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The Good Divide
“This is the book I was waiting to read.” —Laura Kasischke, The Life Before Her Eyes
In the lush countryside of Wisconsin, Jean Krenshaw is the ideal 1960’s dairy farm wife. She cooks, sews, raises children, and plans an annual July 4th party for friends and neighbors. But when her brother-in-law Tommy, who lives next door, marries leery newcomer Liz, Jean is forced to confront a ten-year-old family secret involving the unresolved death of a young woman.
With stark and swift prose, The Good Divide explores one woman’s tortured inner world, and the painful choices that have divided her life, both past and present, forever.
“The Good Divide surprises with the depth of…heartache, the intensity of the torments and jealousies that its characters succumb to, or survive.” —Caitlin Horrocks, author of This is Not Your City
“VanBaale serves up romance, deception, and a final, surprising retribution. The backdrop is a Wisconsin dairy farm, but the subject is the wounded recesses of the human heart.” —Pamela Carter Joern, author of In the Reach and The Floor of the Sky
“With gentle echoes of Richard Yates and Sherwood Anderson, The Good Divide…conveys the chaos and complications of domesticity—[it] is sure to make your heart simultaneously swell and splinter.” —Mathieu Cailler, author of Loss Angeles
“VanBaale masterfully captures that crazy mystical spirit of farm folklore. Dark and delicious reading for those of us who love best the characters who’ve earned their baggage.” —Jennifer Wilson, author of Running Away to Home
In the lush countryside of Wisconsin, Jean Krenshaw is the ideal 1960’s dairy farm wife. She cooks, sews, raises children, and plans an annual July 4th party for friends and neighbors. But when her brother-in-law Tommy, who lives next door, marries leery newcomer Liz, Jean is forced to confront a ten-year-old family secret involving the unresolved death of a young woman.
With stark and swift prose, The Good Divide explores one woman’s tortured inner world, and the painful choices that have divided her life, both past and present, forever.
“The Good Divide surprises with the depth of…heartache, the intensity of the torments and jealousies that its characters succumb to, or survive.” —Caitlin Horrocks, author of This is Not Your City
“VanBaale serves up romance, deception, and a final, surprising retribution. The backdrop is a Wisconsin dairy farm, but the subject is the wounded recesses of the human heart.” —Pamela Carter Joern, author of In the Reach and The Floor of the Sky
“With gentle echoes of Richard Yates and Sherwood Anderson, The Good Divide…conveys the chaos and complications of domesticity—[it] is sure to make your heart simultaneously swell and splinter.” —Mathieu Cailler, author of Loss Angeles
“VanBaale masterfully captures that crazy mystical spirit of farm folklore. Dark and delicious reading for those of us who love best the characters who’ve earned their baggage.” —Jennifer Wilson, author of Running Away to Home
202 pages, Paperback
First published April 24, 2016
33 people are currently reading
831 people want to read
About the author
Kali White VanBaale
4 books93 followersKali White is the author of the forthcoming THE MONSTERS WE MAKE (Crooked Lane Books, June 2020). Her second novel, THE GOOD DIVIDE (as Kali VanBaale), earned the Eric Hoffer Book Award for General Fiction, was shortlisted for the Hoffer Grand Prize, and was named an Indie Book Award finalist. Her debut novel, THE SPACE BETWEEN (as Kali VanBaale), earned an American Book Award, the Independent Publisher’s silver medal for general fiction, and the Fred Bonnie Memorial First Novelist Award.
She's the assistant editor of the micro-essay series THE PAST TEN, which is being developed into a print anthology.
Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Coachella Review, The Chaffey Review, Past Ten, Nowhere Magazine, The Writer's Chronicle, Poets&Writers, The Writer Magazine, and various anthologies.
She is the recipient of a State of Iowa Arts Council major artist grant and the Great River Writer's Retreat.
Kali holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a core faculty member in the Lindenwood University MFA in Creative Writing Program.
She resides in Iowa with her family.
She's the assistant editor of the micro-essay series THE PAST TEN, which is being developed into a print anthology.
Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Coachella Review, The Chaffey Review, Past Ten, Nowhere Magazine, The Writer's Chronicle, Poets&Writers, The Writer Magazine, and various anthologies.
She is the recipient of a State of Iowa Arts Council major artist grant and the Great River Writer's Retreat.
Kali holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a core faculty member in the Lindenwood University MFA in Creative Writing Program.
She resides in Iowa with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
April 18, 2017
I enjoyed the setting of this book, a dairy farm in the 1960's, the picnics, lemonade and potato salad in a big glass bowl. Could definitely relate as my grandfather would take my sister and I to a dairy farm once a month, we drank unpasteurized milk, (horrors) drank cold water straight from the well, and attended many church suppers and picnics at the farm. This book reminded me fondly of those times. Hard work for farmers and their wives, farming is definitely not easy as this book abundantly portrays. So the setting and atmosphere felt abundantly realistic.
What I didn't like. The non sequential storyline, since this goes back and forth from the present to the past, and I feel this book could have worked just as effectively had it been told in a linear fashion. There is, however, no sweetness and light, in the second half of this book and that is owing mainly to the character of Jean, who was unfortunately the most complete character. There could have been some light, moments of joy, but Jean is painted as a bitter and jealous, self harming, woman. She had much to be grateful for, her husband was hardworking, her children should have given her some sense of accomplishment, but instead the book dwells almost totally on her jealous musings and acts of sabotage. The other woman, Liz, is first introduced as a forward-thinking, educated woman but then she just gives it all up, all her ideals, big talk, and settles for life on the farm, a life she was ill equipped to handle, with devastating results.
All in all a well written book that I wish had a lighter atmosphere, at least sometimes, maybe a brief glimmer here and there. But, that is not this book and so......
What I didn't like. The non sequential storyline, since this goes back and forth from the present to the past, and I feel this book could have worked just as effectively had it been told in a linear fashion. There is, however, no sweetness and light, in the second half of this book and that is owing mainly to the character of Jean, who was unfortunately the most complete character. There could have been some light, moments of joy, but Jean is painted as a bitter and jealous, self harming, woman. She had much to be grateful for, her husband was hardworking, her children should have given her some sense of accomplishment, but instead the book dwells almost totally on her jealous musings and acts of sabotage. The other woman, Liz, is first introduced as a forward-thinking, educated woman but then she just gives it all up, all her ideals, big talk, and settles for life on the farm, a life she was ill equipped to handle, with devastating results.
All in all a well written book that I wish had a lighter atmosphere, at least sometimes, maybe a brief glimmer here and there. But, that is not this book and so......
June 24, 2016
Rating: 4.5* of five
My review of THE GOOD DIVIDE is live now at my blog, Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. As always, I'll post the full review here in a few weeks for the click-a-phobes.
Midwestern Gothic online literary magazine has a micro-press arm, and this feminized modern Ethan Frome-ish novel by Goodreads author Kali VanBaale is one of the best things they, or any other press, has done this June.
My review of THE GOOD DIVIDE is live now at my blog, Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. As always, I'll post the full review here in a few weeks for the click-a-phobes.
Midwestern Gothic online literary magazine has a micro-press arm, and this feminized modern Ethan Frome-ish novel by Goodreads author Kali VanBaale is one of the best things they, or any other press, has done this June.
February 4, 2017
I bought this book because it shared the same cover photograph as my latest book! I am also happy to support books from smaller presses (this from Midwest Gothic Press). From the outset, The Good Divide is a book fully in my wheelhouse--dark, Midwest rural realism. Vanbaale grew up on an Iowa dairy farm, so she knows of what she writes. But the novel was not what I expected, in good, surprising ways. It switches in time between the early fifties and early sixties, bookended by the eighties, following the story of Jean Krenshaw, a farm girl, and then farm wife. But this book is daaaaaaaaark. Jean is not what she appears to everyone around her. There is cutting, and coveting, and backroom abortion, and sabotage, under the veneer of salt-of-the-earth farm living. The writing is really good in this book and I love the details of living on a dairy farm. This is short novel and the dark turns kept the pace taut. In the end I wasn't quite as invested in the characters as I hoped, and stylistically I'm not sure the more modern glimpses that begin and end the book do it justice, thought they do definitely add an element of the Gothic. I will have my eye on whatever come next from Kali VanBaale. If you're looking to jump outside the mainstream contemporary novel stream, this is a good one.
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July 14, 2016VanBaale’s precise prose and esoteric Midwestern stoicism makes The Good Divide a delightful read. The author manages to combine the boiling romantic frustrations of Ethan Frome with the warped psychopathy of Gone Girl, all among a small community of dairy farms in rural Wisconsin, a balance that makes the plot shiveringly plausible. Her keen ability to build a sense of locality while also maintaining regional tropes gives the novel a sense of timelessness. The events that unfold in The Good Divide could be tucked anywhere in the lush countryside of middle America, a fact that speaks both to VanBaale’s skill as a storyteller and the reality of the startling events within her pages.
– Aram Mrjoian
from The Best Books We Read In April: http://bookriot.com/2016/04/29/riot-r...
____________________
It’s been a long time since I’ve read an adult novel that gave me the same kind of feelings that Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant — my all-time favorite book — does each time I read it. VanBaale’s story, though, did that very thing.
Set in two time periods, one in the 1950s and one in the 1960s, this is the story of Jean Krenshaw, a young Wisconsin farmer’s wife. It follows as she begins a relationship with her husband while longing for her husband’s brother, Tommy. When Tommy marries a girl from the city of Madison with dark skin and who has never once lived on a farm, Jean has to come to terms with this long-standing crush . . . especially as Tommy and his wife occupy the house across the road, on the same farm, that they do.
VanBaale explores so many rich terrains in this book. Aside from family secrets and jealousy, she develops and incredible look at small-town farm life in Wisconsin, the challenges that women experienced acquiring medical care and abortion during this time period, and, perhaps the part that really struck me, the ways in which mental illness went unspoken and hidden.
This literary title from a small press is totally worth your time.
– Kelly Jensen
from The Best Books We Read In June 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/06/29/riot-r...
– Aram Mrjoian
from The Best Books We Read In April: http://bookriot.com/2016/04/29/riot-r...
____________________
It’s been a long time since I’ve read an adult novel that gave me the same kind of feelings that Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant — my all-time favorite book — does each time I read it. VanBaale’s story, though, did that very thing.
Set in two time periods, one in the 1950s and one in the 1960s, this is the story of Jean Krenshaw, a young Wisconsin farmer’s wife. It follows as she begins a relationship with her husband while longing for her husband’s brother, Tommy. When Tommy marries a girl from the city of Madison with dark skin and who has never once lived on a farm, Jean has to come to terms with this long-standing crush . . . especially as Tommy and his wife occupy the house across the road, on the same farm, that they do.
VanBaale explores so many rich terrains in this book. Aside from family secrets and jealousy, she develops and incredible look at small-town farm life in Wisconsin, the challenges that women experienced acquiring medical care and abortion during this time period, and, perhaps the part that really struck me, the ways in which mental illness went unspoken and hidden.
This literary title from a small press is totally worth your time.
– Kelly Jensen
from The Best Books We Read In June 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/06/29/riot-r...
February 4, 2017
Addictive fiction novel that will suspend all sense of time. A story well told with credible character build up. The first thing I did upon completion was bolt out of my chair to find more of the same!
September 1, 2016
This truly gives you a slice of life in WI dairy farm reality. It's written within several periods of flip-flop fashion starting in 1952 to the late 1980's. (NOT a favorite for me.) But it is written also in clear and quite authentic period and placement. The narrator is Jean- one of the two wives cored in this dairy farm placement scenario. The other wife is Liz. They are married to the Krenshaw brothers. And as a whole piece, I would designate this a study of the women's relationship, yes- but more than that an exercise in living in close proximity to some cherished want and need that is never fulfilled. Or even in part, reciprocated.
And it is also a repeating pattern. Because Eunice of the former generations also reflected this great need that she never would obtain, as well.
So after a peppy/ witty beginning, humor and locale color in full display- the second half of the short novel is exceedingly and more progressively sad as it continues. Potato salad and ice tea feature high in both. Jean narrates the entire and her psychological voids and self-harm tendencies cover more and more copy as we enter her memory and her daily actuality. Work and habit for all covers the more obvious, not just for Jean- but for all the Krenshaws. Work on a dairy farm, electric milker or not, is absolutely endless. It takes no vacation.
The exception is Liz, for some interlude, she is NOT defined by her work. But chance and fate determine that what she has read in books and in her own beliefs evolved are not necessarily followed by her own or ultimate actions. She doesn't leave and she could have if she truly "got" what she had read. The cognition for autonomy was there for change, but not the emotive or the cultural habit for its practice.
Actually, I'm rather surprised at the high ratings for this one. The men were so under developed that I wanted to scream at times. Especially Tommy. We only get his core pivot piece cognition of this arrangement for living and working and reacting- from the points of view of the women or the neighbors. And there were certain plot point events that were ridiculous for nature farmer knowledge or practice on any working farm, especially one with large animals and critters abounding. That was really lazy and lost an entire star right there, for me. And the portion at the beginning and at the very end when they are "elderly" in 1987. HUH! Add the numbers up, that puts them somewhere in their early to mid-50's in age. People start entire careers at that age now (and some did then too), and the situation described is as if they are in their mid-80's, IMHO.
And as the story unfolds it gets sadder and sadder. And not just because of the 3 or 4 major tragedies that occur on this farm either. But also on the cognition embraced as the only options for futures.
Lastly, I will not read another book with this picture from Oklahoma Relief circa Dust Bowl era kept in the Library of Congress (USA)on its cover. It's an omen of/ for a downer.
And it is also a repeating pattern. Because Eunice of the former generations also reflected this great need that she never would obtain, as well.
So after a peppy/ witty beginning, humor and locale color in full display- the second half of the short novel is exceedingly and more progressively sad as it continues. Potato salad and ice tea feature high in both. Jean narrates the entire and her psychological voids and self-harm tendencies cover more and more copy as we enter her memory and her daily actuality. Work and habit for all covers the more obvious, not just for Jean- but for all the Krenshaws. Work on a dairy farm, electric milker or not, is absolutely endless. It takes no vacation.
The exception is Liz, for some interlude, she is NOT defined by her work. But chance and fate determine that what she has read in books and in her own beliefs evolved are not necessarily followed by her own or ultimate actions. She doesn't leave and she could have if she truly "got" what she had read. The cognition for autonomy was there for change, but not the emotive or the cultural habit for its practice.
Actually, I'm rather surprised at the high ratings for this one. The men were so under developed that I wanted to scream at times. Especially Tommy. We only get his core pivot piece cognition of this arrangement for living and working and reacting- from the points of view of the women or the neighbors. And there were certain plot point events that were ridiculous for nature farmer knowledge or practice on any working farm, especially one with large animals and critters abounding. That was really lazy and lost an entire star right there, for me. And the portion at the beginning and at the very end when they are "elderly" in 1987. HUH! Add the numbers up, that puts them somewhere in their early to mid-50's in age. People start entire careers at that age now (and some did then too), and the situation described is as if they are in their mid-80's, IMHO.
And as the story unfolds it gets sadder and sadder. And not just because of the 3 or 4 major tragedies that occur on this farm either. But also on the cognition embraced as the only options for futures.
Lastly, I will not read another book with this picture from Oklahoma Relief circa Dust Bowl era kept in the Library of Congress (USA)on its cover. It's an omen of/ for a downer.
February 3, 2016
An incredible novel-- rife with all the emotions and rides a reader can enjoy. You will be richer for reading this work. Highly recommended.
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August 3, 2020This is what a page-turner feels like.
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June 23, 2016I loved every single word of this book. It reminded me so much of Ann Patchett, being a family-driven story with secrets, unrequited love, and an incredibly well-rendered sense of place.
Set on a Wisconsin dairy farm in the 1950s and 1960s, this is a story about Jean Krenshaw, who falls in love with the brother of her soon-to-be/then husband. The story weaves through past and further past to explore how Jean's crush develops, grows, and then the sorts of secrets she's kept buried relating to that crush. There is a lot of juicy stuff here in terms of mental illness, too, which is so apt for the time period, as well as the social acceptance of hurt, pain, and grief. Not to mention how much there is said about women, the role of women in society, and how access to healthcare was a literal issue of life and death merely a few decades ago.
The book is set really close to where I live, and it's clear VanBaale has such a love for small towns, as well as a knack for pulling the most interesting, truthful parts of them.
I want to find more of VanBaale's books and devour them because this was excellent. It's so rare I find an adult novel about family life that sucks me in like this and that reminds me so greatly of my favorite book of all time, THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT.
Set on a Wisconsin dairy farm in the 1950s and 1960s, this is a story about Jean Krenshaw, who falls in love with the brother of her soon-to-be/then husband. The story weaves through past and further past to explore how Jean's crush develops, grows, and then the sorts of secrets she's kept buried relating to that crush. There is a lot of juicy stuff here in terms of mental illness, too, which is so apt for the time period, as well as the social acceptance of hurt, pain, and grief. Not to mention how much there is said about women, the role of women in society, and how access to healthcare was a literal issue of life and death merely a few decades ago.
The book is set really close to where I live, and it's clear VanBaale has such a love for small towns, as well as a knack for pulling the most interesting, truthful parts of them.
I want to find more of VanBaale's books and devour them because this was excellent. It's so rare I find an adult novel about family life that sucks me in like this and that reminds me so greatly of my favorite book of all time, THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT.
July 12, 2016
After a lonely childhood in 1950s Wisconsin, Jean Krenshaw has the life she dreamed of. She lives on a prosperous dairy farm with her loving husband and three healthy sons and is a valuable member of the community. But Jean is not the self assured woman she pretends to be. She is consumed with guilt from a ten-year-old tragedy, unrequited love for her brother-in-law Tommy, and vicious jealousy of his beautiful young wife. When those toxic emotions become too much to bear, Jean cuts and burns herself to release the pain.
Readers might not expect a farm story to be a page-turner, but this novel exceeds expectations. Jean is seriously flawed with raw emotions simmering beneath her placid facade. Her story is told in close third person with chapters alternating between the 1950s and 60s. As the secrets of her past and present are revealed, an eerie connection unfolds. Highly recommended!!!
Readers might not expect a farm story to be a page-turner, but this novel exceeds expectations. Jean is seriously flawed with raw emotions simmering beneath her placid facade. Her story is told in close third person with chapters alternating between the 1950s and 60s. As the secrets of her past and present are revealed, an eerie connection unfolds. Highly recommended!!!
November 2, 2016
Reminiscent at times of Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, The Good Divide is a riveting read, illuminating family tension in a quiet mid-western town where passions heighten and reveal themselves in surprising ways. Secrets are kept and shared. Some are born in ways that can't be hidden. VanBaale takes risks here, merging time and place with psychological issues that are both timeless and universal. Well done!
June 22, 2016
The Good Divide is a pocket Venus of a book. Between the intriguing question at the beginning of WHO and WHY, and the satisfying ending, is a story told in sparse, beautiful prose. The style of writing, the mood, the details seem just right for a story of the fifties and early sixties set on a Wisconsin dairy farm. A delightful read!
October 24, 2016
This book keep you up late! The setting is so rich it becomes a character. The plot is interwoven perfectly. You'll feel both sympathy for and disappointment in the well-developed MC. It's a great story.
March 23, 2017
A dark, tragic novel is a balancing act, one that VanBaale walks so well, bringing the narrative full circle, arching it over and back onto itself without the support lightness. A compelling examination of the complexities of relationships and how they tangle, strangle and overlap, and also a study in how pain and pleasure intersect, The Good Divide is a brutally honest account of a woman's endurance, or her descent, over the course of decades.
July 18, 2016
Oh, how I love a title that says everything and gives nothing away. I also love fiction that explores good and evil with a nuanced pen. Those who sincerely seek to understand that divide are often confronted with the overwhelming mystery of demarcation. Certainly it seems safe to assume that, before the large horrors are committed, smaller acts breach the line. Every day is a brutal day, and VanBaale exposes this brutality in the domestic setting of a Wisconsin farm, honing the details of a life built on, and by, nature's course, which is neither wicked nor kind. Those readers seeking a relationship to truth will find solace in the difficult questions this novel asks. What does it mean to live a good life? What does it mean to be good? Where should forgiveness reside? This is the gothic query at the heart of this fine novel. Highly recommended.
July 2, 2016
The Good Divide is not a book about farming…it’s a book about living.
In a little under 200 pages, Kali VanBaale captures what living is really about, no matter where you do it: a constant balancing of the scales. Having what we need (sometimes barely) but not always what we want. Showing people only what we think they can handle and hiding the rest. Experiencing ethereal joy one moment and earthly grief the next.
Like Jean and Tommy with the escaped heifers, Kali wrangles it through prose perfectly pitched for the time and place, yet saturated with significance beyond what some might expect from plain farm folk. As Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying (at least in a Campari ad from 2000), “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
In a little under 200 pages, Kali VanBaale captures what living is really about, no matter where you do it: a constant balancing of the scales. Having what we need (sometimes barely) but not always what we want. Showing people only what we think they can handle and hiding the rest. Experiencing ethereal joy one moment and earthly grief the next.
Like Jean and Tommy with the escaped heifers, Kali wrangles it through prose perfectly pitched for the time and place, yet saturated with significance beyond what some might expect from plain farm folk. As Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying (at least in a Campari ad from 2000), “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
August 23, 2016
I can't talk about this book yet, but I completely loved it.
October 2, 2016
This makes two really impressive books in a row which I have read. Wow. I loved this book so much. So well done. Definitely recommended!
January 8, 2017
An Ethan Frome-like parable of love lost and romantic rivalry set on a family farm in Wisconsin in the 50s and 60s. Jean Krenshaw, a simple and devoted farm wife, secretly pines for her husband Jim's brother Tommy, who lives in one of two neighboring houses the brothers inherited from their twin grandmothers. Rich in detail, the novel craftily captures rural life outside a small Midwestern town. Whether intending to do so or not, the author aptly conveys what life must have been like for women in rural mid-century America who had few options for careers, education, or marriage--options that opened up in the 70s and for which many young women now take for granted (or are unable or not inclined to pursue).
October 26, 2016
Jean Krenshaw is the ideal 1960's dairy farm wife in the countryside of Wisconsin. She cooks, sews, raises children, and plans an annual July 4th party for friends and neighbors. But when her brother-in-law Tommy, who lives next door, marries a newcomer named LIz, Jean is forced to confront a ten-year-old family secret involving the unresolved death of a young woman. The Good Divide explores a woman's tortured inner world and the painful choices that have divided her life, both past and present, forever. This is a sad story but so compelling that you just cannot wait to see what happens to Jean.
October 17, 2016
I did enjoy this book, but I wanted to be really moved and in that way, I was disappointed. The cover photo and strong opening paragraphs promise gritty realism, and truly there is that throughout the novel. So I was disappointed when the author tapped more of a romance novel style, especially in handling the main character's cutting herself. For me, that romance-novel style lets me off the emotional hook, so to speak, as a reader, and weakens the impact.
December 28, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It's one of those books where you want to yell at the MC..."Please love the one you're with."... LOL
This was a good book from beginning to end. I actually didn't predict the ending, which is rare.
This was a good book from beginning to end. I actually didn't predict the ending, which is rare.
July 3, 2017
I read this book while riding all day in a car, stopped only when it grew too dark to read, and then finished the book in the hotel hot tub that night. I HAD to know what was going to happen next to poor, tormented Jean, and what harm she was going to inflict on herself--and others--in consequence. This is a perfectly structured, beautifully written, searingly honest book.
The prologue shows us the end of Jean's story, eliminating suspense in some ways, and building it in others. We know she ends up older, quieter, looking back on her life, and spending her days in penitential atonement taking care of someone who needs her. When the subtle, riveting first chapter introduces the annual Krenshaw 4th of July picnic, held on their dairy farm in rural Wisconsin, 1963, we know immediately that Tommy is the center of Jean's life, despite the fact that she is married to his brother, Jim, and has three children with him. Jean is devastated by Tommy's engagement to young, beautiful, exotic Liz, who will take the man Jean longs for and make him happy in ways she can't.
The consequences of this opening event are complex, and the larger story of Jean's hidden pain unfolds in alternating narratives, one that tells the events that follow Tommy's engagement, and another that shows us the Jean of ten years prior, new to town, awkward, shy, grieving the loss of her mother and worn out with the hard-bitten life she has spent with her father since then. Jean's early heartbreaks--when she learns that Tommy isn't interested in her, but Jim is, and further learns that her best friend, Sandy, has been keeping a secret--tell the reader why Jean, now, responds the way she does to Liz. She makes desperate choices, but is haunted by them, and while she is deeply wounded, Jean is never malicious, which makes her a believable, sympathetic character who will break your heart.
VanBaale's prose is so clear, balanced, and precise, it feels chiseled by the finest of tools, and she creates a breathtaking architecture of tension and suspense and pure, poignant beauty. Moments of riveting fear have their counterpoint in gorgeous images of pastoral beauty, and she makes Jean's world come alive through small but accurate details about cows and milking, chores and food, scenery, machinery, and the rhythms of a life on a 20th-century farm. Jean is so compelling, so fully fleshed and such a powerful presence on the page, that none of the other characters emerge quite as fully as she does; but that hardly matters, because this is her story, her journey through pain to penance, and she pulls us with her relentlessly through all of her deepest torments and humiliations until finally she, and we, emerge gasping, humbled by the gift that is our lives and finally cognizant of what our pain can teach us. Only the very best literature can do that.
The prologue shows us the end of Jean's story, eliminating suspense in some ways, and building it in others. We know she ends up older, quieter, looking back on her life, and spending her days in penitential atonement taking care of someone who needs her. When the subtle, riveting first chapter introduces the annual Krenshaw 4th of July picnic, held on their dairy farm in rural Wisconsin, 1963, we know immediately that Tommy is the center of Jean's life, despite the fact that she is married to his brother, Jim, and has three children with him. Jean is devastated by Tommy's engagement to young, beautiful, exotic Liz, who will take the man Jean longs for and make him happy in ways she can't.
The consequences of this opening event are complex, and the larger story of Jean's hidden pain unfolds in alternating narratives, one that tells the events that follow Tommy's engagement, and another that shows us the Jean of ten years prior, new to town, awkward, shy, grieving the loss of her mother and worn out with the hard-bitten life she has spent with her father since then. Jean's early heartbreaks--when she learns that Tommy isn't interested in her, but Jim is, and further learns that her best friend, Sandy, has been keeping a secret--tell the reader why Jean, now, responds the way she does to Liz. She makes desperate choices, but is haunted by them, and while she is deeply wounded, Jean is never malicious, which makes her a believable, sympathetic character who will break your heart.
VanBaale's prose is so clear, balanced, and precise, it feels chiseled by the finest of tools, and she creates a breathtaking architecture of tension and suspense and pure, poignant beauty. Moments of riveting fear have their counterpoint in gorgeous images of pastoral beauty, and she makes Jean's world come alive through small but accurate details about cows and milking, chores and food, scenery, machinery, and the rhythms of a life on a 20th-century farm. Jean is so compelling, so fully fleshed and such a powerful presence on the page, that none of the other characters emerge quite as fully as she does; but that hardly matters, because this is her story, her journey through pain to penance, and she pulls us with her relentlessly through all of her deepest torments and humiliations until finally she, and we, emerge gasping, humbled by the gift that is our lives and finally cognizant of what our pain can teach us. Only the very best literature can do that.
April 23, 2021
First Impressions/Judging a Book by Its Cover
I'm sure I added this book to my 'to-read' list because of the author. She's a local author who came to speak to our book club when we read "The Space Between". It must've been before I was on Goodreads because I don't have a rating for it but I remember liking it.
As for this book, I'm surprised because it's a thin book with large text (although it's a pleasant surprise because not everything has to be a mammoth). Based on the description I can already picture the setting. A 1960s Midwestern farm wife can easily become a stereotype in the wrong hands but as a fellow Iowan, I think she'll be able to do more than "country=hick". I'm looking forward to reading it.
My Opinion
It began with a strong start and continued to hold my interest through the entire book. I was so uncomfortable and squirmy because everything felt so real. This easily could have been a 'read in one sitting' book if I'd had the time.
Looking at my first impressions, I was correct that Jean was definitely not written as a farmwife stereotype. I had no idea where the book was going but was definitely down for the ride.
Find all my reviews at: https://readingatrandom.blogspot.com
I'm sure I added this book to my 'to-read' list because of the author. She's a local author who came to speak to our book club when we read "The Space Between". It must've been before I was on Goodreads because I don't have a rating for it but I remember liking it.
As for this book, I'm surprised because it's a thin book with large text (although it's a pleasant surprise because not everything has to be a mammoth). Based on the description I can already picture the setting. A 1960s Midwestern farm wife can easily become a stereotype in the wrong hands but as a fellow Iowan, I think she'll be able to do more than "country=hick". I'm looking forward to reading it.
My Opinion
It began with a strong start and continued to hold my interest through the entire book. I was so uncomfortable and squirmy because everything felt so real. This easily could have been a 'read in one sitting' book if I'd had the time.
Looking at my first impressions, I was correct that Jean was definitely not written as a farmwife stereotype. I had no idea where the book was going but was definitely down for the ride.
Find all my reviews at: https://readingatrandom.blogspot.com
March 8, 2024
Over lunch time I just finished the last page of this novel. I had never heard of this author before, and it was not on my radar. I found this book on the library shelf and decided to give it a try. It was very compelling very complex and very dark with him emotion
The main character Jean is an ideal 1960s dairy farm wife in Wisconsin. She does have a 10-year-old family secret that involves unresolved death of a young woman. I was not expecting the complex nature of this book, and the depth of the inner tortured world of Jean as she lived this farm life in a sweet, small town.
This book could have many triggering aspects of it for people. I don’t want to give away the storyline, but I was caught surprised by what I read, and I wondered if it would affect people who have gone through similar things. There is definitely lots of heartbreaking scenes.
I thought it was very well written, and it kept me wondering and caring about the characters. This would be an excellent book to read with a book group, because there was so much to think on. I wasn’t sure if Jean was a victim or a villain. I both liked her and disliked her. Those kinds of books that make for good reading, and stay with you for a long time. I will be checking out more of this author.
The main character Jean is an ideal 1960s dairy farm wife in Wisconsin. She does have a 10-year-old family secret that involves unresolved death of a young woman. I was not expecting the complex nature of this book, and the depth of the inner tortured world of Jean as she lived this farm life in a sweet, small town.
This book could have many triggering aspects of it for people. I don’t want to give away the storyline, but I was caught surprised by what I read, and I wondered if it would affect people who have gone through similar things. There is definitely lots of heartbreaking scenes.
I thought it was very well written, and it kept me wondering and caring about the characters. This would be an excellent book to read with a book group, because there was so much to think on. I wasn’t sure if Jean was a victim or a villain. I both liked her and disliked her. Those kinds of books that make for good reading, and stay with you for a long time. I will be checking out more of this author.
October 7, 2018
An Iowa writer who grew up on a dairy farm in rural southern Iowa writes about two sisters-in-law on a dairy farm in the mid-1960s, with flashbacks for one of them to 10 years earlier, when she first met the two brothers who inherit the farm that the author sets in southern Wisconsin (rather than Iowa), outside a small town that is in the vicinity of Madison. (It also begins & ends with brief chapters set some 50 or so years in the future.) It’s OK--a quick, easy read--but , to me, neither the story, nor the prose, nor the characters, seem particularly inspired. The Big Reveal, when it finally comes, after countless foreshadowings, is hardly a surprise. One example of the sometimes awkward prose: “Liz affixed herself [to?] his side, like a tightly screwed nut to a bolt” (55). Some oddities, especially for someone who grew up on a farm: coffee made from beans (rather than instant) in 1963; the first corn-on-the-cob of the season in September. Final random observation: The Alice in Dairyland pageant that pops up twice in the story is, I found out when I looked it up, a real pageant that continues to this day.
September 16, 2018
Wow. Wowowowow. This was not the book I was expecting. What a haunting, evocative, subtle knife in the heart!!
We begin with this ghostly image of two white houses built by long dead sisters across a dusty driveway on a shared farm. We walk forward and backward through time as we traverse the tragic life of the main character, Jean, the many deaths that have surrounded her and her complicity in and around them. I felt so moved by Jean’s struggles as a woman in a small town in a time before mental health became important or even understood. Some may see her replete with moral failings, even see her as a selfish human blind to the sufferings of others, but I think Vanbaale has written such a layered character and empathized with her imperfections, her anxiety, her pain. There is such depth to this story and these characters and they linger long after the last page.
Strongly recommended. A beautiful, haunting book.
We begin with this ghostly image of two white houses built by long dead sisters across a dusty driveway on a shared farm. We walk forward and backward through time as we traverse the tragic life of the main character, Jean, the many deaths that have surrounded her and her complicity in and around them. I felt so moved by Jean’s struggles as a woman in a small town in a time before mental health became important or even understood. Some may see her replete with moral failings, even see her as a selfish human blind to the sufferings of others, but I think Vanbaale has written such a layered character and empathized with her imperfections, her anxiety, her pain. There is such depth to this story and these characters and they linger long after the last page.
Strongly recommended. A beautiful, haunting book.
October 2, 2017
I thought the characterization was very well done, and the setting of a Midwestern dairy farm was enjoyable. I could relate very much to the setting and the feel of the people.
I thought the book was a little depressing, as too many people don't deal well with past pain, and it's also sad when people don't CHOOSE to be content with their life. I have to admit I didn't get the whole Tommy-appeal--a pretty face and teasing eyes aren't enough to rule a person's life, I wouldn't think.
I would have given the book 4 stars, but I thought the ending was a little too abrupt and pat. It was as if the author just got tired, or didn't know how to end the book. She had done such a good job "showing, not telling" throughout the book, but then at the end, she just told us and left me wondering "how" and "why".
I thought the book was a little depressing, as too many people don't deal well with past pain, and it's also sad when people don't CHOOSE to be content with their life. I have to admit I didn't get the whole Tommy-appeal--a pretty face and teasing eyes aren't enough to rule a person's life, I wouldn't think.
I would have given the book 4 stars, but I thought the ending was a little too abrupt and pat. It was as if the author just got tired, or didn't know how to end the book. She had done such a good job "showing, not telling" throughout the book, but then at the end, she just told us and left me wondering "how" and "why".
May 13, 2017
Hard work and perseverance are the principles of the American farmer. But when that work ethic turns malevolent and perseverance becomes a wicked obsession, we find we are not in Kansas (or in this case, Wisconsin) anymore: we have entered the dark heartland. Kali VanBaale deftly portrays the life of a Midwest farmwife torn between what she has and what she wants—but can never have. She’s rejected the safe, sane world of her husband for his brother, a wild thing. That choice only leads to an unhealthy compulsion, bitter jealousy, and self-destruction. VanBaale’s prose is spare and fluid, with characters that leave their impression on us. She has crafted her plot with devastating twists and turns throughout, and ultimately, a well-played surprise for the reader. Highly recommended.
April 25, 2019
I realize I probably shouldn't write this on a website devoted to goodREADS, but I think this book would make an excellent movie.
VanBaale drew me into this world from the very beginning, and I ended up finishing the novel in less than two days because I HAD to know how the Jean from the bulk of the novel was going to end up as the Jean we were introduced to at the beginning.
There are some dark themes in this book, so if you're looking for a story where everything is tied up in a nice bow, this probably isn't for you. But if you want a story you'll still be thinking about after you've finished reading - I would recommend.
VanBaale drew me into this world from the very beginning, and I ended up finishing the novel in less than two days because I HAD to know how the Jean from the bulk of the novel was going to end up as the Jean we were introduced to at the beginning.
There are some dark themes in this book, so if you're looking for a story where everything is tied up in a nice bow, this probably isn't for you. But if you want a story you'll still be thinking about after you've finished reading - I would recommend.
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