I received a free copy for my honest review.
About the Book:
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Formats: eBook, Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0544470192
Pages: 304
Genre: Historical Fiction
A debut novel chronicling the life and loves of a headstrong, earthy, and magnetic heroine
Eastern Oklahoma, 1928. Eighteen-year-old Maud Nail lives with her rogue father and sensitive brother on one of the allotments parceled out by the U.S. Government to the Cherokees when their land was confiscated for Oklahoma’s statehood. Maud’s days are filled with hard work and simple pleasures, but often marked by violence and tragedy, a fact that she accepts with determined practicality. Her prospects for a better life are slim, but when a newcomer with good looks and books rides down her section line, she takes notice. Soon she finds herself facing a series of high-stakes decisions that will determine her future and those of her loved ones.
Maud’s Line is accessible, sensuous, and vivid. It will sit on the bookshelf alongside novels by Jim Harrison, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, and other beloved chroniclers of the American West and its people.
About the Author:
MARGARET VERBLE, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has set her novel on her family’s allotment land. She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, and Old Windsor, England.
My Opinion:
Maud Nail is living a very hard life on her family’s allotment in Oklahoma with her brother Lovely and her father Mustard. Her very extended family live in the immediate area generally within walking distance. Her father cannot be counted on - he drinks and really cares only about himself. There is a feud of sorts going on with another family in the area that provides one of the main story lines. Another involves an itinerant peddler Booker, who rolls through town selling this and that - and books. Maud has a weakness for book. This, if nothing else endeared her to me. For I am sure that by now you know that I have a serious book problem. The third details the slow decline into madness (depression?) of Maud’s brother. These stories all meet, circle, embrace and separate in some kind of elaborate dance.
Maud is not happy with her current lot in life and longs to live in a place with electricity and running water. She feels that Booker can provide her with that life. She is used to men running out on her but she hopes that he will be different because he is not an Indian. But Maud is trying to keep the worst of her life from him and he realizes that she is not being forthcoming.
Maud is not always a likable character; she can be abrasive. Her decisions are not always wise and she is selfish. This does make for fascinating reading. The time period - late 1920s - is not one I tend to read about all that often so it was interesting to be in that era. The use of bump to describe a pregnancy seemed anachronistic - from what I can find the term didn’t come into use until after 2000. All in all I enjoyed this character driven story. Maud’s extended family was full of truly entertaining people. They may fight but they came together when needed.
Rating:
4
The Giveaway:
One lucky US reader will win a paperback copy of Maud’s Lines. Just enter as many ways as you’d like on the Gleam widget below. Good luck everyone.
Maud’s Line
