The Driest Season

November 20, 2017
Kenny’s debut novel is a frustratingly tentative coming-of-age narrative set on a Wisconsin farm during World War II. Cielle is almost 16 when she finds her father’s body hanging in the barn following his suicide, and the novel follows her family through their period of mourning: Cielle, her sister, and her mother try to make sense of what happened, while also determining how exactly their lives will change in the wake of the tragedy. The farm is actually owned by a local landlord and leased to the family, and since Cielle’s father’s suicide means they have contractually foregone their rights to it, much of the novel’s tension involves the family’s attempts to keep the true cause of death a secret and pretend it was accidental in order to save the farm. Young men close to Cielle enlist in the war effort, disappearing just like her father, and her feelings of destabilization in this time of uncertainty are palpable and heartfelt. But her epiphanies throughout feel forced, and the supporting characters seem to exist only to fulfill specific narrative purposes. The story arrives at its logical conclusion mostly by refusing to detour into more complicated terrain.

January 1, 2018

Tragedy and loss visit the Wisconsin farm community of Boaz during a summer of oppressive drought, but all 16-year-old Cielle Jacobson knows is that her father is dead; she discovers him hanging in their barn. By the time the funeral takes place, she is confused why the story has changed. Her mother tells everyone he had an accident on the tractor--a necessary cover-up to keep their farm, as Cielle learns much later. Cielle treasures her father's crumpled suicide note, kept hidden until she's ready to read his last words, as other losses pervade the town. A tornado destroys the barn, sister Helen leaves for college, and the neighboring Olsen family denies the existence of a son recently returned from World War II with a shattered mind and an amputated leg. Despite the risk, Helen's fiance joins the Army Air Corps, anxious to escape stifling Boaz and the obligations of their engagement. VERDICT Expanding an award-winning short story, debut novelist Kenny (Love Is No Small Thing: Stories) offers a moving tale of family secrets and heartache that brings to life a teenage girl's struggle for meaning and hope after devastating loss. A finely crafted novel deserving wide attention. [See Prepub Alert, 8/21/17.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

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Starred review from November 1, 2017
A father's death leaves a daughter seeking answers and a return to normal life in this impressive debut novel.It's mid-July 1943, amid a drought in Boaz, Wisconsin, when 15-year-old Cielle Jacobson finds her father hanging from a beam in their barn. Her mother and a neighbor cover up the suicide as an accident, adding to the questions shadowing Cielle, whose closeness to her father is revealed in brief, tender flashbacks. As the narrative moves through several weeks and vignettes, Kenny (Love Is No Small Thing: Stories, 2017) anchors her third-person narrative to Cielle's point of view. She is a gifted violinist, a loving sister, and a thoughtful teen who ponders her place in a small town and in the universe and feels her childhood "leaving little by little every day." The author offers little drama: a tornado that razes the barn; a horse-riding accident; a suicide note left unread for many pages; a subplot involving a wily Cielle and the suicide's effect on the legal disposition of the Jacobsons' land. Even the war is mostly an aside--Mrs. Jacobson alludes to "rationed butter and sugar"--until Cielle's sister learns that her boyfriend has joined up and a neighbor's injured son comes home in a wheelchair. But from the life-altering suicide to her first kiss, everything bears some significance for Cielle's progress toward adulthood. She calls to mind Frankie of Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, who begins to think about the world during "a long queer season" one spring. And like Bunny in the double-edged opening of William Maxwell's They Came Like Swallows, Cielle doesn't "waken all at once." Still, she begins to blossom despite the drought.Kenny's thoughtful, finely crafted work is an eloquent reminder that the breadth of a world matters less than the depth of a character.

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November 1, 2017
Based on her award-winning short story of the same name, Kelly's debut novel is a quiet and moving coming-of-age tale set during WWII. Cielle is not quite 16 when she finds her father hanging from the barn rafters on their Midwestern farm. The long drought has hit them hard, but more likely his suicide was related to his depressioninformation she doesn't disclose immediately because she knows it will change everything, and Cielle needs everything to stay just as it is. Her father's death brings into relief other looming changes, many caused by the war but some more routine, like her sister, Helen, leaving for college. Kenny artfully weaves Cielle's story of coming to terms with the fact that though loving people won't necessarily save them or keep them safe, those relationships are still worth it. And it is Cielle's relationships that make this story: those with her sister and her longstanding crush are especially genuine and sweet. With a light touch, Kenny tells an impactful story of everyday lives in trying circumstances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)