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Old Border Road
Katherine is 17, living alone in the beautiful, desolate landscape of southern Arizona. Her mother is feckless, her father busy with his new family. Meeting Son, the scion of a local rancher, seems like deliverance. They marry and live as a family in his parents' venerable adobe house, but it soon becomes clear that Son is a man who, as his father says, has a "young heart near withered beneath the breastbone."
Katherine must find her own way during a dangerous months-long drought, when everything seems to be disintegrating around her. Susan Froderberg's incantatory language--and her deep knowledge of both the complexities of a small, deeply-rooted place and the human heart--make OLD BORDER ROAD soar.
Katherine must find her own way during a dangerous months-long drought, when everything seems to be disintegrating around her. Susan Froderberg's incantatory language--and her deep knowledge of both the complexities of a small, deeply-rooted place and the human heart--make OLD BORDER ROAD soar.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 9, 2010
5 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
About the author
Susan Froderberg
2 books6 followersSusan Froderberg is the author of the novel OLD BORDER ROAD (Little, Brown - 2010) (Back Bay Books - 2011) and MYSTERIUM (FSG - 2018). Her short stories have appeared in Epoch, Antioch Review, Conjunctions, Alaska Quarterly, New York Tyrant, Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, among others. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in NYC.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
February 22, 2011
Dozens of books have promised the sentiment "for lovers of Cormac McCarthy" and left me sorely disappointed. But, in this claim, Froderberg is truly McCarthy's literary offspring, echoing his hot, haunting brand of southwest essence, desert landscape, and gothic narrative elixir, if not yet fully capturing his linguistic sublimity and lethal, graveyard humor. In this ambitious debut novel, the author explores desperate and broken souls living through a drought in southern Arizona--a land of sand and scrub, cactus stands, spiny shrubs, bitterbrush, dusty maiden, diamondbacks, rodeos, distant foothills, punishing climate, and an endless starlit sky. If you don't like McCarthy's prose style, you surely won't relish Froderberg's highly stylized prose and narrative, either. If, like me, you adore McCarthy's (particularly his southwest) lore, such as The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, the Crossing, Cities of the Plain (Everyman's Library), then you can potentially connect with and savor this quasi-mythical tale.
Seventeen-year-old bride Katherine lives with her (significantly older) husband, Son, and his kind-hearted and affluent parents, Rose and "Rose's Daddy," on their ranch on Old Border Road, in a stately adobe house above an aquifer. Rose's Daddy calls Katherine "Girl" (affectionately), and Son calls her Darlin.' She accepts her new identity and learns how to live and work on the ranch, including horse riding, barrel racing, and driving the water truck. Besides prospering from the ranch, Rose's Daddy channels water to the coast, just like his father did, earning a heavy bounty and a lot of frowns from the local people. He tells Girl the history of the nomads who wandered to this land, leading up to his own father's industrious wealth.
"They sought a fabled people within a fabled landscape. They sought a promised life...They walked across sandbanks of hot ash, the ground on which they walked trembling like paper sheeting, as if it were a fiery lake bubbling and steaming right beneath them."
The narrative, told in Katherine's voice, reads a lot like gothic fable. Although set in contemporary times, there is a timeless quality about it, and the author's temporal sense is frequently ephemeral. Like McCarthy, she plays with tenses, and sustains a biblical subtext and timbre.
"The words as they were chalked, the sand and the dust, the grime and the duff and the tar and the oil and the mud, and whatever else of the earth we collect along the way, will all be washed away in the moon after, once we are back to here where we are, to begin another beginning."
Katherine tells the story of the drought, of Son's cruel infidelities, stemming from Rose's Daddy's infidelities, of Rose's fragility, and the ghosts of stories that still haunt the adobe house. The desire of Katherine to stand by Son is increasingly frustrating as the story progresses, but taken as poetic fable, I was able to tolerate it. The characters are often not what they seem, and some shocking revelations are even more unnerving to the reader as the protagonist continues to honor her spousal obligations. Most characters do not develop over time; rather, they are gradually amplified, the aperture widens, and the person you see is more resonant and less inscrutable, but unchanged. Unlike McCarthy, the author portrays a woman with some finesse.
There is a New Age priest, known as Padre, who beguiles his congregation with a noble mien and zen-like homilies, and whose relationship with Katherine leads her to a further maturity of mind, while she retains her fastness of character, deepening it. A rancher and businesswoman named Pearl Hart, her husband, Ham, and her daughter, also named Pearl, round out the story and enlarge the myth and mystery of the town.
You don't read this novel for the individual characters but for their fate, and for Katherine's. You read it for the themes of disillusionment and strength; the narrative grip of lush, elliptical language; the earthly elements that imperil and fortify these marginal people; and for the landscape that resounds like a character. You tacitly observe what is in a name, and what is not.
At times, the author's talent overreaches, and the overwrought language and florid descriptions threaten to choke the narrative flow. I occasionally experienced reader fatigue. Froderberg hasn't yet harnessed the nuanced linguistics and tension of McCarthy and his ability to create a chemical reaction in the reader, although she clearly is aspiring to. The tale acquired some dark humor toward the end, which the story was begging for at intervals. The problem with her style so closely resembling the master is that she hasn't fully developed her own unique one. When she fails to attain McCarthy's bracing, muscular tongue and allegorical depth, the reader notices her self-conscious drive to try.
As a novelist, this is Susan Froderberg's first rodeo, and I am inclined to give the rope some slack. She is a debut author that will surely evolve over time. This is an earnest, inspired start, and facets of the story were well realized. I was exceptionally moved when I came to the last line of the story, a sentence that touched me with its purity, subtlety, and pith. Those final words fall strikingly smooth on the page, seizing the moment with indelible ink, without a hitch, without a sound.
Seventeen-year-old bride Katherine lives with her (significantly older) husband, Son, and his kind-hearted and affluent parents, Rose and "Rose's Daddy," on their ranch on Old Border Road, in a stately adobe house above an aquifer. Rose's Daddy calls Katherine "Girl" (affectionately), and Son calls her Darlin.' She accepts her new identity and learns how to live and work on the ranch, including horse riding, barrel racing, and driving the water truck. Besides prospering from the ranch, Rose's Daddy channels water to the coast, just like his father did, earning a heavy bounty and a lot of frowns from the local people. He tells Girl the history of the nomads who wandered to this land, leading up to his own father's industrious wealth.
"They sought a fabled people within a fabled landscape. They sought a promised life...They walked across sandbanks of hot ash, the ground on which they walked trembling like paper sheeting, as if it were a fiery lake bubbling and steaming right beneath them."
The narrative, told in Katherine's voice, reads a lot like gothic fable. Although set in contemporary times, there is a timeless quality about it, and the author's temporal sense is frequently ephemeral. Like McCarthy, she plays with tenses, and sustains a biblical subtext and timbre.
"The words as they were chalked, the sand and the dust, the grime and the duff and the tar and the oil and the mud, and whatever else of the earth we collect along the way, will all be washed away in the moon after, once we are back to here where we are, to begin another beginning."
Katherine tells the story of the drought, of Son's cruel infidelities, stemming from Rose's Daddy's infidelities, of Rose's fragility, and the ghosts of stories that still haunt the adobe house. The desire of Katherine to stand by Son is increasingly frustrating as the story progresses, but taken as poetic fable, I was able to tolerate it. The characters are often not what they seem, and some shocking revelations are even more unnerving to the reader as the protagonist continues to honor her spousal obligations. Most characters do not develop over time; rather, they are gradually amplified, the aperture widens, and the person you see is more resonant and less inscrutable, but unchanged. Unlike McCarthy, the author portrays a woman with some finesse.
There is a New Age priest, known as Padre, who beguiles his congregation with a noble mien and zen-like homilies, and whose relationship with Katherine leads her to a further maturity of mind, while she retains her fastness of character, deepening it. A rancher and businesswoman named Pearl Hart, her husband, Ham, and her daughter, also named Pearl, round out the story and enlarge the myth and mystery of the town.
You don't read this novel for the individual characters but for their fate, and for Katherine's. You read it for the themes of disillusionment and strength; the narrative grip of lush, elliptical language; the earthly elements that imperil and fortify these marginal people; and for the landscape that resounds like a character. You tacitly observe what is in a name, and what is not.
At times, the author's talent overreaches, and the overwrought language and florid descriptions threaten to choke the narrative flow. I occasionally experienced reader fatigue. Froderberg hasn't yet harnessed the nuanced linguistics and tension of McCarthy and his ability to create a chemical reaction in the reader, although she clearly is aspiring to. The tale acquired some dark humor toward the end, which the story was begging for at intervals. The problem with her style so closely resembling the master is that she hasn't fully developed her own unique one. When she fails to attain McCarthy's bracing, muscular tongue and allegorical depth, the reader notices her self-conscious drive to try.
As a novelist, this is Susan Froderberg's first rodeo, and I am inclined to give the rope some slack. She is a debut author that will surely evolve over time. This is an earnest, inspired start, and facets of the story were well realized. I was exceptionally moved when I came to the last line of the story, a sentence that touched me with its purity, subtlety, and pith. Those final words fall strikingly smooth on the page, seizing the moment with indelible ink, without a hitch, without a sound.
July 28, 2025
This was a subtle story, beautifully written in lyrical, mesmerizing prose, with intricately drawn characters and an incredibly rich sense of setting.
Ratings:
Writing 5
Story line 4.5
Characters 5
Impact/enjoyment 4.5
Overall rating 4.75
Ratings:
Writing 5
Story line 4.5
Characters 5
Impact/enjoyment 4.5
Overall rating 4.75
January 15, 2011
I have read, for the second time, Old Border Road. What a great book!
Susan Froderberg's novel is written with powerful and beautifully poetic language that takes one to a timeless place--dry and desolate-- filled with characters that are strange and compelling.
Susan Froderberg's novel is written with powerful and beautifully poetic language that takes one to a timeless place--dry and desolate-- filled with characters that are strange and compelling.
November 26, 2013
When people talk about genre fiction, their list peters out somewhere after romance and sci-fi - long before they get down to westerns, those once-mighty bestsellers that now seem as quaint as leather fringe. (Quick: Who won this year's Spur Award?) You don't have to be all that old to remember an era when the sun rose every day on novels about cowboys and horses, but two decades after Louis L'Amour took his boots off, Bantam is publishing his books in "Legacy Editions," a sclerotic label if there ever was one. Cormac McCarthy has left horses for the apocalypse. And reviewing a Larry McMurtry novel last year, our reviewer said, "The prose seems summary in nature, imparting a 'let's get this over with' quality."
Them would be fightin' words if anybody still cared.
So I'm doubly curious to see a talented new writer publish her first novel about the tribulations of a ranch family in southern Arizona. Admittedly, "Old Border Road" isn't a western by any formal definition of the term, but Susan Froderberg builds on those old tropes to tell a mournful story of men and women scraping by on America's arid frontier. These people use trucks and electricity and telephones, but they still depend on the land and their horses and especially the weather, and the big event in their future is the regional rodeo. In many ways, it's a world that seems closer to the 19th century than the 21st, and like Karen Fisher's "A Sudden Country" and Molly Gloss's "The Hearts of Horses," this is a Western transformed by its focus on a young woman.
The story itself is fairly thin, but Froderberg's narrator, 17-year-old Katherine, has a raw poetic voice that makes the tale an arresting incantation of longing and regret. Katherine's plans of one day becoming a scientist are brushed aside when she drops out of high school to marry a cocky young cowboy named Son. (He introduces himself by unclasping her halter top; he's classy like that.) After a wedding marked by enough omens to give Oedipus second thoughts, she says, "I am so much in love these days, I take pity on anyone who isn't us. . . . Yes, we are yet the happy pair, we are, with not a thing to mar any day of all the days on the road for us." That rueful allusion to "Paradise Lost" - "Live while ye may, yet happy pair" - recurs throughout the novel, gathering beneath it Katherine's disappointed hopes.
Amply alerted by these foreboding lines, no one should be surprised that Son makes a pretty wretched spouse, but Froderberg, who has a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University, has written a story thick with atmosphere, not suspense. When Katherine moves in with Son's parents, she falls under the care of two rather odd people. Her mother-in-law, Rose, teaches her how to be a good farm wife, which mostly involves ignoring a husband's philandering. And her father-in-law, creepily nicknamed Rose's Daddy, sits around delivering blessings and jeremiads in King James Version English: "Henceforth, the world entered upon modern times and man came to believe in the power of himself, rather than believing in that of which he was made and of what made him," he proclaims in a typically grandiose riff. "They groped in the noonday as in the nighttime. And within the blackness of the days, humankind was terrified."
Katherine takes in a lot of Rose's Daddy's mythology - it is, to be honest, weirdly enthralling - but she retains a kernel of her natural teenage skepticism, too, and what we see during the months that follow is a series of emotionally intense, impressionistic scenes that seem fraught with doom. Froderberg gives over a lot of control to her young, unschooled narrator, allowing the story to follow Katherine's interests without much concern for context or elaboration or, sometimes, chronology. Water rights, local and international politics and ancestral real estate claims hover on the edges of Katherine's consciousness and around the margins of these pages. Alluring characters fade in and out of the foreground, and we learn about them only erratically, always aware that we don't really know much about them at all. A seductive minister dressed in white preaches a flatulent New Age doctrine of self-actualization that seems comically irrelevant to these parched ranchers. A wealthy beauty named Pearl Hart seems as ready to crush Katherine as help her.
Almost the entire story takes place during a drought that slowly bakes everything for hundreds of square miles around. It's a conflagration in slow motion - a "calamity of the heat and the dust" - and Froderberg displays a limitless capacity for describing its effects: "The sere drives desert rodents and millipedes to hole in the earth, it singes wings of monarchs, silences chickadees, sends cacti into dormancy, has every animal panting." The drought also drives human beings to extremes, even while it destroys the local economy, plays havoc with water rights and inspires Rose's Daddy to make even more dire proclamations about the folly of man.
This is a novel that teaches you how to read it, and you either join in or get outta town. The effect is often moving and evocative, if at times irritatingly vague - an Old West version of Toni Morrison. It's good to be reminded again that this classic American form is no one-trick pony; it's still evolving, still turning those sepia myths into challenging new fiction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Them would be fightin' words if anybody still cared.
So I'm doubly curious to see a talented new writer publish her first novel about the tribulations of a ranch family in southern Arizona. Admittedly, "Old Border Road" isn't a western by any formal definition of the term, but Susan Froderberg builds on those old tropes to tell a mournful story of men and women scraping by on America's arid frontier. These people use trucks and electricity and telephones, but they still depend on the land and their horses and especially the weather, and the big event in their future is the regional rodeo. In many ways, it's a world that seems closer to the 19th century than the 21st, and like Karen Fisher's "A Sudden Country" and Molly Gloss's "The Hearts of Horses," this is a Western transformed by its focus on a young woman.
The story itself is fairly thin, but Froderberg's narrator, 17-year-old Katherine, has a raw poetic voice that makes the tale an arresting incantation of longing and regret. Katherine's plans of one day becoming a scientist are brushed aside when she drops out of high school to marry a cocky young cowboy named Son. (He introduces himself by unclasping her halter top; he's classy like that.) After a wedding marked by enough omens to give Oedipus second thoughts, she says, "I am so much in love these days, I take pity on anyone who isn't us. . . . Yes, we are yet the happy pair, we are, with not a thing to mar any day of all the days on the road for us." That rueful allusion to "Paradise Lost" - "Live while ye may, yet happy pair" - recurs throughout the novel, gathering beneath it Katherine's disappointed hopes.
Amply alerted by these foreboding lines, no one should be surprised that Son makes a pretty wretched spouse, but Froderberg, who has a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University, has written a story thick with atmosphere, not suspense. When Katherine moves in with Son's parents, she falls under the care of two rather odd people. Her mother-in-law, Rose, teaches her how to be a good farm wife, which mostly involves ignoring a husband's philandering. And her father-in-law, creepily nicknamed Rose's Daddy, sits around delivering blessings and jeremiads in King James Version English: "Henceforth, the world entered upon modern times and man came to believe in the power of himself, rather than believing in that of which he was made and of what made him," he proclaims in a typically grandiose riff. "They groped in the noonday as in the nighttime. And within the blackness of the days, humankind was terrified."
Katherine takes in a lot of Rose's Daddy's mythology - it is, to be honest, weirdly enthralling - but she retains a kernel of her natural teenage skepticism, too, and what we see during the months that follow is a series of emotionally intense, impressionistic scenes that seem fraught with doom. Froderberg gives over a lot of control to her young, unschooled narrator, allowing the story to follow Katherine's interests without much concern for context or elaboration or, sometimes, chronology. Water rights, local and international politics and ancestral real estate claims hover on the edges of Katherine's consciousness and around the margins of these pages. Alluring characters fade in and out of the foreground, and we learn about them only erratically, always aware that we don't really know much about them at all. A seductive minister dressed in white preaches a flatulent New Age doctrine of self-actualization that seems comically irrelevant to these parched ranchers. A wealthy beauty named Pearl Hart seems as ready to crush Katherine as help her.
Almost the entire story takes place during a drought that slowly bakes everything for hundreds of square miles around. It's a conflagration in slow motion - a "calamity of the heat and the dust" - and Froderberg displays a limitless capacity for describing its effects: "The sere drives desert rodents and millipedes to hole in the earth, it singes wings of monarchs, silences chickadees, sends cacti into dormancy, has every animal panting." The drought also drives human beings to extremes, even while it destroys the local economy, plays havoc with water rights and inspires Rose's Daddy to make even more dire proclamations about the folly of man.
This is a novel that teaches you how to read it, and you either join in or get outta town. The effect is often moving and evocative, if at times irritatingly vague - an Old West version of Toni Morrison. It's good to be reminded again that this classic American form is no one-trick pony; it's still evolving, still turning those sepia myths into challenging new fiction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
February 3, 2011
The writing was poetic, but the voice did not match the character and they were, at best, one dimensional and tedious. Such miserable souls, didn't really care what happens. This is one of those that I wished that I could not finish a book, it is just not in my nature.
January 30, 2011
Sublime language, enthralling characters, magnificent setting! Looking forward to Froderberg's next book!
September 11, 2017
another book I want to reread immediately. absolutely beautifully, sparsely written. a haunting novel of betrayal, hardship, and the will to survive.
February 11, 2021
Don’t really know what to write about this book. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. I don’t know at all what to think of the ending. Sad and strange.
December 5, 2024
I love this book for its stylistic acrobatics. And have already recommended it to several people who like "pick-up truck westerns." This one goes beyond that genre into literary fiction. The ending is a bit disappointing but all the way there is a wild ride.
February 27, 2020
Don't bother to read this one. A truly depressing story with no real plot and simple characters. Ironically, the author's writing style is extremely pretentious and a poor match for the story.
December 18, 2024
call me crazy but this book kind of serves Fleabag if it was set in cowboy territory
February 28, 2012
A dry, hot and dusty tale of young love.
Old Border Road is about a headstrong and very young bride newly wed into a prosperous desert family. People are archetypes. Her husband is called Son. Son's father, father also of Rose, is called Rose's Daddy and by no other name. All of the elders speak in poetic, sometimes biblical or even prophetic language. The author's voice twists and bends language poetically to make you think about the meaning behind the surface of the words. The locale is unspecified but clearly resonates with the landscape near Yuma, Arizona. The heat is palpable. You can feel the grit of the sand and dust in your throat.
The rodeo is coming and our protagonist is being groomed to ride in the barrel race. Her husband is a philandering louse. She is nurtured by her in-laws, but not by either of her parents. Much grief comes to the elders in this dark tale of financial ruin, natural disaster, death, crippling injury and adulterous betrayal. Water and water rights, drought and endless searing heat are as much characters as the people.
This manner of writing requires close attention. Words are used in unusual ways. What the characters say needs attention, especially the difference between what is found on the page and what is commonly spoken or written. I found the language more appropriate to a more disturbed protagonist than our clearly intelligent and more or less rational girl bride. She is both mentally healthy and mentally tough. Her voice is stream of consciousness with a twist, partaking of an innocent perception of terrible events.
There is a fairly straightforward plot. I wanted to find out what was happening next and how the characters would respond to their changing circumstances. I came to care for the protagonist and those elders who cared for her. The poetic and challenging language gave a powerful sense of place, but made following the plot more of a chore. I look forward to more from this obviously talented writer.
Old Border Road is about a headstrong and very young bride newly wed into a prosperous desert family. People are archetypes. Her husband is called Son. Son's father, father also of Rose, is called Rose's Daddy and by no other name. All of the elders speak in poetic, sometimes biblical or even prophetic language. The author's voice twists and bends language poetically to make you think about the meaning behind the surface of the words. The locale is unspecified but clearly resonates with the landscape near Yuma, Arizona. The heat is palpable. You can feel the grit of the sand and dust in your throat.
The rodeo is coming and our protagonist is being groomed to ride in the barrel race. Her husband is a philandering louse. She is nurtured by her in-laws, but not by either of her parents. Much grief comes to the elders in this dark tale of financial ruin, natural disaster, death, crippling injury and adulterous betrayal. Water and water rights, drought and endless searing heat are as much characters as the people.
This manner of writing requires close attention. Words are used in unusual ways. What the characters say needs attention, especially the difference between what is found on the page and what is commonly spoken or written. I found the language more appropriate to a more disturbed protagonist than our clearly intelligent and more or less rational girl bride. She is both mentally healthy and mentally tough. Her voice is stream of consciousness with a twist, partaking of an innocent perception of terrible events.
There is a fairly straightforward plot. I wanted to find out what was happening next and how the characters would respond to their changing circumstances. I came to care for the protagonist and those elders who cared for her. The poetic and challenging language gave a powerful sense of place, but made following the plot more of a chore. I look forward to more from this obviously talented writer.
July 7, 2011
7/3/11:
Although I am only two chapters into this book, I'm struggling with the writing style. The author has been sprinkling each page with words that I have to stop and look up because there are so many in such close proximity that I have no way to use context to suss out the meaning. This is such an unusual reading experience for me that I find myself impatient and frustrated with the book and the author.
For the second time today I have set the book aside and gone off to find something else to do, (again a very unusual reading experience for me), and I question whether I will be able to finish this one.
7/6/11:
Out of curiosity, I began keeping track of how many words I came across that were unfamiliar to me and that I couldn't either immediately guess using context or dismiss as possibly from another language given the book's setting. In three pages I came across 12. That seems like a large proportion, as I had not recorded ALL of the words that were unknown.
The writing style became more familiar as I went along and therefore easier to follow to some extent, but reading this book was effortful. The story was told in a forward and back manner that often told the outcome and then went back to tell the cause, without necessarily making it clear that this is what was happening.
As for the story, there were moments that seemed as though the plotline was about to redeem itself, but it never fully came through for me. I was just as lost and unsure at the ending as I was at the start.
Sadly, this book was a loss for me.
Although I am only two chapters into this book, I'm struggling with the writing style. The author has been sprinkling each page with words that I have to stop and look up because there are so many in such close proximity that I have no way to use context to suss out the meaning. This is such an unusual reading experience for me that I find myself impatient and frustrated with the book and the author.
For the second time today I have set the book aside and gone off to find something else to do, (again a very unusual reading experience for me), and I question whether I will be able to finish this one.
7/6/11:
Out of curiosity, I began keeping track of how many words I came across that were unfamiliar to me and that I couldn't either immediately guess using context or dismiss as possibly from another language given the book's setting. In three pages I came across 12. That seems like a large proportion, as I had not recorded ALL of the words that were unknown.
The writing style became more familiar as I went along and therefore easier to follow to some extent, but reading this book was effortful. The story was told in a forward and back manner that often told the outcome and then went back to tell the cause, without necessarily making it clear that this is what was happening.
As for the story, there were moments that seemed as though the plotline was about to redeem itself, but it never fully came through for me. I was just as lost and unsure at the ending as I was at the start.
Sadly, this book was a loss for me.
October 19, 2010
Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg was a hard read for me. The story is about a young woman named Katherine who married young to a man named Son. Katherine moves with Son and begins to think she can have the happy family with her handsome new husband. Although Katherine soon finds out after her honeymoon that Son is a philander with little regard to how she feels. Son stays out almost every night drinking and cheating with a string of women. Katherine finds the only solace with his parents, which even though they are displeased with their son's behavior they too dismiss Katherine's hurt. I had a hard time getting into the book, for one I felt that Katherine's character lacked substance and depth. I also thought that Katherine lacked very little emotion especially with finding her garnet necklace around her husband's mistress. Katherine finds her escape from her horrible marriage in the horses she soon becomes fond of, although the horses belong to the parents of the girl that her husband is having an affair with. The story ends with Son having an accident with a horse which Katherine the ever dutiful wife stays by his side until the end.
December 1, 2010
Old Border Road has exceptional descriptions of characters, situations, and Arizona scenery. The characters are unique, and the storyline is appealing.
The main character, Katherine, lives with her in-laws in southern Arizona and must work with them in their everyday routine of keeping up their ranch while her husband is habitually absent at night. Katherine has to work hard, deal with unhappiness, deal with loneliness, and with THE KNOWING. As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walked down the aisle as a seventeen-year-old bride have been an omen for her life's path?
Katherine....aka as "Girl" learns how to rope cattle, ride horses, make dinners, repair clothing, and cope with a drought plaguing Arizona. All characters mesh well together even though they are distinct in their own ways.
Ms. Froderberg's style is splendid...her beautiful prose reels you into the tale and allows you to become absorbed in the lives of Girl, Son, and Rose's Daddy.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book...it is one you will want to read as well. 5/5
The main character, Katherine, lives with her in-laws in southern Arizona and must work with them in their everyday routine of keeping up their ranch while her husband is habitually absent at night. Katherine has to work hard, deal with unhappiness, deal with loneliness, and with THE KNOWING. As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walked down the aisle as a seventeen-year-old bride have been an omen for her life's path?
Katherine....aka as "Girl" learns how to rope cattle, ride horses, make dinners, repair clothing, and cope with a drought plaguing Arizona. All characters mesh well together even though they are distinct in their own ways.
Ms. Froderberg's style is splendid...her beautiful prose reels you into the tale and allows you to become absorbed in the lives of Girl, Son, and Rose's Daddy.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book...it is one you will want to read as well. 5/5
December 19, 2010
OLD BORDER ROAD by Susan Froderberg is a contemporary romance set in Arizona. This is a story of girl meets boy. Yes, Girl is her name and boy's name is Son. It has teenage marriage, martial conflict,and life changes.Son is the son of a weathy rancher.Girl marries young only seventeen. Son is a gambler, a cheat, a drinker and cheats on his young bride. A drought hits Arizona causing families to have to struggle. After Son's father commits sucide, Girl decides to leave her cheating, drinking husband. But Sun gets into an accident and Girl returns back to care for him. Something in this book just didn't click for me. I don't know if the writing was more complicated than needed or the characters just didn't same to have true faces and identities.It just couldn't same to get into the story line. This book was received for the purpose of review from the publisher and details can be found at Little, Brown,and Company and My Book Addiction and More.
February 8, 2011
In Old Border Road young Katherine grows up poor and neglected in rural, drought ridden Arizona. When she falls in love with Son, the only child of a local rancher, marrying him seems the way out of her desolate life. Though his parents accept her as part of the family, it is soon clear that Son himself is beaten down by the drought and other circumstances and has no will or motivation to help her create a better life. As the drought worsens their marriage falls apart.
This book was just too bleak and depressing for me. I liked Katherine and it was frustrating to feel that she never had a chance. The writing style is very abrupt, the book jacket describes it as "almost biblical" and I found it difficult and unsettling to read. She does a marvelous job of evoking the landscape and atmosphere, I would put the book aside feeling like there was a coating of dust in my mouth. I would say Susan Froderberg accomplished what she set out to do admirably - it just wasn't to my taste.
This book was just too bleak and depressing for me. I liked Katherine and it was frustrating to feel that she never had a chance. The writing style is very abrupt, the book jacket describes it as "almost biblical" and I found it difficult and unsettling to read. She does a marvelous job of evoking the landscape and atmosphere, I would put the book aside feeling like there was a coating of dust in my mouth. I would say Susan Froderberg accomplished what she set out to do admirably - it just wasn't to my taste.
July 25, 2011
I was shocked to learn that this was Susan Froderberg's firt novel! A thoroughly enjoyable read. Not exactly a page-turner, but I kept going back for more. I felt so close to the main character, Katherine, that at times it felt like I was reading a story about myself.
The story line is not the main force working in this novel, it is the setting. Katherine and her husband are living in what must be one of the most beautiful places, and one of the harshest places on earth. Katherine has not married into an easy life, and over and over I wondered why such an intelligent young woman stuck around her husband and life that she didn't really seem to choose in the first place.
This was a beautiful novel and I look forward to her next one.
The story line is not the main force working in this novel, it is the setting. Katherine and her husband are living in what must be one of the most beautiful places, and one of the harshest places on earth. Katherine has not married into an easy life, and over and over I wondered why such an intelligent young woman stuck around her husband and life that she didn't really seem to choose in the first place.
This was a beautiful novel and I look forward to her next one.
September 26, 2012
Old Border Road
By Susan Froderberg
A teenager marries into a wealthy Yuma area ranching family. She learns how to live and work on the ranch, but her new husband turns out to be a scoundrel and she must come to some kind of understanding of who, exactly, she is. That is bare bones basic plot. But, oh my, what a novel. The harshness of the Arizona landscape, the relentless challenges of a prolonged drought, and the politics and money involved in water rights issues, all seem to be characters in this story also. It is her language, though, that made me love the protagonist. The cover describes her narrative as ‘incantatory’. Perhaps it is. Whatever. It is true, it is honest, and it expresses difficult to convey nuances of feelings. I recommend this as a good read.
By Susan Froderberg
A teenager marries into a wealthy Yuma area ranching family. She learns how to live and work on the ranch, but her new husband turns out to be a scoundrel and she must come to some kind of understanding of who, exactly, she is. That is bare bones basic plot. But, oh my, what a novel. The harshness of the Arizona landscape, the relentless challenges of a prolonged drought, and the politics and money involved in water rights issues, all seem to be characters in this story also. It is her language, though, that made me love the protagonist. The cover describes her narrative as ‘incantatory’. Perhaps it is. Whatever. It is true, it is honest, and it expresses difficult to convey nuances of feelings. I recommend this as a good read.
November 22, 2016
This "novel" with it's forced/strange style of writing reminds me of some of the papers that were submitted in creative writing class; papers written by wannabe writers that in their naivate thought their creations would stand out from the pack if they were alouf and difficult. These writers wanted so badly to be special that rather than write to their audience they wrote to try to impress other writers with how special and clever a writer they were. Sadly, books are for readers and readers want a story; not a difficult project to have to wade through so they can get a passing grade. Oofda.
The ultimate tragedy here is that the idea of this book was a good one; the setting was beautiful and the characters had potential.
The ultimate tragedy here is that the idea of this book was a good one; the setting was beautiful and the characters had potential.
July 18, 2012
I did not enjoy this book. The characters were flat, overly stylized Western stereotypes. Motivations were hollow, if explained at all. The symbolism was too obvious and extremely predictable. I can forgive a lot of flaws in the execution of the book if it's a page-turner, but that didn't even have this going for it. Fail.
August 7, 2011
I did not like this book. The author seemed to be more in love with the words than the story. One good thing that I got out of the book was again looking at my banjo clock after reading her description of the house. My clock has not run for over a year, but when I adjusted the pendulum, it began running and hasn't stopped yet.
May 3, 2014
The story and characters are as dry as Arizona itself. Now, maybe this is a silly thing to be irritated by, but what was the reasoning behind naming a character Son? Maybe in a first, rough draft, but all I can say is "Bill or George! Anything but Son!"
February 10, 2016
It's really too bad this isn't a better novel, because it is one of the most descriptive and beautifully written pieces of literature I have ever read, but the story just doesn't have the epic qualities the writing style does. I would be interested in giving this author another chance though.
February 7, 2012
The writing tends to run-on a bit, but the heart of the novel is really worthwhile. Can't wait to see how it ends.
January 1, 2011
Very different. Basically about a girl who marries too young, and how her choices affect her life. Don't think I would recommend this one.
January 6, 2011
Great book - all about commitment.
January 30, 2011
Sublime language, enthralling characters, magnificent setting! Looking forward to Froderberg's next book!
February 10, 2011
Blerg.
July 25, 2011
Think there is a story here, but I am struggling with this author's writing style. I currently don't have time to spend on this, so I am abandoning the book, but keeping it on my "to read" list.
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