Split Estate

When Laura King jumped to her death from a window in her Upper East Side apartment, she threw the lives of her family into emotional turmoil. Her husband, Arthur, along with son Cam and daughter Celia, returns for the summer and fall to his mother's home in Callendar, Wyoming, in hopes of healing what's left of his family. The novel speaks through the points of view of the survivors, including mother/grandmother Lucy. Kate Reading gives each character a unique voice, getting into his or her head to express the struggle to understand and forgive Laura's seemingly inexplicable act. Reading also breathes life into the setting as battles for mineral and drilling rights threaten the region's ranching tradition. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from November 26, 2007
Bacon’s beautifully wrought, precisely observed and haunting latest follows a New York family struggling to survive a suicide. When Laura King jumps from the window of her Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, she leaves her husband, Arthur, and her teenage children, Cam and Celia, in emotional limbo. Seeking solace and a change of scene, Arthur takes the children cross-country to his mother, Lucy’s, home in Callendar, Wyo. With pitch-perfect command of distinctive voices, Bacon (There Is Room for You
; Last Geography
) divides the narrative between Arthur, Celia and Cam, and Lucy King, all of whom feel guilt and anger about Laura’s suicide. A major plot strand relates to the issue of mineral and drilling rights under the ranch land and gives the novel its title: each of the Kings strike out in self-destructive ways, related and unrelated to proposed methane wells, leading to a shocking denouement. Bacon captures the stark Wyoming landscape and Western ethos, and the power of buried secrets. She masterfully portrays complex family relationships in the wake of irrevocable damage.