On Brassard's Farm
A Novel
گزارش تخلف
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
February 12, 2018
This wondrous, unique love story by Hecht (Skull Session) pits former middle school teacher Ann Turner against the vicissitudes of life on a small dairy farm in rural Vermont. Ann’s life has fallen apart, so much so that it feels like “a hurtling dark freight train... monstrous, mindless, spraying sparks from the rails”; she has fled Boston, searching for a life in the woods both to replenish and punish herself. She falls in love with a parcel of wild land on offer by Jim Brassard, a dairy farmer desperately in need of funds. When a financial downturn burns through most of her final payment of $10,000, Jim and Ann agree that she will work off the rest of her debt, and she becomes tied to the land. Jim’s wife, Diz, is crucial to the running of the farm, as is his best friend since Vietnam, Earnest Kelley, an Oneida man who pitches in when his tree surgery business allows. Ann eventually learns that, unlike her urban notions of farming, in reality when farming means living “in suspense.” There is backbreaking labor, beauty, tragedy, and joy in this story of starting life again.
Starred review from March 15, 2018
This seventh novel from Hecht (Bones of the Barbary Coast) is told from the point of view of Ann Turner, a Boston woman in her thirties whose life is broken. After losing her marriage and then her job, she plans to remake herself and heads to Vermont with a small inheritance, intending to buy some land and live in the woods. Near Montpelier, VT, Jim and Diz Brassard are looking to sell 40 acres of hilly forest adjoining their dairy farm. Ann naïvely makes the purchase and starts camping out; she soon discovers that she must work on the farm as well. The challenges are physically difficult, but as Ann gains bodily strength, she develops appreciation and affection for the hard work of a small dairy farm and the people who run it. Hecht paints a picture of Ann's life with documentary clarity, and his smooth prose is punctuated with keen observations on both humanity and the natural world. VERDICT A beautifully written homage to a vanishing way of life and a moving story of love and connection, Hecht's novel should appeal to readers of literary fiction. [For another literary account of rural life, see Elinor Florence's Wildwood.--Ed.]--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2018
This seventh novel from Hecht (Bones of the Barbary Coast) is told from the point of view of Ann Turner, a Boston woman in her thirties whose life is broken. After losing her marriage and then her job, she plans to remake herself and heads to Vermont with a small inheritance, intending to buy some land and live in the woods. Near Montpelier, VT, Jim and Diz Brassard are looking to sell 40 acres of hilly forest adjoining their dairy farm. Ann naïvely makes the purchase and starts camping out; she soon discovers that she must work on the farm as well. The challenges are physically difficult, but as Ann gains bodily strength, she develops appreciation and affection for the hard work of a small dairy farm and the people who run it. Hecht paints a picture of Ann's life with documentary clarity, and his smooth prose is punctuated with keen observations on both humanity and the natural world. VERDICT A beautifully written homage to a vanishing way of life and a moving story of love and connection, Hecht's novel should appeal to readers of literary fiction. [For another literary account of rural life, see Elinor Florence's Wildwood.--Ed.]--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
دیدگاه کاربران