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All Around Me Peaceful
A marvelous novel filled with the beauties and hardships of life in the West
For two years Neil Shanks has been living in Gold Hill, Colorado, putting off the moment when he must return to the family lumber business in Michigan—a business built from the fortune his great-grandfather mysteriously made over a century earlier. Driven by a hunch that it was a fortune founded on shame, young Shanks searches Gold Hill’s town records and collective memory, seeking clues to family secrets.
But then suddenly it’s hunting season, and Neil’s friend, Becky Carlsson, fails to keep a rendezvous with her braggart husband, Finn, at their mountain campsite. With her disappearance, the rumors about what might have happened—between husband and wife or between Becky and Neil—start swirling around town. And as Saturday turns into Sunday, nobody in the rescue effort has to be reminded of the odds against survival.
All Around Me Peaceful celebrates but never sentimentalizes the men and women who choose to live in this land of plenty, whose stunning beauty and abundance is matched only by the mysteries lurking at its heart.
For two years Neil Shanks has been living in Gold Hill, Colorado, putting off the moment when he must return to the family lumber business in Michigan—a business built from the fortune his great-grandfather mysteriously made over a century earlier. Driven by a hunch that it was a fortune founded on shame, young Shanks searches Gold Hill’s town records and collective memory, seeking clues to family secrets.
But then suddenly it’s hunting season, and Neil’s friend, Becky Carlsson, fails to keep a rendezvous with her braggart husband, Finn, at their mountain campsite. With her disappearance, the rumors about what might have happened—between husband and wife or between Becky and Neil—start swirling around town. And as Saturday turns into Sunday, nobody in the rescue effort has to be reminded of the odds against survival.
All Around Me Peaceful celebrates but never sentimentalizes the men and women who choose to live in this land of plenty, whose stunning beauty and abundance is matched only by the mysteries lurking at its heart.
408 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 1989
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September 5, 2012
Neil Shanks journeys from Michigan to a small Colorado mountain town in order to unveil the mystery surrounding the origins of his great-grandfather's considerable wealth. He befriends married Becky Carlsson and lends her serious literature, prompting a salt-of-the-earth local to ask the hackneyed question: " 'You think the books have made her different?' " As snow begins to fall, Becky disappears on her way to meet her husband in the mountains. The search for her is extensive and in the end you are left to decide whether Becky planned her own disappearance or someone else was involved (husband, lover, friend, whoever). Subthemes include Native American claims, elk-hunting season and the challenges a small town sheriff faces in separating work from family and friends.
I liked the book but felt that the ending was very weak - the writer seemed to run out of steam and it was all very anti-climactic and included NO resolutions of any of the conflicts presented in the novel.
An entertaining read but disappointing at the end. (I read this one in Las Vegas while my baby granddaughter was sleeping.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review