What do you think?
Rate this book
The Quickening: A Novel
Enidina Current and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in the flat, hard country of the upper Midwest during the early 1900s. This hardscrabble life comes easily to some, like Eddie, who has never wanted more than the land she works and the animals she raises on it with her husband, Frank. But for the deeply religious Mary, farming is an awkward living and at odds with her more cosmopolitan inclinations. Still, Mary creates a clean and orderly home life for her stormy husband, Jack, and her sons, while she adapts to the isolation of a rural town through the inspiration of a local preacher. She is the first to befriend Eddie in a relationship that will prove as rugged as the ground they walk on. Despite having little in common, Eddie and Mary need one another for survival and companionship. But as the Great Depression threatens, the delicate balance of their reliance on one another tips, pitting neighbor against neighbor, exposing the dark secrets they hide from one another, and triggering a series of disquieting events that threaten to unravel not only their friendship but their families as well.In this luminous and unforgettable debut, Michelle Hoover explores the polarization of the human soul in times of hardship and the instinctual drive for self-preservation by whatever means necessary. The Quickening stands as a novel of lyrical precision and historical consequence, reflecting the resilience and sacrifices required even now in our modern troubled times.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
131 people are currently reading
1413 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Hoover
8 books323 followersMichelle Hoover teaches writing at Brandeis University and Grub Street, where she leads the Novel Incubator program. She has been the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, a MacDowell Fellow, and the 2005 winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published in Best New American Voices. Her debut novel, The Quickening, was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, was a Finalist for the Indies Choice Debut of 2010 and Forward Magazine's Best Literary Book of 2010, and is a 2010 Massachusetts Book Award "Must Read" pick. Her second novel, Bottomland, is the 2017 All Iowa Reads selection. For more, go to www.michelle-hoover.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews
July 18, 2010
This is beautifully written, but so dark and full of despair that I couldn't wait for it to end so I could reenter the light of my clean and well-ordered life. That it took only a quiet morning to read is testament both to its gripping power and my determination to not linger in the dust and mud of Depression-era Iowa.
The words and scenes are powerfully rendered and unflinching in their depiction of the isolation and desperation of American farm life in the early years of the 20th century. But the tenuous grasp on solid mental ground of the central characters and the bitterness that runs thickly through their veins overwhelmed so short a space. Did these people never experience joy, forgiveness, laughter, a moment's peace? It was as if Hoover sifted through the many years this book spans and chose to reveal only the most brutal.
In this way, it was a novel that read as a tone poem- a single haunting movement of tragedy- when life is more complex and symphonic. Some gentle harmony would have made the characters greater in dimension and sympathy.
The words and scenes are powerfully rendered and unflinching in their depiction of the isolation and desperation of American farm life in the early years of the 20th century. But the tenuous grasp on solid mental ground of the central characters and the bitterness that runs thickly through their veins overwhelmed so short a space. Did these people never experience joy, forgiveness, laughter, a moment's peace? It was as if Hoover sifted through the many years this book spans and chose to reveal only the most brutal.
In this way, it was a novel that read as a tone poem- a single haunting movement of tragedy- when life is more complex and symphonic. Some gentle harmony would have made the characters greater in dimension and sympathy.
July 20, 2010
3.5 stars
This story is very sober. It could almost be a morality tale, teaching that if you willfully hurt others, you could end up losing what you hoped to keep for yourself.
The tale is told by two Midwestern farm wives of the early 20th century. Enidina and Mary are very different in temperament and beliefs, and they don't particularly like each other. One has healthy children and the other does not, which deepens the divide between them. But they live on neighboring farms, so they associate out of necessity and sometimes help each other. And sometimes not.
The husbands, Frank and Jack, are also starkly different personalities. They mostly just tolerate each other. And sometimes not.
Tensions build between the two families as the hardships of the Great Depression threaten to destroy their livelihood. Troubles are compounded by Jack's abuse of Mary and their boys, and by Mary's bizarre interpretations of events. Lies and jealousy and the blame game eventually lead to disaster and loss for both families.
What really frosts my shorts about these people is that they don't communicate! I realize it was a more stoic and tight-lipped time and place, but so much tragedy could have been averted with a few well-chosen words spoken to the right people.
This is real bare bones writing, and that's good. I like spare prose. In this case, though, I would have liked a little more meat on those bones. Fill out the character profiles. Enidina and Frank are drawn well. Mary and Jack are not clearly defined, and thus don't make sense sometimes. Motives? Backgrounds? Why is Mary so clueless? Is she mentally ill? She expects people to thank her for ruining their lives.
I thought the writing in the last 40 pages was superb, and much more engaging than the rest of the book. I hope that's a promise of things to come from Michelle Hoover. I think she's got the goods. The writing is solid and consistent. It just needs a little more "Michelle-ness" to define it as her own style.
This story is very sober. It could almost be a morality tale, teaching that if you willfully hurt others, you could end up losing what you hoped to keep for yourself.
The tale is told by two Midwestern farm wives of the early 20th century. Enidina and Mary are very different in temperament and beliefs, and they don't particularly like each other. One has healthy children and the other does not, which deepens the divide between them. But they live on neighboring farms, so they associate out of necessity and sometimes help each other. And sometimes not.
The husbands, Frank and Jack, are also starkly different personalities. They mostly just tolerate each other. And sometimes not.
Tensions build between the two families as the hardships of the Great Depression threaten to destroy their livelihood. Troubles are compounded by Jack's abuse of Mary and their boys, and by Mary's bizarre interpretations of events. Lies and jealousy and the blame game eventually lead to disaster and loss for both families.
What really frosts my shorts about these people is that they don't communicate! I realize it was a more stoic and tight-lipped time and place, but so much tragedy could have been averted with a few well-chosen words spoken to the right people.
This is real bare bones writing, and that's good. I like spare prose. In this case, though, I would have liked a little more meat on those bones. Fill out the character profiles. Enidina and Frank are drawn well. Mary and Jack are not clearly defined, and thus don't make sense sometimes. Motives? Backgrounds? Why is Mary so clueless? Is she mentally ill? She expects people to thank her for ruining their lives.
I thought the writing in the last 40 pages was superb, and much more engaging than the rest of the book. I hope that's a promise of things to come from Michelle Hoover. I think she's got the goods. The writing is solid and consistent. It just needs a little more "Michelle-ness" to define it as her own style.
September 7, 2010
I can usually tell within the first few pages whether or not I’ll love a book. With Michelle Hoover’s novel The Quickening, I knew from the first line. The voices of Enidina and Mary, two Iowa farmwives bound by their struggle to survive in the lonesome upper Midwest on the cusp of the Great Depression, are that real and charged with emotion. Right away, it was clear that I was in capable hands with this debut author.
Reading The Quickening, I was reminded of Willa Cather’s rugged depiction of 1900s prairie life in My Antonia, and Jane Smiley’s complex portrayal of a Midwestern farming family in her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel A Thousand Acres. But Hoover’s point of view is uniquely her own, having grown up herself in the Midwest she writes about so vividly, the granddaughter of Iowa farmers. The Quickening is inspired by the life of the author’s great-grandmother, and although Hoover’s authorial hand is never heavy, her personal stake in the story undoubtedly lends to the psychological suspense of the narrative and the emotional resonance of the tragic events that play out as a result of Eddie and Mary’s turbulent relationship. While Hoover’s prose is quiet and understated, it thrums with tension from beginning to end, so that I found myself lost in the pages for hours at a time. Finishing The Quickening was like waking from a dream, or another life I had lived for a while. Perhaps Michelle Hoover’s greatest accomplishment with her first novel is her ability to draw the reader so completely into the world she has created, to give the reader a window into the past and into the hearts and minds of her unforgettable characters.
The Quickening is an exciting discovery, introducing a fresh storytelling voice and promising a distinguished body of work to look forward to, as well as a new favorite author to add to my list. Michelle Hoover is a stunning literary talent with a long career ahead of her.
Reading The Quickening, I was reminded of Willa Cather’s rugged depiction of 1900s prairie life in My Antonia, and Jane Smiley’s complex portrayal of a Midwestern farming family in her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel A Thousand Acres. But Hoover’s point of view is uniquely her own, having grown up herself in the Midwest she writes about so vividly, the granddaughter of Iowa farmers. The Quickening is inspired by the life of the author’s great-grandmother, and although Hoover’s authorial hand is never heavy, her personal stake in the story undoubtedly lends to the psychological suspense of the narrative and the emotional resonance of the tragic events that play out as a result of Eddie and Mary’s turbulent relationship. While Hoover’s prose is quiet and understated, it thrums with tension from beginning to end, so that I found myself lost in the pages for hours at a time. Finishing The Quickening was like waking from a dream, or another life I had lived for a while. Perhaps Michelle Hoover’s greatest accomplishment with her first novel is her ability to draw the reader so completely into the world she has created, to give the reader a window into the past and into the hearts and minds of her unforgettable characters.
The Quickening is an exciting discovery, introducing a fresh storytelling voice and promising a distinguished body of work to look forward to, as well as a new favorite author to add to my list. Michelle Hoover is a stunning literary talent with a long career ahead of her.
July 16, 2011
I picked this book up at a launch held in Cambridge in June 2010. I always want to support local artists. My expectations did not extend to the level that this book held. It is a fabulous read with a quick flow of words and an engrossing story. It is written from the point of view of two complex farmers' wives and their conflicting perspectives on the truth, with the hardships of farming, war, The Great Depression, and drought as a mere backdrop. There is some typical epic-like drama--secret affairs and farming accidents--and the switch in point of view and chronology from chapter to chapter was hard to follow at times. Some of the allusion in the prose lost me. For example, she hugs a rabbit her sons left on the porch. Its eyes went black. Does this mean it died in her arms? Did it sense evil? Good for discussion, I suppose. I finished the book emotionally drained. It left me frustrated; angry at times; sad mostly. Not a feel good book, by any means, but worth the time. I know this review doesn't really promote it but I hope the number of stars tell you differently because I would recommend it and read it again some day.
A slight spoiler: Upon reading other reviews, many suggest these two women became friends out of necessity, but I really feel that it is more that one was very persistent to the point she lost all social graces. The other was polite and tolerant of their friendship until things just went too far.
A slight spoiler: Upon reading other reviews, many suggest these two women became friends out of necessity, but I really feel that it is more that one was very persistent to the point she lost all social graces. The other was polite and tolerant of their friendship until things just went too far.
July 3, 2010
This not a happy book it is dark and thought provoking. It is beautifully written and almost has a gothic feel to it. It is set somewhere in the Midwest (I am from North Dakota so in my mind that is where this took place) and spans from 1913-1950 and tells the story of Enidina & Mary neighbors on the plains yet different in every way. I don’t think these women were ever friends. Enidina is a hardworking farmer‘s wife who grew up with brothers on her family farm so is no stranger to hard work. Mary is a soft woman who really does not know who she is and I didn’t like her very much. I liked Enidina she had a good character and she was a good person. The story goes through their lives from children, to the great depression to all the major things that happen in the span of a life.
I liked this book, though it is a dark study into the human character. There were times when it had the same feel as The Reliable Wife which is a book that really stays with you after you’re done and this book is definitely one of those books. I liked the two different viewpoints because it really showed you how different these women are, which I don’t think it would have been as good with only one persons point of view.
Highly Recommend!
4 Stars
Full Disclosure I recieved this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program
I liked this book, though it is a dark study into the human character. There were times when it had the same feel as The Reliable Wife which is a book that really stays with you after you’re done and this book is definitely one of those books. I liked the two different viewpoints because it really showed you how different these women are, which I don’t think it would have been as good with only one persons point of view.
Highly Recommend!
4 Stars
Full Disclosure I recieved this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program
July 19, 2010
Beautifully written, so well told. It's the story of two Iowa farm wives beginning in the early 1900s and then on through the Depression. The chapters alternate their two voices, as their shared story is revealed. The descriptions of farm life during the Depression are unbelievably real and evocative. There's a scene in which Enidina describes the work of slaughtering a hog--the mess, the stench, the hard work of it all--it was just beautifully written. But what made the novel great, at least for me, was the way it attempted to explain people's reasons for doing hateful things, and furthermore the way the people who survive those hateful acts go on living in spite of them. The loss of children--literally and figuratively--plays prominently in the novel, and it's interesting to see the disparate ways the two women deal with their respective losses. I enjoyed and so admire this book. Can't recommend it highly enough.
September 6, 2010
WOW!!!! This is will be one of my top reads of 2010! This is an absolutely beautifully written book! It is about two completely different women living in on farms in the Midwest during the Depression. It has a dark Gothic feel, yet I was not depressed while I was reading it. These two women came to this area at the same time as brides, and their relationship happens over the course of events in their lives. Eddie was raised on a farm and is built for farming so farm life comes second hand to her, yet for Mary who did not grow up on a farm, farm life is completely foreign to her. I would not call Eddie and Mary friends because I don't think they even liked each other, however they managed to be there for each other in ways that you wouldn't expect from them at all. I was incredibly moved by this book. I am a huge fan of debut authors and Ms. Hoover did not disappoint! I am giving this book a lighthouse and shining a light on it for outstanding debut novel.
October 6, 2010
Hoover's tale of two women wrangling an existence out of the Iowa prairie in the years before the Depression is reminiscent of both Willa Cather and William Faulkner. I have been waiting for a writer to create fiction about Midwesterners that transfered Gothic themes from their usual perch in a rotting Southern house to a cabin on a windswept prairie. Hoover advances the pioneer tale genre with her unsparing descriptions of the tragedies and burdens of the women's lives. The men, one quiet, one occasionally violent, never become caricatures, but reflect the kinds of behavior patterns that would become rutted in the kinds of personalities that could survive the lashings of each season. Hoover uses real events of the era to show how neighbor relations and community justice evolved as the country began changing its relationship with farmers. This plays out against the whispered intimacies that the two women, bound more by what time and pregnancy do to their bodies than actual friendship, must exchange as the prairie howls over them and the doctor must be summoned from town.
June 8, 2011
The Quickening is a very special novel. Painfully told, it records the lives and friendship of two farm women in early 1900s Iowa. The chapters alternate between the voice of Enidina (Eddie) and Mary, who are very different women. Eddie is strong in body and spirit, made for country farm life. Mary is delicate and at odds with farming and the isolation of rural living.
They form a friendship, a bond born of necessity rather than choice. Through the years with its many life changes they remain loyal to each other. The dependence brought by isolation is their constant bond.
As the Great Depression looms, affecting farming and the community, families come under pressure and friendships are tested. Ultimately, secrets are exposed and a series of events changes everything with lasting consequences for everyone.
Michelle Hoover gives an honest look at women’s friendships born of need and strife. Her portrayal of farming and the harsh realities of it, particularly those in times of turmoil are honest and heartfelt.
This is a remarkable book by a very gifted writer.
They form a friendship, a bond born of necessity rather than choice. Through the years with its many life changes they remain loyal to each other. The dependence brought by isolation is their constant bond.
As the Great Depression looms, affecting farming and the community, families come under pressure and friendships are tested. Ultimately, secrets are exposed and a series of events changes everything with lasting consequences for everyone.
Michelle Hoover gives an honest look at women’s friendships born of need and strife. Her portrayal of farming and the harsh realities of it, particularly those in times of turmoil are honest and heartfelt.
This is a remarkable book by a very gifted writer.
August 11, 2012
I was swept along by Michelle Hoover's lyrical rendering of the hard lives of farmers in the first half of the 20th century.The beauty of the prose contrasts with the tale of heartbreak, deceit, loss and betrayals. I felt the tragedies as keenly as I would feel the sharpness of the knives that did such damage, physical and emotional.
The hardscrabble lives on Midwestern farms are vividly, but plainly told. The lives were never easy, but they became cruel during the Depression and the Dust Bowl. The awful choices farmers had to make when the Federal government so clumsily decreed killing off livestock so that meat prices would rise are poignantly portrayed. Farmers, whose total beings, were dedicated to care of livestock and creating abundant dairy and wheat to feed the nation were ordered to slaughter and to dump milk and crops.
To say more would reveal the carefully crafted plot. I highly recommend this novel
The hardscrabble lives on Midwestern farms are vividly, but plainly told. The lives were never easy, but they became cruel during the Depression and the Dust Bowl. The awful choices farmers had to make when the Federal government so clumsily decreed killing off livestock so that meat prices would rise are poignantly portrayed. Farmers, whose total beings, were dedicated to care of livestock and creating abundant dairy and wheat to feed the nation were ordered to slaughter and to dump milk and crops.
To say more would reveal the carefully crafted plot. I highly recommend this novel
June 21, 2010
I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher, Other Press LLC.
I highly recommend this book for those who like literary fiction.
By the end of this novel I was simply captivated. Ms. Hoover is a wonderful storyteller and her characterizations are vivid and entirely believable. I could clearly see each of the women, their husbands and their children as if they were sitting with me while I read. Turning the pages, you feel the dreariness, desperation and deep isolation as the families struggle to survive. And, while the book is a somber one, there are also moments of profound joy, particularly in the marriage of Enidina and Frank. Perhaps most compelling for me was way the author enabled me to appreciate the sensibilities of a community and way of life with which I am wholly unfamiliar.
I highly recommend this book for those who like literary fiction.
By the end of this novel I was simply captivated. Ms. Hoover is a wonderful storyteller and her characterizations are vivid and entirely believable. I could clearly see each of the women, their husbands and their children as if they were sitting with me while I read. Turning the pages, you feel the dreariness, desperation and deep isolation as the families struggle to survive. And, while the book is a somber one, there are also moments of profound joy, particularly in the marriage of Enidina and Frank. Perhaps most compelling for me was way the author enabled me to appreciate the sensibilities of a community and way of life with which I am wholly unfamiliar.
December 13, 2022
Considering that I almost DNF'd this one after a particularly grisly scene involving piglets and sows, I am surprised I ended up liking this novel as much as I did. I can't abide animal cruelty, so realistic tales depicting the killing of innocent creatures are really tough for me to plow through. Ultimately, though, I was invested in the characters by the time this scene occurred, so I forged on. And I believe I came to understand the author's inclusion of this scene, and a couple others that were disturbing: to accurately reveal what depression-era Iowa farm life was like; gritty, sometimes grim and gruesome, but very real, blood, death, violence, and all.
All that aside, this character-driven novel of two farm families knitted together by the wives, whose stories alternate chapters, was atmospheric, dark, and utterly engrossing. I listened to the audiobook and found it very well done, and the differing accents of the two women, Enadina (probably spelled wrong since I didn't read the text version) and Mary, kept me from the confusion some reviewers mentioned in who was doing the talking.
There is nothing light and fluffy about this dark tale, but author Michelle Hoover drew me in and wouldn't let up her grip until the very end. This novel is not for everyone, to be sure, but I won't forget this one for awhile.
All that aside, this character-driven novel of two farm families knitted together by the wives, whose stories alternate chapters, was atmospheric, dark, and utterly engrossing. I listened to the audiobook and found it very well done, and the differing accents of the two women, Enadina (probably spelled wrong since I didn't read the text version) and Mary, kept me from the confusion some reviewers mentioned in who was doing the talking.
There is nothing light and fluffy about this dark tale, but author Michelle Hoover drew me in and wouldn't let up her grip until the very end. This novel is not for everyone, to be sure, but I won't forget this one for awhile.
December 3, 2022
Definitely one of my favorite books of the year.
I love nothing better than a simple concept written into a complex narrative. Enidina Current (Eddie) and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in a vast prairie in the upper mid-west. Their story seems familiar, yet very different, in that they will challenge one another from a moral and spiritual viewpoint. One is reserved, while the other boldly assumes a friendship. Theirs is a relationship that will eventually become tainted, then tragic, and unforgiveable as events unfold.
Vastly different in personality, Hoover has created these original characters with a keen eye to the human psyche. At various points in the story, you'll grit your teeth, and possibly squint, afraid of what's coming next. An exceptional book.
***I read a few other reviews where some said they had trouble knowing who was talking. I didn't find that to be the case for me.
I love nothing better than a simple concept written into a complex narrative. Enidina Current (Eddie) and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in a vast prairie in the upper mid-west. Their story seems familiar, yet very different, in that they will challenge one another from a moral and spiritual viewpoint. One is reserved, while the other boldly assumes a friendship. Theirs is a relationship that will eventually become tainted, then tragic, and unforgiveable as events unfold.
Vastly different in personality, Hoover has created these original characters with a keen eye to the human psyche. At various points in the story, you'll grit your teeth, and possibly squint, afraid of what's coming next. An exceptional book.
***I read a few other reviews where some said they had trouble knowing who was talking. I didn't find that to be the case for me.
January 2, 2017
I know I'm an outlier here, as many people seemed to really like this book. The description sounded like something just up my alley- Midwestern farmhouse Gothic, so to speak- but somehow it completely didn't work for me. If it weren't for the last few sections, I would probably have given it one star. I was so close to not finishing it, but that seemed like an inauspicious way to start my 2017 reading challenge. Plus, other reviewers kept promising the last 50 pages were really good. Relatively speaking, I suppose that was true. Unfortunately, had to get through about 165 pages prior to that.
Briefly, the book is told across the span of about 40 years at the beginning of the 20th century. The point of view is first person, and alternates between two farm housewives and neighbors, Mary and Enidina. Enidina's sections are explained with the conceit that she is writing a letter from her deathbed to a grandson she has never met, trying to explain the reasons behind her life choices. We are never given a literary device to explain Mary's separate first person narrative sections.
I could never figure out if the author was really trying to make these women's voices sound authentic. For one thing, I found their voices nearly indistinguishable, and more than once had to stop reading to remind myself of who was supposed to be speaking. Also, I know that country folk are known for being more tight-lipped and undemonstrative, and I think she was aiming for that by keeping the characters from giving too much emotion away or saying too plainly how they felt. Still, the taciturn pragmatism I associate with life on the farm hardly showed through in this prose- there was so much excessive language, trying to add some sort of lyric, stream of consciousness to life on the farm. "So many days I worked in the house and felt the animals in the rooms behind me. In the kitchen, I heard them cry, imagined them breaking through the roof overhead. If I'd pressed my hands into the corners of our house, the sound of all their wanting came in. Their smell. The chaff on their skin. They wanted to eat from us, the animals. They wanted always to eat and they were eating us, My hands ached from carrying buckets. My days were taken up with the work." Pages and pages of this type of description to wade through to try to figure out the underlying story, which wasn't that hard to figure out, because That's what's covered in the first 75% of the book.
As described above, the story definitely picks up in the last 50-60 pages, but I wouldn't recommend this book. It's like a second rate imitation of a Jane Smiley novel, as if written from the point of view of one of the depressing minor female characters in the Little House on the Prairie books.
Briefly, the book is told across the span of about 40 years at the beginning of the 20th century. The point of view is first person, and alternates between two farm housewives and neighbors, Mary and Enidina. Enidina's sections are explained with the conceit that she is writing a letter from her deathbed to a grandson she has never met, trying to explain the reasons behind her life choices. We are never given a literary device to explain Mary's separate first person narrative sections.
I could never figure out if the author was really trying to make these women's voices sound authentic. For one thing, I found their voices nearly indistinguishable, and more than once had to stop reading to remind myself of who was supposed to be speaking. Also, I know that country folk are known for being more tight-lipped and undemonstrative, and I think she was aiming for that by keeping the characters from giving too much emotion away or saying too plainly how they felt. Still, the taciturn pragmatism I associate with life on the farm hardly showed through in this prose- there was so much excessive language, trying to add some sort of lyric, stream of consciousness to life on the farm. "So many days I worked in the house and felt the animals in the rooms behind me. In the kitchen, I heard them cry, imagined them breaking through the roof overhead. If I'd pressed my hands into the corners of our house, the sound of all their wanting came in. Their smell. The chaff on their skin. They wanted to eat from us, the animals. They wanted always to eat and they were eating us, My hands ached from carrying buckets. My days were taken up with the work." Pages and pages of this type of description to wade through to try to figure out the underlying story, which wasn't that hard to figure out, because That's what's covered in the first 75% of the book.
As described above, the story definitely picks up in the last 50-60 pages, but I wouldn't recommend this book. It's like a second rate imitation of a Jane Smiley novel, as if written from the point of view of one of the depressing minor female characters in the Little House on the Prairie books.
June 25, 2010
The Quickening, at its core, is about the intersecting lives of two women – the stoic and large-boned Edinina Current who grew up on the farm and knows the virtues of working hard, and her less adaptable neighbor Mary Morrow, who crumples under the isolation of the rural farmland.
One part literary, one part gothic, one part historical, it is, in essence, an exploration of a symbiotic relationship between mismatched women who have no choice but to cling to each other for companionship and survival. Edinina keeps a stiff upper lip despite poverty, miscarriages, and the brutality of farm life. Mary goes through the motions of a day-to-day existence with three young sons and an abusive husband and succumbs to an elusive local preacher.
The two key characters trade narration with each chapter, beginning in 1913 and closing in the winter of 1950, often correcting or adding to each other’s interpretation of events. Their lives are circumscribed: “…it was hard to be certain of anything outside our own hundred and eighty acres of land.” And indeed, Michelle Hoover appears to know the cadence and rhythm and dreariness and isolation and joy of farm life very well. The descriptions of the farm ring of stark authenticity.
As the reader will immediately suspect, intertwined and guarded lives with little in common like Edidina’s and Mary’s are headed nowhere good. There will be accidents and betrayals and madness and despair and jealousies. The Great Depression will introduce another element of uncertainty into already fragile lives: Agriculture Secretary Wallace’s demand to destroy livestock in exchange for reimbursement (which could have been explained better) will pit family against family.
There were many times that I wished this debut book had been written in third person instead of first person; observations and perceptions and self-analysis would have flowed more organically. The writing is taut – at times, too taut – and there are hints of themes that play out beautifully in C.E. Morgan’s All The Living. Yet when the denouement comes at the end, it is nevertheless surprising and sad.
The dark secrets that these women hold – that they MUST hold in order to survive – eventually reveal themselves as they struggle to find the inner strength that’s necessary for resiliency and sacrifice. At the end, the reader understands anew about the drive for self-preservation even in the worst of circumstances…perhaps, a theme for our times.
One part literary, one part gothic, one part historical, it is, in essence, an exploration of a symbiotic relationship between mismatched women who have no choice but to cling to each other for companionship and survival. Edinina keeps a stiff upper lip despite poverty, miscarriages, and the brutality of farm life. Mary goes through the motions of a day-to-day existence with three young sons and an abusive husband and succumbs to an elusive local preacher.
The two key characters trade narration with each chapter, beginning in 1913 and closing in the winter of 1950, often correcting or adding to each other’s interpretation of events. Their lives are circumscribed: “…it was hard to be certain of anything outside our own hundred and eighty acres of land.” And indeed, Michelle Hoover appears to know the cadence and rhythm and dreariness and isolation and joy of farm life very well. The descriptions of the farm ring of stark authenticity.
As the reader will immediately suspect, intertwined and guarded lives with little in common like Edidina’s and Mary’s are headed nowhere good. There will be accidents and betrayals and madness and despair and jealousies. The Great Depression will introduce another element of uncertainty into already fragile lives: Agriculture Secretary Wallace’s demand to destroy livestock in exchange for reimbursement (which could have been explained better) will pit family against family.
There were many times that I wished this debut book had been written in third person instead of first person; observations and perceptions and self-analysis would have flowed more organically. The writing is taut – at times, too taut – and there are hints of themes that play out beautifully in C.E. Morgan’s All The Living. Yet when the denouement comes at the end, it is nevertheless surprising and sad.
The dark secrets that these women hold – that they MUST hold in order to survive – eventually reveal themselves as they struggle to find the inner strength that’s necessary for resiliency and sacrifice. At the end, the reader understands anew about the drive for self-preservation even in the worst of circumstances…perhaps, a theme for our times.
August 20, 2010
Enidina & Mary become neighbors and then friends. The book goes back and forth with Enidina talking and then Mary. I love books like this. This pair of friends probably wouldn't have been friends anywhere else but since they lived the closet to each other with no one else around they became friends out of neccessity. They needed each other in a sense. Then a tragic accident happens, maybe not such a accident, maybe someone meant for it to happen. This pits these two neighbors against each other trying to keep their place in this town. Lies erupt against each other and each one tells their side of the story. Set in the early 1900s, a great tale of what life may have been like living back then.
The only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because sometimes in the book I felt like I was missing parts of it here and there. Like pieces of the puzzle missing and found myself guessing about what just happened. But, that being said, once you start reading this you can't seem to put it down. It's so interesting and told in a way that keeps you wanting to know more. I would definetly read more books by Michelle Hoover.
The only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because sometimes in the book I felt like I was missing parts of it here and there. Like pieces of the puzzle missing and found myself guessing about what just happened. But, that being said, once you start reading this you can't seem to put it down. It's so interesting and told in a way that keeps you wanting to know more. I would definetly read more books by Michelle Hoover.
January 11, 2012
This is a wonderful lyrical novel of two women's lives on adjacent farms in Iowa from 1913 through 1950. Thrown together as neighbors in an environment so bleak and isolated, they come together of necessity but never become friends. One has been raised as a farmer's daughter and is in her element except for years of miscarriages before she delivers twins. The other, raised to want a better life, relentlessly works to order her home and children to her vision of perfection. In addition, she is haunted by an "accident" in her teens that undermines her marriage, leads her into the arms of the local minister and turns her husband into an angry bully. This book is written as the first woman, looking back on her life, writing to the grandson she has never met and trying to explain who his parents were and why they moved away. Alternate chapters are written in the neighbor's voice as she comments on the same events. Their voices are so distinctive that it brings the reader right into that time and place.
May 21, 2015
Beautifully written. Powerful. This book will pull you in and won't let you go until the very last page - when you want more. Looking forward to her next books.
February 10, 2012
From the dust cover blurb, I thought The Quickening would be a story of the complex friendship between two women living on neighbouring farms in the early 1900s. Enidina and Mary were certainly not friends. They may have needed each other at times, but it was merely a result of geography. There was only acrimony between them. The alternating points of view is a device so overused now that it is getting trite. It was completely unnecessary here because their differing views didn't illuminate anything about the story that couldn't have been told straight. While Enidina was the more likeable of the two, I still felt a great distance from her. Her personal tragedies didn't draw my empathy. After The Great Depression came upon them, I totally disconnected from the story and finished it as quickly as possible. It focused a great deal on the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 which forced (encoruaged) farmers to destroy crops and livestock. While the Act is historical, the author made it unbelievable by the sensational, crazy behaviour of the characters. Totally unnecessary. I didn't need insane theatrics to feel incensed that farmers slaughtered piglets and pregnant sows to force the market price up in a time when everyone was starving. While poverty, misfortune, accidents, abuse, insanity are part of life, I wasn't expecting this novel to reveal nothing but misery and the hell of Depression Era farming. I wanted to read about relationships. I enjoyed any mention, no matter how small, of Enidina's husband, Frank. I may have been able to deal with the overwhelming gloom of the novel had there been more Frank-like elements in the book. Give me humanity, fully drawn. If I wanted to get depressed about The Great Depression, I'd have re-read The Grapes of Wrath. I really disliked The Quickening.
August 19, 2010
In our air-conditioned houses, with plumbing and electricity, in our cities with next-door neighbors and supermarkets and doctors, we tend to wax romantic about little houses on the prairie and life on the farm. “The Quickening” presents a much more realistic picture.
Inspired by her great-grandmother’s short written recollection of her life on an Iowa farm, Michelle Hoover has written a novel of the prairie, of farm life and the connection, for better or for worse, between two women.
The narration alternates between the two acquaintances, neighbors on the stark, unforgiving prairie. Neither is particularly sympathetic, though readers will likely empathize more with Enidina.
Big, strong, stoic Enidina has a suspicious nature, but often has reason to withhold trust. She and her husband, Frank, work hard, sometimes to no avail, and endure several miscarriages until they finally have twins. Artless and reactive, Enidina accepts her lot in life and does what she can.
The closest thing Enidina has to a friend is Mary, simply by virtue of proximity. Dramatic, self-centered Mary insinuates herself into Frank and Enidina’s lives, more so than they probably would like. Her hot-tempered husband and house full of sons also stand in contrast to Enidina and Frank’s calmer lives. Unpleasantness in her past is hinted at, which helps explain her deceptive nature — deceptive even to the point of deceiving herself.
“The Quickening” isn’t really plot-driven, as most of the events are described in chunks spread out over about 25 years. But in spare, cutting prose, it paints a bleak picture of accidents and death, sickness and struggle, greed and betrayal, one that will banish any romantic notions of prairie life.
Inspired by her great-grandmother’s short written recollection of her life on an Iowa farm, Michelle Hoover has written a novel of the prairie, of farm life and the connection, for better or for worse, between two women.
The narration alternates between the two acquaintances, neighbors on the stark, unforgiving prairie. Neither is particularly sympathetic, though readers will likely empathize more with Enidina.
Big, strong, stoic Enidina has a suspicious nature, but often has reason to withhold trust. She and her husband, Frank, work hard, sometimes to no avail, and endure several miscarriages until they finally have twins. Artless and reactive, Enidina accepts her lot in life and does what she can.
The closest thing Enidina has to a friend is Mary, simply by virtue of proximity. Dramatic, self-centered Mary insinuates herself into Frank and Enidina’s lives, more so than they probably would like. Her hot-tempered husband and house full of sons also stand in contrast to Enidina and Frank’s calmer lives. Unpleasantness in her past is hinted at, which helps explain her deceptive nature — deceptive even to the point of deceiving herself.
“The Quickening” isn’t really plot-driven, as most of the events are described in chunks spread out over about 25 years. But in spare, cutting prose, it paints a bleak picture of accidents and death, sickness and struggle, greed and betrayal, one that will banish any romantic notions of prairie life.
July 8, 2011
This is not going to be one of those books that you run to for an uplifting experience, Enidina (Eddie) Current and Mary Morrow are two very different women living quiet desperate lives from 1913 to 1950. Being farm wives and living far from town, they are the only neighbor that the other has and you could not find any two different people.
I found myself liking one character more than the other, not sure if that was the writer intention, but Eddie’s character was so much more for me then just a character in a book. She became real and her loves and her passions would just jump off the page and talk to me in a way that a character has not in a very long time.
Mary on the other hand was too tense. She was not cut out to be a farm wife and you could tell from the moment that she first spoke that she was not going to be, for me, a likeable character. Coming from a well to do family and having been run out of town as a young girl, Mary continued to have an edge that by the end of the book might not have been worn smooth.
In alternating chapters, Mary and Enidina tell their stories and how their lives, from the moment they met, would intertwine. Each takes the hard knocks differently, from new marriages, to childbirth, to the great depression, to the death of loved ones; these two women have been through it all and come out bruised and battered in a way that will leave an indelible mark on the reader.
Though I would not call this a depressing book, at the same time, I would not call it a book of hope. These are hard times that the women have lived through and each has come out more shattered than whole.
A memorable story has been told, a story that will resonate and will honor the physical and emotional hardships that women have faced and survived.
I found myself liking one character more than the other, not sure if that was the writer intention, but Eddie’s character was so much more for me then just a character in a book. She became real and her loves and her passions would just jump off the page and talk to me in a way that a character has not in a very long time.
Mary on the other hand was too tense. She was not cut out to be a farm wife and you could tell from the moment that she first spoke that she was not going to be, for me, a likeable character. Coming from a well to do family and having been run out of town as a young girl, Mary continued to have an edge that by the end of the book might not have been worn smooth.
In alternating chapters, Mary and Enidina tell their stories and how their lives, from the moment they met, would intertwine. Each takes the hard knocks differently, from new marriages, to childbirth, to the great depression, to the death of loved ones; these two women have been through it all and come out bruised and battered in a way that will leave an indelible mark on the reader.
Though I would not call this a depressing book, at the same time, I would not call it a book of hope. These are hard times that the women have lived through and each has come out more shattered than whole.
A memorable story has been told, a story that will resonate and will honor the physical and emotional hardships that women have faced and survived.
February 27, 2011
It's been over a decade since I've been so moved by a book and its writing. THE QUICKENING by Michelle Hoover deserves to be ranked with the world's finest literature. Its depth and resonance, concise yet powerful and poetic prose and level of insight and complexity have literally left me at a loss for words. I would urge serious readers (and writers) to read and re-read this beautiful story, to savor it, learn from it and spread the word about it. What a welcome, refreshing break from the commercial books I've been reading which have almost made me lose my faith in books overall. (Which is why I've posted nothing here!)
By tonight, I'll have finished reading THE QUICKENING, and think it will be a long time before I can read anything else. I may just have to read it again right away.
By tonight, I'll have finished reading THE QUICKENING, and think it will be a long time before I can read anything else. I may just have to read it again right away.
May 25, 2012
I truly recommend this book. After previously slogging through a weighty book, this marvelous read was a breath of fresh air. I couldn't put it down and finished it in two days. It is a marvelous story about the relationship of two farm women, neighbors on the plains at the turn of the twentieth century. Michelle Hoover tells their stories in their own voices, alternating the time and points of view, and revealing life, sorrow, and expectations of settler women. I must say that I enjoyed this book so much that I am tempted to read it again soon!
May 12, 2012
Later this month, Michelle Hoover's The Quickening hits book racks and library carts and will hopefully will the praise from reviewers that it deserves! The basis of this book is easy to explain but its charm and beauty are extremely difficult to describe. All I can say, is that it reminded me of Willa Cather at her best but kept me on the edge of my seat. In just over 200 pages, I felt that there wasn't a single word wasted. The only advice I can give to you is: READ IT!
The novel starts in the early 1900s and follows Mary Morrow and Enidina Current as they live, work, and raise their families on two nearby farms. Mary is delicate, judgmental, and not particularly able to take the blame for her own actions. Though one would think that this would make her an unlikable character, it instead makes her easy to relate to at times and very real. Enidina Current was born to work the hard land. She is strongly built, strong willed, and extremely hard working. When she moves to the farm with her husband, she is thrilled with the prospect of living off of the land in a secluded area. She is not there a day before Mary comes over and "befriend" her. The two never quite have a friendship but they feel a kinship due to their similar situations. However, the tumultuous 1920s and 1930s push both women to their breaking point. Family and farm matters only further complicate their relationship which evolves from mutual respect and kinship to distrust and hate.
As with many excellent novels, there is no single climax. The story unfolds much as life does with ups and downs some of which can be foreseen while others wreck havoc for years in the future. The story is told in alternating voices between the two women. I was nervous about this aspect because I find such a technique to be kitschy when not done right. Yet, Hoover is able to master this device in a way that hasn't been done in years if not decades. Though there are some mysteries throughout the novel that keep you intrigued, I realized at the conclusion that the answers to all of these questions were sprinkled throughout the book. It is for this reason that I caution readers to notice each word. While other books allow for the occasional skipping of pages without much loss of plot, this novel captivates the reader and insists that he/she reads every sentence carefully. I honestly believe that this novel will become a classic of our time, which is saying a lot for a debut author!
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
The novel starts in the early 1900s and follows Mary Morrow and Enidina Current as they live, work, and raise their families on two nearby farms. Mary is delicate, judgmental, and not particularly able to take the blame for her own actions. Though one would think that this would make her an unlikable character, it instead makes her easy to relate to at times and very real. Enidina Current was born to work the hard land. She is strongly built, strong willed, and extremely hard working. When she moves to the farm with her husband, she is thrilled with the prospect of living off of the land in a secluded area. She is not there a day before Mary comes over and "befriend" her. The two never quite have a friendship but they feel a kinship due to their similar situations. However, the tumultuous 1920s and 1930s push both women to their breaking point. Family and farm matters only further complicate their relationship which evolves from mutual respect and kinship to distrust and hate.
As with many excellent novels, there is no single climax. The story unfolds much as life does with ups and downs some of which can be foreseen while others wreck havoc for years in the future. The story is told in alternating voices between the two women. I was nervous about this aspect because I find such a technique to be kitschy when not done right. Yet, Hoover is able to master this device in a way that hasn't been done in years if not decades. Though there are some mysteries throughout the novel that keep you intrigued, I realized at the conclusion that the answers to all of these questions were sprinkled throughout the book. It is for this reason that I caution readers to notice each word. While other books allow for the occasional skipping of pages without much loss of plot, this novel captivates the reader and insists that he/she reads every sentence carefully. I honestly believe that this novel will become a classic of our time, which is saying a lot for a debut author!
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
February 3, 2013
Masterful. I read this literally in one day. It was that gripping and engaging. The story is tragic, heart-rending, and difficult.Two women live on neighboring farms on the remote plains of the Midwest in the early 1900s. They must rely on each other to survive the difficulties of Plains life. They reluctantly become friends as well as neighbors. Their lives intertwine more than they'd like, with tragic results. There's violence. A lot of it. And a lot of sadness. Don't read this if you're looking for a lift. But you will come away feeling impressed and feeling like you know a little bit more about the human drive to survive at all costs.
The story is haunting, the voices lyrical. This is not a feel-good book. You know from the start that things are going to go wrong, and horribly so, and you sort of know what those things will be. But Hoover is such a skilled writer that you want to go along for the ride. She manages to create an atmosphere that is oppressive and foreboding without ever actually describing things in such a way. Even though you know what the bad things are that are going to happen, what the surprises are that will be revealed at the end, you keep reading because you want to hear her reveal them. And there's one big surprise at the end that I wasn't expecting, that I enjoyed learning.
A grim read, but a moving and engaging one. It made me think of Mudbound, which I read a year or two ago in the same fashion: All in one afternoon, in one go. The sign of an engaging book, for me. As well as the sign of a grim book. I tend to want to get through them fast--of course taking time to appreciate the language, but part of me just wants them to end so I can return to a world of light at the end. Phew. Anyway, looking forward to seeing what else Ms. Hoover writes.
The story is haunting, the voices lyrical. This is not a feel-good book. You know from the start that things are going to go wrong, and horribly so, and you sort of know what those things will be. But Hoover is such a skilled writer that you want to go along for the ride. She manages to create an atmosphere that is oppressive and foreboding without ever actually describing things in such a way. Even though you know what the bad things are that are going to happen, what the surprises are that will be revealed at the end, you keep reading because you want to hear her reveal them. And there's one big surprise at the end that I wasn't expecting, that I enjoyed learning.
A grim read, but a moving and engaging one. It made me think of Mudbound, which I read a year or two ago in the same fashion: All in one afternoon, in one go. The sign of an engaging book, for me. As well as the sign of a grim book. I tend to want to get through them fast--of course taking time to appreciate the language, but part of me just wants them to end so I can return to a world of light at the end. Phew. Anyway, looking forward to seeing what else Ms. Hoover writes.
November 16, 2011
The Quickening is a subdued story based on two women who live in Iowa in the early 1900s though the story actually takes us all the way through 1950. Mary is a proper housewife with spotless floors and shined silver and a yearning for something more. Her husband Jack is hard working and equally hot tempered. Mary's neighbor Enidina (Eddie) likes to get her hands dirty and works alongside her kind husband Frank as they tend to their fields and care for their animals. [return][return]From their first meeting as neighbors Mary and Eddie don't quite understand each other and their relationship never does turn into a friendship despite the fact that they really don’t have anyone else to turn to as they are the only people for miles in every direction. These families overlap throughout the years and we learn what kind of people they become as they face all that life throws.[return][return]Mary has two boys, eventually three and though Enidina wants terribly to have children she has trouble keeping a pregnancy. She does go on to bear children which brings her great joy and eventually great sorrow. The title refers to the pregnancy movement (also called quickening) that Enidina feels through so many pregnancies and through much of the book. One could make a case that another sort of quickening occurred in the other story lines. [return][return]The writing mirrors the mood from that time - concise and quiet, almost sad. Though I believe this style of writing contributed greatly to the storylines which were understated and depressing yet really interesting.
May 9, 2013
This is the kind of novel that often says more in its chapter breaks than other novels say in an entire chapter.
The Midwest farmland that serves as its setting transforms almost immediately from being a beautiful, wide-open home to a stark, haunted, claustrophobic prison. The fields seem entirely too small to hold the personalities of the two women who serve as the book's narrators and protagonists, Enidina and Mary. Their loneliness and isolation, paradoxically, make the farmlands seem too crowded with their families.
The aching toll farm work takes on their bodies, the overpowering smell of slaughtered pig, and the dizzying isolation of their illnesses are all described with acute, sensory detail, while the tension between the two families plays out in the subtext between every plainspoken dialogue. Even the passage of time, and how slow or quickly it feels, is conveyed in simple sentences: when Enidina and her husband discover that the Great War has ended, Enidina simply notes, "But the fields were the same." When Mary feels as though she and her stormy huband, Jack, are starting to reconcile their differences and he surprises her with a grand gift, all of the uneasiness returns to the pages in one sentence, when Jack says of the present, "This is to keep you home."
It is a sad and at times brutal story told with a subtle grace that does not spare its protagonists (or its readers) any of the agonies of building a home and a family, in the farmlands of the early 20th century or anywhere.
The Midwest farmland that serves as its setting transforms almost immediately from being a beautiful, wide-open home to a stark, haunted, claustrophobic prison. The fields seem entirely too small to hold the personalities of the two women who serve as the book's narrators and protagonists, Enidina and Mary. Their loneliness and isolation, paradoxically, make the farmlands seem too crowded with their families.
The aching toll farm work takes on their bodies, the overpowering smell of slaughtered pig, and the dizzying isolation of their illnesses are all described with acute, sensory detail, while the tension between the two families plays out in the subtext between every plainspoken dialogue. Even the passage of time, and how slow or quickly it feels, is conveyed in simple sentences: when Enidina and her husband discover that the Great War has ended, Enidina simply notes, "But the fields were the same." When Mary feels as though she and her stormy huband, Jack, are starting to reconcile their differences and he surprises her with a grand gift, all of the uneasiness returns to the pages in one sentence, when Jack says of the present, "This is to keep you home."
It is a sad and at times brutal story told with a subtle grace that does not spare its protagonists (or its readers) any of the agonies of building a home and a family, in the farmlands of the early 20th century or anywhere.
September 6, 2010
Michelle Hoover sat me at the kitchen tables of her characters in her stunning novel, The Quickening, and served me a slice of the human condition I will never forget.
Her book is a brutally honest narrative of Edwina Current and Mary Morrow, neighbors who are thrown together because of their need for companionship on the isolated Midwest plains in the early 20th century. In it we hear out-of-tune piano music in a tiny church; we smell the blood of the slaughtered sow; we feel the singe of a prairie fire. The birth of a child, the harvest of a crop, a successful batch of pancakes – nothing could be taken for granted for these women.
For those of us accustomed to supermarkets, air conditioners and cell phones, it is an uncomfortable read. Convenience and connectedness were hard to come by the characters in Michelle Hoover’s story. However, the deeper I dove into The Quickening, the more I realized the story was real and profoundly important. I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this exquisitely written novel. I deeply respect Ms. Hoover’s courage in telling a tale of isolation, loss, betrayal and desperation on the unforgiving land her characters long to tame.
Most highly recommended. An excellent book for book club discussions.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of
Crestmont
Her book is a brutally honest narrative of Edwina Current and Mary Morrow, neighbors who are thrown together because of their need for companionship on the isolated Midwest plains in the early 20th century. In it we hear out-of-tune piano music in a tiny church; we smell the blood of the slaughtered sow; we feel the singe of a prairie fire. The birth of a child, the harvest of a crop, a successful batch of pancakes – nothing could be taken for granted for these women.
For those of us accustomed to supermarkets, air conditioners and cell phones, it is an uncomfortable read. Convenience and connectedness were hard to come by the characters in Michelle Hoover’s story. However, the deeper I dove into The Quickening, the more I realized the story was real and profoundly important. I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this exquisitely written novel. I deeply respect Ms. Hoover’s courage in telling a tale of isolation, loss, betrayal and desperation on the unforgiving land her characters long to tame.
Most highly recommended. An excellent book for book club discussions.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of
Crestmont
September 4, 2011
THE QUICKENING, Michelle Hoover’s sparkling, Depression-era, debut novel is a treasure on every level. The title is so well chosen in its promise of volatility; its suggestion of both peril and new life. Some kind of upheaval, the possibility of ruin. In the case of Enidina Current and Mary Morrow, the true peril that binds them is found in their silences, the things they don’t say, but only feel and think about one another. The women have little in common despite shared lives on neighboring hardscrabble farms in the upper Midwest. They’re forced together more through isolation than anything else and have little understanding of one another. Enidina isn’t beautiful; she’s big and works as hard as her husband Frank. Mary is fine-boned, delicate and lovely and harbors an awful secret. The women’s reliance on one other is borne of necessity and the drive for self-preservation, but the delicate balance of friendship they manage to achieve is riddled with threat from the elements and from government regulations and from the power of their own desires and emotions. In THE QUICKENING Hoover has created an entire world that is evocative and compelling and hard to leave behind. The novel shares a sensibility with Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres in both setting and mood, the complexity of character and the lovely flow of its language. It’s an absolutely riveting read and I highly recommend it.
October 14, 2010
The quickening is a first novel by Michelle Hoover. I hope there will be more to come. Set in a farm community in the Midwest during the first half of the 20th century, the tale is told in alternating chapters in the voices of two women, Eddie and Mary, who are each other's nearest neighbors. Friends? Mmmm . . . not so much. Spare and sere are the adjectives that come to mind.
I'm still thinking about this one, as the characters are about 10 years older than my grandparents, and it's hard for me to imagine them living in the kind of isolation Eddie's & Mary's families seem to.
But the story and the characters are internally believable, though I didn't like Mary much. I'd be interested in hearing from someone who did, just to hear another interpretation.
What didn't work for me was the author's description early in the book of the "accident" that affected Mary's family's standing in the community. It sounded like an illness - polio? to me. Finding out what really happened later in the book made me reevaluate Mary's actions & motivations, but I wish the author had been more skillful at foreshadowing.
I'm still thinking about this one, as the characters are about 10 years older than my grandparents, and it's hard for me to imagine them living in the kind of isolation Eddie's & Mary's families seem to.
But the story and the characters are internally believable, though I didn't like Mary much. I'd be interested in hearing from someone who did, just to hear another interpretation.
What didn't work for me was the author's description early in the book of the "accident" that affected Mary's family's standing in the community. It sounded like an illness - polio? to me. Finding out what really happened later in the book made me reevaluate Mary's actions & motivations, but I wish the author had been more skillful at foreshadowing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews