A Sandhills Ballad

by Ladette Randolph

After her life as she knows it is ended by heartbreak, Mary Rasmussen, a strong-willed and independent young ranch woman living in the Sandhills of western Nebraska, suddenly feels that all she has believed in--God, her instincts, the land itself--has failed her, and she abandons her cultural and emotional ties, succumbing to circumstances she thinks she is powerless to control. In a rash decision, she marries a conservative, patriarchal preacher who doesn't understand Mary, the ranching community, or anything beyond his own beliefs.
"This is good, old-fashioned storytelling at its best, and Mary Rasmussen will live forever in your hearts as a young woman who faces enormous tests and survives in order to protect those she loves. Stubborn, determined, and loyal, Mary makes a life that requires both imagination and grit and you end up rooting for her every inch of the way. "Randolph is revisioning the American plains in this novel, telling the stories of the women who struggle side-by-side with men on their Sandhills ranches and in their small towns. These are people of great courage and even greater integrity, who love and lose and love again, as undaunted as their pioneer forebears in their efforts to make a life for themselves and future generations. . . . "Randolph writes truthfully of the Nebraska Sandhills, a harsh land that exacts a brutal price for those who choose to love it. Having lived there, one never truly leaves, as Mary Rasmussen discovers, it etches its beautiful scar on body and soul."--Jonis Agee, author of The River Wife
"With penetrating insight and solid authority on the rural West, Ladette Randolph has carved out a compelling saga of a young woman ripening into maturity. You cannot help but cheer for Mary Rasmussen. Randolph's work is tough, tender, and brave, a pitch-perfect take on the hard beauty of life on the Nebraska prairie."--Pamela Carter Joern, author of The Floor of the Sky and The Plain Sense of Things
" A Sandhills Ballad is a poignantly written, lovely novel of the heartland that honors the best traditions of storytelling."--Jim Harrison, author of The English Major and Legends of the Fall
"I began reading A Sandhills Ballad in the afternoon and found myself, at three in the morning, finishing the last page. Mary's story is at once sad and brave, tender and compelling. Ladette Randolph knows well the rhythms and variations of life in Nebraska's Sandhills, where men and women face loss without complaint and celebrate their days with a love of family and land and community that runs like a quiet stream beneath the seamless prose of this novel."--Mary Clearman Blew, author of Jackalope Dreams and winner of many awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association

Genres: Fiction

351 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ladette Randolph is an American author and editor.

The editor-in-chief of Ploughshares, she is also on the faculty at Emerson College and is co-owner of the manuscript consulting firm Randolph Lundine.

She has been the recipient of a grant from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, as well as a Pushcart Prize, a Virginian Faulkner Award, and three Nebraska Book Awards.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, not just because it depicts the Nebraska setting and characters but also because the characters are true and well-developed. I have taught this to about a half a dozen classes, both undergraduate and graduate, and everyone loves it!

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story about a woman emerging from a coma, learning that she has lost her young husband and her leg in a car accident. Plagued by a sense that she she was singled out for punishment by God, she struggles painfully and slowly to regain her balance and find her place in her world. Brilliantly, sparely drawn characters. I loved every page.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I read this as a "professional", and therefore was overly critical as I went along, I found myself enthralled as I would be for a non-work title, and thinking about it often even after I have finished, a true testament. A spare, quiet book, but real and engaging story.

[Roger Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite place on earth is Nebraska. Mary's story is almost the story of every Nebraskan. Nebraskan are pioneers and overcomers, which is Mary's story. My main complaint is in her attempt to thinly veiled attempt to alter names of real places. Growing up around Oconto, your hospital is Kearney, not North Platte. I loved the book, hated the misleading geography!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book ends on an up note, there's a lot of sadness in it. So I would not recommend it for everyone. We have lived in the area where the plot of this book takes place and many of the towns mentioned are ones I've either lived in or know. But many of the people are not like the ones I know so don't consider this a good look at the Nebraska Sandhills.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern Willa Cather.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I would rate her a third star if she wasn't from where I'm from but this wasn't that bad of a novel

[Dewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Nebraska woman, Mary, raised on a ranch, loses both her husband and her leg in automobile crash; she returns home and tries to regain a sense of self with her prosthesis (nick named "Peg"), but then is courted by minister, Ward, and finally leaves the ranch to marry him, as a way of going forward with life. He proves to be a righteous tyrant, trying to force Mary into the mould of minister's wife. Mary is too much her own person for this. She finds work for herself in a nursing home. Then just as she has determined to leave Ward, discovers that she is pregnant. She stays to have four children by him. But then meeting a man she loves, she has her awakening and tries to take her children back to her family's ranch and to escape Ward. Ward follows in pursuit, kidnaps the children, and another disastrous accident follows. "In her better moments," Randolph writes of Mary, "she recognized the two accidents bracketing her life with Ward as the metaphor it was."

Randolph's narration is deliberately flat and emotionally deadpan, reflecting Mary's stoicism. The nursing home provides cameo characters, whose stories are tributary to Mary's. Ward may be the triumph of the novel, truly a monster of the deep, and yet totally human. Like Job's, Mary's story questions the justice of hard fate, and the Sandhills setting echoes her questions in the landscape itself. But Mary vows at last: "She'd never again be someone's right hand or someone's helpmeet. She'd find her own path. She was flawed in some way. She didn't know quite how, and it didn't matter. What she did know was she had a lot of work to do to become the woman she was determined to be."

This is a beautifully told, full story, which lives up to and exceeds its promises.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Rasmussen grew up on a ranch in Nebraska. She had an uncanny ability to judge the merits of cattle, loved ranching, married a rancher and thought her life was complete. She was totally devastated when she and her young husband were in an auto accident which took his life and she lost a leg.

During her depression following the accident she was courted by Ward Hamilton, a fundamentalist minister. Although she realized she didn't love him, she married him to try to make some sort of life for herself. She soon realized she would never live up to Ward's idea of a pastor's wife, or indeed the congregation's expectations of her.

Issues concerning ranching, feedlots, environment, religion, and life on the plains all come to bear on this very absorbing story.

Some of the characters in the book, especially Ward, seemed stereotypical. But, of course, stereotypes become stereotypes by containing a good deal of truth.

[Abby]

One of those serendipitous finds that I seldom have time for these days--discovered on the library shelf en route to something else. I am becoming a believer in the first line test, and this passed.

I appreciate the way Randolph takes time to explain aspects of Sandhills life (which, God knows, can be difficult enough to understand) without condescension. The impression I take away is that the business of ranching has changed in the last half-century, and traditionally conservative men and women are going to have to forge their own freedom in new ways if they're going to stay on the land. For the folks in this book, though, the only path to freedom is to leave. That's sad. As every good ballad is.

[Janci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book made me realize that if a Christian character is good, it is labeled a Christian book and non-Christians avoid it ("not my cup of tea"). If the Christian character evil, then it's a secular book, everyone reads it and it just reinforces the stereotypes about Christians. I liked the book, I just get tired of cheap shots at Christians. So for the record: Ward may have been a pastor or a preacher or whatever - but he was not a Christian.

[Vikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this story that takes place in Nebraska. Simple story of a woman whose husband dies in an accident. The woman loses her leg. She then is courted by a sinister minister. We know she doesn't care for him. But then she proceeds to have four children with him. Silly. But well written book. I did want to keep reading it.

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story begins with Mary waking up from a devastating car accident, and continues to show how she attempts to recreate her life after it has veered off. Mary isn't always likable, but she is always interesting. AND, it's set in Custer County, Nebraska, and if you've ever driven along Highway 92, you know how beautiful the Sandhills are.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way they described the people and area in this book. I've been through that country so it was easy to picture. I did get frustrated with Mary and wondered why she stayed with Ward so long, and even why she got together with him in the first place. It did do a good job of showing how she grows and how she finally learns to take action.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's told in a very no nonsense Midwestern (Nebraskan) manner, but I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen to Mary next. The plot was very compelling, and as one reviewer said, the Nebraska landscape is as much a character in the book as are the people.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerfully emotional novel. The characters were so real. The story will stay with me forever. The force of the truths on its pages knocked me flat. Ladette Randolph is *my* Chekov!

[Caitlin Batstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I WANT HALF STARS!!! This book is a clear 4.5 star situation. This is a strong, skilled, emotional novel and I loved it.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good characters and enjoyable story.