ingrid’s personal development.
Taylor masterfully builds a story to be savored by grounding the enormity of the Palamede family’s challenges in the steady rhythms of daily life. Her research shows in spot-on depictions of the tastes that enliven the community: The hot sweetness of end-grapes picked right from the vine. The perfect bite of prosciutto cured from almond-fed pigs. Vodka poured over table grapes by valley farmers hesitant to drink anything but California wine. In Taylor’s account, even betrayal captures the senses. It tastes like cold-poached Alaskan salmon and smells like cigars and grease.
This is a lovely quick read–well-imagined and well-written. Pair with an old Mondavi, Ingrid’s drink of choice.
August 15, 2015
This book was a really pleasant read. It seemed to be a fairly standard story about self-discovery for a woman trying to reconcile her past and her unknown desires but what it turned into was that story really well combined/paired with the timeliness of agriculture. The idea of agriculture being both a permanent biological cycle and a fairly harsh mistress to those trying to make a living. The idea that the story would focus on Fresno made me think that it would tend to focus on a more romantic vision of a place that is, on the outside, not really beautiful as we tend to idealize agriculture. What this story conveyed, though, was the idea of the relationship between man and nature/agriculture -- trying to reconcile the uncertainties of nature/agriculture with the need to make a living and maintain a lifestyle. Since nature/agriculture is fundamentally hard to manage, what takes up the slack are the human relationships. I really ended up enjoying this story more than I expected.
August 17, 2015
I loved Taylor's first novel Rules for Saying Goodbye, as I tend to love novels with ambitious female protagonists set in New York City and elements of glamour. In RFSG, she was able to capture that world without being saccharine at all, as she is a lovely and gifted writer. So when I saw that she had written a book set in Fresno - knowing too that she lives in Los Angeles, I wondered how she would tackle a place so un-cosmopolitan. Turns out she gives it the same treatment that she gave New York - she depicts it equally as beautifully and rich. The story was a sweet summer read that makes you yearn for family and the place you grew up. The characters are all vivid and you feel like you know them, or want to. The girl who owns the local "cool" restaurant is especially memorable - she and the main character, Ingrid, make the idea of returning "home" as intoxicating as running off to New York or Paris.
July 17, 2016
I was on a panel with this author and was completely entranced and charmed by her funny and poignant stories of growing up in Fresno, California. That pretty much sums up this book. It is fiction and is about a woman who returns to her family's home "temporarily" after a breakup. Hilarious, sad, and a perfect study of what it means to be from somewhere.. Some might find the repartee too quippy and smart (because it is both of these things), but I loved it. Recommended for most anyone, especially a fellow native Californian.
August 9, 2015
Blargh. Not good at all. Nobody in this book felt like a real human being in any way at all.
November 12, 2015
Quiet, lovely novel. Really enjoyed it....all the details about grapes and Fresno.
May 17, 2020
I enjoyed this book for the introduction it gave me to farming in California, especially grapes. The love of the land and place, rich with memories and a certain way of doing things came through loud and clear. But I struggled to clearly place characters and how they related to each other as they were introduced. It reminded me very much of meeting someone’s large family for the first time where everyone knows each other and is so intertwined in the connections and history they forget to tell you the important stuff, so you feel lost when everyone is speaking behind their hands about the latest escapades of Uncle Benny. But eventually things fall into place, the same was true here.
Maybe this was also why I felt like I needed more internal character development, especially of Ingrid. In many ways she was drawn so well and I Taylor did a great job of layering her back story in, but her decisions in the present time just happened. Maybe that is a truer reflection of life and especially her life, but it made the ending so abrupt. Maybe I just wanted more. The book was also heavily dialogue driven, which was interesting and also a little distracting.
I liked this book and the sense of home and connection it evoked with the undercurrent of finding one’s purpose. I especially liked it as an ode to non-city living, to a world largely unseen, and to the beauty of what you know.
Maybe this was also why I felt like I needed more internal character development, especially of Ingrid. In many ways she was drawn so well and I Taylor did a great job of layering her back story in, but her decisions in the present time just happened. Maybe that is a truer reflection of life and especially her life, but it made the ending so abrupt. Maybe I just wanted more. The book was also heavily dialogue driven, which was interesting and also a little distracting.
I liked this book and the sense of home and connection it evoked with the undercurrent of finding one’s purpose. I especially liked it as an ode to non-city living, to a world largely unseen, and to the beauty of what you know.
December 20, 2017
fter getting her heart broken yet again, Ingrid Palamede decides to do something she swore she’d never do: she returns home to her parents in Fresno. There, wallowing in self-pity eventually gives way to her concerns about her parents’ health and finances, as well as their many acres of farmland. The longer Ingrid spends at home, the more she rediscovers just how much she loves her homeland… and how good she is at helping with the vineyards. Ingrid can’t fix everything, but perhaps she can find some measure of peace in the very first place she left behind.
“Valley Fever” by Katherine Taylor is a complex novel that explores themes of home, family, friends, and personal truths. Many readers will love and identify with the story’s small-town feel: characters you can’t escape, everyone knowing everyone else’s business, a landscape that quickly becomes familiar in every way. Ingrid is smart and funny, and the banter between her and other characters (especially her sister, Anne, and her former best friend, Bootsie) flows with its own special type of dry wit. This is a fantastic novel that will hook readers early and not let go.
(Review originally written for San Francisco Book Review.)
“Valley Fever” by Katherine Taylor is a complex novel that explores themes of home, family, friends, and personal truths. Many readers will love and identify with the story’s small-town feel: characters you can’t escape, everyone knowing everyone else’s business, a landscape that quickly becomes familiar in every way. Ingrid is smart and funny, and the banter between her and other characters (especially her sister, Anne, and her former best friend, Bootsie) flows with its own special type of dry wit. This is a fantastic novel that will hook readers early and not let go.
(Review originally written for San Francisco Book Review.)
August 8, 2017
Having one of my favourite book covers in my collection, I had such high hopes for Valley Fever by Katherine Taylor! Unfortunately it just fell short and I had to force myself to finish it.
Valley Fever follows main character, Ingrid, who returns to her family home (and vineyard) in Fresno, California after a break-up.
I am a sucker for poetic writing and wit, and Taylor does just that. Although, with not enough character development and way too much dialogue (about 80% of the book) I didn't get much of a chance to appreciate her writing and felt so confused as to what was actually happening in the story. I lost all feelings of connection towards the characters throughout. There also wasn't much of a storyline, which I can handle if I am able to take something away from the book - but I didn't feel anything after reading this.
I would encourage you to still read Valley Fever, and would be interested in anyone else's thoughts.
Valley Fever follows main character, Ingrid, who returns to her family home (and vineyard) in Fresno, California after a break-up.
I am a sucker for poetic writing and wit, and Taylor does just that. Although, with not enough character development and way too much dialogue (about 80% of the book) I didn't get much of a chance to appreciate her writing and felt so confused as to what was actually happening in the story. I lost all feelings of connection towards the characters throughout. There also wasn't much of a storyline, which I can handle if I am able to take something away from the book - but I didn't feel anything after reading this.
I would encourage you to still read Valley Fever, and would be interested in anyone else's thoughts.
April 10, 2020
This book could have been brilliant-it could've been jaw droppingly spectacular-but it wasn't. Here's why not;
Because that witty banter becomes a royal pain in the ass. The first 50 pages -it's all good fun.
Between the narrator and the sister- Anne- between both the daughters and the mother-good clean fun.
But then after maybe 51 pages -it just becomes a royal pain-Just shut up-and spit out-GET ON WITH THE STORY.
Now the story was excellent. I learnt so much about wine country -about farming- about the town of Fresno-really good. I actually learned something.
And I listened.
Which means that this Katherine Taylor is one good writer.
What she needs is an able and heartless editor to delete all the "WITTY BANTER" after page 51.
And that is all I'm going to say.
Great story- needs a heartless editor.JM
Because that witty banter becomes a royal pain in the ass. The first 50 pages -it's all good fun.
Between the narrator and the sister- Anne- between both the daughters and the mother-good clean fun.
But then after maybe 51 pages -it just becomes a royal pain-Just shut up-and spit out-GET ON WITH THE STORY.
Now the story was excellent. I learnt so much about wine country -about farming- about the town of Fresno-really good. I actually learned something.
And I listened.
Which means that this Katherine Taylor is one good writer.
What she needs is an able and heartless editor to delete all the "WITTY BANTER" after page 51.
And that is all I'm going to say.
Great story- needs a heartless editor.JM
October 24, 2016
What a delightful surprise. I didn't have many expectations going into this one, but I found it completely enjoyable. Katherine Taylor's writing is so full of life; her characters nearly jump off the page. And while there's a healthy dose of quippy humor (much appreciated), it didn't detract from the weight of the novel as it so often can. If you're interested in women's fiction, wine/food, coming-of-age, and rural settings, give this one a shot.
August 18, 2018
This book had a lot of dialogue. Way more dialogue than I'm used to in a novel but aside from that I enjoyed the story. I very much enjoy books around growing food or natural living so the subject matter kept me interested.
The characters are sometimes frustrating because they don't express what they should to each other, but I do understand the significance of creating these characters that way. A lot can been said in the absence of words.
Overall a enjoyable read.
The characters are sometimes frustrating because they don't express what they should to each other, but I do understand the significance of creating these characters that way. A lot can been said in the absence of words.
Overall a enjoyable read.
August 28, 2018
family drama with biting wit + strong characters & sense of place
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“I continued walking. It was too distressing to admit that certain patches of that mean little town were, in fact, more beautiful than anyplace else in the world. And I’d looked, believe me, hoping to find someplace. I’d seen all sorts of rural agricultural valleys and hills I wouldn’t go back to. I’d looked and looked for someplace that felt more like home than right there.”
🍇
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
🍇
“I continued walking. It was too distressing to admit that certain patches of that mean little town were, in fact, more beautiful than anyplace else in the world. And I’d looked, believe me, hoping to find someplace. I’d seen all sorts of rural agricultural valleys and hills I wouldn’t go back to. I’d looked and looked for someplace that felt more like home than right there.”
🍇
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
July 31, 2018
Funny, easy to read and highly relatable
Fave quotes: "You know that feeling when a deep hole opens up inside you and you feel like, physically, your whole body is being sucked into it? It can take all your energy not to disappear into that hole."
"There was an easiness there ... It was the kind of easiness that caused me to panic"
Fave quotes: "You know that feeling when a deep hole opens up inside you and you feel like, physically, your whole body is being sucked into it? It can take all your energy not to disappear into that hole."
"There was an easiness there ... It was the kind of easiness that caused me to panic"
June 17, 2020
Cool book about a girl going back to her hometown after a failed relationship. Love the way the author described all the sights, sounds, smells, you really got a feel for what it's like to be in Fresno.
Something about this book I just really liked. It was relaxing, tender, subtle, funny, complicated. I liked reading it, I would recommend it.
Something about this book I just really liked. It was relaxing, tender, subtle, funny, complicated. I liked reading it, I would recommend it.
May 25, 2025
Woman returns to her childhood home in California wine country to recover from a breakup and help run the vineyard. I loved the setting but no character felt real so much as hyperstylized versions of people that might otherwise exist. The clipped dialogue and sentences further contributed to the feeling of nonreality.
May 2, 2020
Some people say the dialogue is boring, but to me it came across as natural. Especially if you read aloud like I do sometimes. The relationships between Ingrid and her family aren't perfect, but they're relatable. Truly enjoyed this read.
December 31, 2022
Too choppy. All conversations were so random--like that family dinner in "While You Were Sleeping," but not funny. The story was going absolutely nowhere. Maybe if I were into wine I'd be interested in the many, many references to grapes. Seeing as how I'm not, I just couldn't bear to finish.
July 7, 2024
A remarkable evocation of Fresno and agriculture there. The dialogue was a bit choppy, it felt like people were only communicating in quips, especially between the sisters. The theme about home and place are timeless and well presented.
November 13, 2024
Might be a good beach read?
December 10, 2015
I am from Fresno - the city which is the subject of much of the disdain the author has in the book, Valley Fever. This is the story of Ingrid who is a farmer's daughter from Fresno and who, along with her sister Anne, have tried to escape Fresno as soon as they could. Ingrid is a writer, I think. She has lived all over the world. The hitch with Ingrid is that once she has a bad experience somewhere (e.g. a breakup), she cannot go back. London, Paris, Berlin, New York and, now, Los Angeles are firmly off her list.
After her latest break up she comes home to the family farm, where her father is a typical farmer - a quiet man who works hard and does what is right. Her mother is...well, odd. I could not figure out whether she had a little bit of anxiety, dementia, or something else. And the end did nothing to end my wondering. Annie is separating from her husband, Charlie, because Annie cannot have children. Annie is the bossy older sister.
The book is brimming with an interesting cast of characters and references to places that, if you are from Fresno, will ring familiar. The story plods along at a leisurely, but not slow, pace. I really, really wanted to like this book. And I really, really tried to like this book. But, I did not like this book. Here's why.
First, I understand that most people who are from Fresno or have heard of Fresno have a negative connotation of it. We are always the butt of jokes. I get that. I did not expect so much of it from this book. Her descriptions of the vineyards and farm land are lovely. But her descriptions of Fresno and its surrounding communities, I found lacking.
Second, there were so many things left unsaid that I found it unsettling and hard to follow sometimes. Conversations were not fully developed and sometimes the characters speak in a code they are privy to the meaning of, but the reader is not. I did not like the flow or style of the writing for the most part. But there were some places in the book where Ms. Taylor really wrote well.
I did like Ingrid, for the most part. She came home and did what she was supposed to do. But Ms. Taylor did a very good job of not making it seem like Ingrid did not want the burden or was not up to the task of taking over the family farm. Ingrid was smart and she stood up for herself with whomever she needed to. I liked that about her very much.
I also liked some of the supporting characters, like her first love George Sweet and her friend Bootsie Calhoon. Both were interesting characters, though I wish they could have been more fully developed.
Like I said, I really, really wish I would have liked this book more than I did. I am sad that I didn't. I might have been hoping for too much. While I recognize the need to escape from Fresno and the jokes are sometimes all-too-real, it is my home and I would have liked to have seen it portrayed in a more positive light.
I won this book from Goodreads. I was not paid in any way for my review and the thoughts expressed herein are mine and mine alone.
After her latest break up she comes home to the family farm, where her father is a typical farmer - a quiet man who works hard and does what is right. Her mother is...well, odd. I could not figure out whether she had a little bit of anxiety, dementia, or something else. And the end did nothing to end my wondering. Annie is separating from her husband, Charlie, because Annie cannot have children. Annie is the bossy older sister.
The book is brimming with an interesting cast of characters and references to places that, if you are from Fresno, will ring familiar. The story plods along at a leisurely, but not slow, pace. I really, really wanted to like this book. And I really, really tried to like this book. But, I did not like this book. Here's why.
First, I understand that most people who are from Fresno or have heard of Fresno have a negative connotation of it. We are always the butt of jokes. I get that. I did not expect so much of it from this book. Her descriptions of the vineyards and farm land are lovely. But her descriptions of Fresno and its surrounding communities, I found lacking.
Second, there were so many things left unsaid that I found it unsettling and hard to follow sometimes. Conversations were not fully developed and sometimes the characters speak in a code they are privy to the meaning of, but the reader is not. I did not like the flow or style of the writing for the most part. But there were some places in the book where Ms. Taylor really wrote well.
I did like Ingrid, for the most part. She came home and did what she was supposed to do. But Ms. Taylor did a very good job of not making it seem like Ingrid did not want the burden or was not up to the task of taking over the family farm. Ingrid was smart and she stood up for herself with whomever she needed to. I liked that about her very much.
I also liked some of the supporting characters, like her first love George Sweet and her friend Bootsie Calhoon. Both were interesting characters, though I wish they could have been more fully developed.
Like I said, I really, really wish I would have liked this book more than I did. I am sad that I didn't. I might have been hoping for too much. While I recognize the need to escape from Fresno and the jokes are sometimes all-too-real, it is my home and I would have liked to have seen it portrayed in a more positive light.
I won this book from Goodreads. I was not paid in any way for my review and the thoughts expressed herein are mine and mine alone.
August 19, 2015
NTRO---"I don't return to places I've lived. I avoid my high school dorm by not going back to all of Massachusetts. In London, I'll avoid Holland Park so as not to be reminded of the basement flat on Addison Road. The furnished two-bedroom on Via Annia in Rome, the bright studio in the white brick building on West Eighty-fourth Street with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the two bedroom in Prenzlauer Berg I shared with a publishing-heiress insomniac who would speak only Russian: some of those places were good for a while. Still, whole neighborhoods, whole cities can be ruined by the reasons you left."
It's probably not a good sign when you move across the country from NY to CA to be with your significant other and less than a year later he tells you, "I think I only love you when I'm drunk." Such is the situation for Ingrid Palameade who hasn't had the best of luck with relationships.
With her sister Annie coming to her rescue at the airport after this latest breakup, she takes Ingrid back to her home to think about her life over the last (10) years since she finished college. Why has she moved from place to place and relationship to relationship? With some hesitation Ingrid decides to return home to her family and their 20,000 acre vineyard around Fresno. Her father's health is failing, her mother is stuck in a rut and her uncle drinks a bit too much (wine goes well with every me
al). With her father's illness, Ingrid soon begins running the family business, and even connecting with friends from her past.
I had a tough time with this novel. The writing is mostly dialogue driven with almost no character development. It could have been so much better if there was more of a plot progression and subsequent resolution. One of the best features of the story was the way the story appealed to senses when the author describes the perfect conditions for wine making, facts about growing and harvesting almonds and CA agriculture in general. I thought the cover was pretty cool as well, but overall, this novel didn't work well for me.
It's probably not a good sign when you move across the country from NY to CA to be with your significant other and less than a year later he tells you, "I think I only love you when I'm drunk." Such is the situation for Ingrid Palameade who hasn't had the best of luck with relationships.
With her sister Annie coming to her rescue at the airport after this latest breakup, she takes Ingrid back to her home to think about her life over the last (10) years since she finished college. Why has she moved from place to place and relationship to relationship? With some hesitation Ingrid decides to return home to her family and their 20,000 acre vineyard around Fresno. Her father's health is failing, her mother is stuck in a rut and her uncle drinks a bit too much (wine goes well with every me
al). With her father's illness, Ingrid soon begins running the family business, and even connecting with friends from her past.
I had a tough time with this novel. The writing is mostly dialogue driven with almost no character development. It could have been so much better if there was more of a plot progression and subsequent resolution. One of the best features of the story was the way the story appealed to senses when the author describes the perfect conditions for wine making, facts about growing and harvesting almonds and CA agriculture in general. I thought the cover was pretty cool as well, but overall, this novel didn't work well for me.
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