Sweet Land Stories

Starred review from March 22, 2004
As one might expect of Doctorow, the title is ironic. In settings that range across the U.S., most of the alienated characters in the five stories here find life anything but sweet as they struggle to surmount the stigmas of poverty, lack of education and their instincts to gamble against the odds. Three of the male protagonists are passive and amoral; attempting to defend their irrational behavior, each reminds himself that he is not stupid. All of them—a young grifter who dutifully abets his mother's murderous greed on a farm near Chicago ("A House on the Plains"); a love-besotted accessory to a kidnapping in California (the slyly humorous "Baby Wilson"); and a cuckolded member of a religious cult commune in Kansas ("Walter John Harmon")—share a capacity for self-delusion and self-preservation. The two female protagonists attempt to alter fate and find themselves buffeted by the inescapable force of male power. The protagonist of "Jolene: A Life" is forced into a cross-country hegira in pursuit of a sweet land where she won't be an outsider. Scared and desperate despite her cool facade, Jolene becomes a victim in every relationship. If the story's denouement veers too close to soap opera, Doctorow's empathetic character portrayal redeems the plot twists. The most riveting narrative, "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden," describes a presidential administration that is secretive, arrogant and contemptuous of ordinary citizens. In this knowing treatment of the cynical abuse of power, Doctorow uses the spare, laconic style endemic to thrillers and builds suspense with sure strokes. Boring like a laser into the failures of the American dream, he captures the resilience of those who won't accept defeat. Agent, Amanda Urban. 6-city author tour.

January 1, 2004
Sweet treats from Doctorow, with settings ranging from a religious commune to the White House rose garden.

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Starred review from February 15, 2004
Doctorow is at once a supremely entertaining storyteller and a profound writer of conscience, and he forges an extraordinarily potent blend of artistry, compassion, and covert outrage in his new short story collection, the first since the indelible " Lives of the Poets" (1984). Here are five perfectly honed and sharp-edged stories about faith, love, and the abuse of power. Five ambushing and hair-raising tales featuring intensely compelling characters and impossible situations that unveil key paradoxes intrinsic to American society. Set in the horse-and-buggy era, "A House on the Plains" charts the adventures of an enterprising woman and her grown son, who reluctantly leaves Chicago to accompany her on what turns out to be a diabolical mission in a small Illinois town. The criminal mind fascinates Doctorow, as does the law and its failings, and men's cruelty toward women, tragic realities he sure-handedly explores to powerful effect in "Jolene: A Life," a classic hard-luck, white-trash tale with universal implications. Doctorow boldly takes on the enigma of religious cults in the eerie "Walter John Harmon," and in the scorching story, "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden," he shrewdly and devastatingly uncloaks the workings of an utterly corrupt White House, and the drastic consequences of such a colossal betrayal. At base, what Doctorow's unique and electrifying stories grapple with is our longing to trust authority and our realization that, instead, we must always question it. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)