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Useful Girl
Out on the western plains, two paths those of a young woman running away from home and a Cheyenne girl running for her life. They're both on a heroic quest, though more than a hundred years separate their journeys.
After her mother's sudden death, Erin Douglass is virtually alone in the world. When she witnesses the exhumation of a Cheyenne girl along the side of a dirt road, life in her Montana town indelibly changes. The girl's remains, gently wrapped in a faded army coat, with silver thimbles on her right hand, are more than a hundred years old. Though her father makes every attempt to keep the discovery quiet, Erin is haunted by How did this young girl end up here, in the middle of nowhere, with no marker and all alone? Who was she?
Together with Charlie White Bird, a young member of her father's road crew from the nearby reservation, Erin is determined to protect her burial ground. She and Charlie meet in secret, knowing that their encounters could threaten their divided communities. But as their commitment to their cause becomes more passionate, so, too, does their relationship. When Erin is faced with a crisis she feels she must bear alone, she runs away. With her mother's old suitcase and her granddad's journals on the Indian wars, she sets out, and as she moves farther from home, the Cheyenne girl's story vividly unfolds in her mind, guiding her toward another way out of her predicament.
Sweeping and evocative, Useful Girl reminds us that the past, no matter how deeply buried, is never far from view. It is a testament to the power of the imagination and a novel of heartrending beauty.
After her mother's sudden death, Erin Douglass is virtually alone in the world. When she witnesses the exhumation of a Cheyenne girl along the side of a dirt road, life in her Montana town indelibly changes. The girl's remains, gently wrapped in a faded army coat, with silver thimbles on her right hand, are more than a hundred years old. Though her father makes every attempt to keep the discovery quiet, Erin is haunted by How did this young girl end up here, in the middle of nowhere, with no marker and all alone? Who was she?
Together with Charlie White Bird, a young member of her father's road crew from the nearby reservation, Erin is determined to protect her burial ground. She and Charlie meet in secret, knowing that their encounters could threaten their divided communities. But as their commitment to their cause becomes more passionate, so, too, does their relationship. When Erin is faced with a crisis she feels she must bear alone, she runs away. With her mother's old suitcase and her granddad's journals on the Indian wars, she sets out, and as she moves farther from home, the Cheyenne girl's story vividly unfolds in her mind, guiding her toward another way out of her predicament.
Sweeping and evocative, Useful Girl reminds us that the past, no matter how deeply buried, is never far from view. It is a testament to the power of the imagination and a novel of heartrending beauty.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 4, 2004
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60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 9, 2011
This is the telling of two parallel stories across time. We have our narrator, who is running away from her life in Montana, and Mo'e'ha'e, a Cheyenne girl running from the US Army more than a hundred years ago. It's a moving tale and presents us with an intimate telling of the Cheyenne story.
Unfortunately, it's very slow and boring at times. There's no real climax or apex of action, just characters accepting their fate.
Unfortunately, it's very slow and boring at times. There's no real climax or apex of action, just characters accepting their fate.
June 13, 2024
Two intertwined stories of a 17-year-old girl living in the American west in modern times and a girl of about 9 who was Cheyenne running for her life more than 100 years before in the same area. Erin and her father are coping after Erin's mother's death. Her father does road work and a young halfbreed works for him. One day the digging for a road reveals the small Cheyenne girl's burial spot and bones, covered with a wool coat. What is her story? Erin wants to know. To complicate things, Erin and the halfbreed, Charlie, discover a fondness for one another, a relationship her father would not allow.
This is the story of both girls and what happens to them. Near the beginning of the book, there are some beautiful turns of phrases but they don't continue through the book. It's a good story, worth reading. The book I read before this one was One Thousand White Women, on the same subject matter but told differently and not with dual timelines.
This is the story of both girls and what happens to them. Near the beginning of the book, there are some beautiful turns of phrases but they don't continue through the book. It's a good story, worth reading. The book I read before this one was One Thousand White Women, on the same subject matter but told differently and not with dual timelines.
June 13, 2018
I loved this book with its two narratives: that of a a contemporary Montana teen, Erin, and an 1870s Cheyenne girl. So well done that one cares about each as well as the young Cheyenne who works for Erin's distant father in his construction company. So much in this book, a real page turner that stays with you long after the end.
November 26, 2013
Whew. I haven't stayed up late unable to put down a book for a very long time. About halfway through this book, the pace picks up and suddenly you are in an emotional avalanche, along with the characters.
The plot is made up of up to four strands: the main one follows a 17-year-old whose mother has just died and whose father is emotionally unavailable. The other major strand is about a young Cheyenne girl in the fateful year of 1876. Another strand briefly follows the first girl's father. And another one follows a young Cheyenne man employed by the father.
How these four people impact (or don't impact) one another is the crux of the book. In trying to do the right thing, Erin ends up in every mother's nightmare situation, and somehow comes through it intact and more self-aware. Her great-great-grandfather's journals of the Indian wars help her do this, but she is mostly dependent on herself to find a way to survive what life has dealt her.
It's a sad book, but far from hopeless. In fact, that's why I couldn't put it down: Erin is scared and hopeless for much of the latter part of the book, but the author does a good job in not wallowing in her hopelessness. He seems to be saying that no matter how hopeless life is, something inside of everyone will keep us going. Sometimes in spite of all conscious reasoning to the contrary...
Although it's not inscribed anywhere in the book, the theme of this seems to be Oliver Goldsmith's lines from 1761:
The plot is made up of up to four strands: the main one follows a 17-year-old whose mother has just died and whose father is emotionally unavailable. The other major strand is about a young Cheyenne girl in the fateful year of 1876. Another strand briefly follows the first girl's father. And another one follows a young Cheyenne man employed by the father.
How these four people impact (or don't impact) one another is the crux of the book. In trying to do the right thing, Erin ends up in every mother's nightmare situation, and somehow comes through it intact and more self-aware. Her great-great-grandfather's journals of the Indian wars help her do this, but she is mostly dependent on herself to find a way to survive what life has dealt her.
It's a sad book, but far from hopeless. In fact, that's why I couldn't put it down: Erin is scared and hopeless for much of the latter part of the book, but the author does a good job in not wallowing in her hopelessness. He seems to be saying that no matter how hopeless life is, something inside of everyone will keep us going. Sometimes in spite of all conscious reasoning to the contrary...
Although it's not inscribed anywhere in the book, the theme of this seems to be Oliver Goldsmith's lines from 1761:
For he who fights and runs awayWonderfully complex.
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.
August 14, 2016
I greatly enjoyed USEFUL GIRL by brand new friend (full disclosure) Marcus Stevens. The book is really two stories in one: a modern day story of a white girl in her late teens and an Indian man in his early 20s, and a historical telling of a girl living through the Calvary/Indian battles of Custer's time.
I loved that the story takes place in and around Billings, where I grew up. Marcus Stevens writes beautifully, with clear, concise prose not burdened with "look-how-smart-I-am" vocabulary. Instead the words flow to the reader smoothly, cleanly, and with vivid imagery.
I almost think this book could have been two books, the separate plot lines were that interesting. But then as I lean that way I recall that Stevens artfully tied the stories together, at the beginning so that the structure made sense, and then most surprisingly and poignantly at the end (I love to be surprised!).
My single criticism of the book is that the modern day racism against Native Americans as described seems far greater than anything I witnessed in Billings when I was the age of the protagonists, some 30 years back. A necessary stress point for the plot, surely, and also a parallel with the historical story presented. But I am certainly hopeful that the reality on the ground is that we are better here 30 years later, not worse.
All in all a super read!
I loved that the story takes place in and around Billings, where I grew up. Marcus Stevens writes beautifully, with clear, concise prose not burdened with "look-how-smart-I-am" vocabulary. Instead the words flow to the reader smoothly, cleanly, and with vivid imagery.
I almost think this book could have been two books, the separate plot lines were that interesting. But then as I lean that way I recall that Stevens artfully tied the stories together, at the beginning so that the structure made sense, and then most surprisingly and poignantly at the end (I love to be surprised!).
My single criticism of the book is that the modern day racism against Native Americans as described seems far greater than anything I witnessed in Billings when I was the age of the protagonists, some 30 years back. A necessary stress point for the plot, surely, and also a parallel with the historical story presented. But I am certainly hopeful that the reality on the ground is that we are better here 30 years later, not worse.
All in all a super read!
July 18, 2015
This story of two girls, a contemporary teen and a Cheyenne child around the time of Custer starts when The Cheyenne child's bones are found at a construction site. I thought Stevens did a good job with the Cheyenne story but did not do as well telling Erin's story. It all comes together in the last third of the book.
August 5, 2009
Like A Half-Life, a story that links a contemporary teenaged girl's coming of age with the story of an Indian girl whose body is uncovered in the course of the contemporary story. This one is better written & more engaging, but not particularly memorable.
January 21, 2011
I got this book on a whim and I'm glad I because I loved it. I read it in one night because I wanted to see how Erin and Charlie's relationship turned out. I would have liked to know more about Magpie's life(I can't remember her name in Cheyenne) or who the white boy her uncle kidnapped was.
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July 30, 2011Awesome book...very well written....compelling story....hooks you from the beginning. I really felt for the characters....the ones in the past and the current ones....one of the best stories I've read in awhile! Absolutely recommend!
January 15, 2013
I started to read this book a few months ago and had to stop. I was about 2/3 of the way through and just couldnt read anymore. I now finished and thought it was an okay book. It wasnt one of my favorites, but it wasnt the worst either.
August 2, 2008
Surprisingly interesting! There is, of course, the taboo relationships between the cultures which is predictable. But overall, a good read!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews