A Season of Fire and Ice

by Lloyd Zimpel

From the heartlands of the 1880s Upper Midwest comes a morality tale of survival and destiny told in the convincing language of a patriarch’s journal, evoking a real sense of the time and place. Gerhardt Praeger, a farmer of some education and plenty experience, understands the mixture of hard work, ingenuity, ethic, grace and steadiness of spirit needed to hold his settler family and neighboring community together while homesteading the hard territory of the Dakotas. He, along with his wife and seven sons, must constantly contend with natural disasters and manmade challenges to carve out their holdings in an unforgiving environment that has defeated so many of their neighbors, sending them home to their families back east. Praeger believes that God will provide sufficiently if not in abundance to those who can resist over-reaching. But a new neighbor, the bold Beidermann, who seems at times almost larger than life, stirs both his curiosity and envy, and tests Praeger’s moral beliefs. Between his remarkable journal entries that observe the increasingly tense events between them, is also a narrative that moves the everyone toward calamity. What results is an almost biblical story of moral imperatives and self-revelation, of man striving to civilize.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[meghan]

I just couldn't get into it. Maybe because I just read some "beach books" and couldn't concentrate on the writing style.

[Nancy]

Just okay, not as good as I expected it to be. I stuck with it about halfway through the book, then found myself skimming. One of those books where you find yourself thinking "what's the point?"

[Marguerite]

Whew. This story is as stark and tedious as the landscape of which the author writes. The descriptions of lives trying to be lived on the prairie in the late 1800's are stultifying. Definitely NOT a beach read!

[Jennifer]

This book does not read quickly meaning it was not easy to read. It didn't really work as a story, maybe a movie?

[Kevin]

Not my typical book - Ending was kind of strange. I think the best part is learning more how hard it was for farmers back in those days to survive.

[Molly Henderson]

masterfully written.

[Clyde]

Set in the Dakota territory in the 1880's with prose from that time. An excellent period piece where you feel the sparseness of the prairie and all of it's misgivings based on a saga between one family and it's ornery neighbor.

[Sara Gerot]

I thought that structure of the book was really nice. Very enjoyable story about homesteading, and the passages on nature and the seasons were great. There was quite a bit of tension as well, a gentle sort of danger around. Very good.

[Lindy]

Great story about life in the Dakotas in the homesteading days. Written with a lot of wit and dry humor.

[Garryvivianne]

Hard times growing up in the old days. I really enjoyed the cranky neighbor character.