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Bezig met laden... Homestead: A Noveldoor Melinda Moustakis
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Just a beautifully written highly detailed book about life in Alaska just before it became a state....homesteading. Lawrence and Marie, with their almost instantaneous marriage, manage to survive the first couple of years trying to make a home and a life on their "homestead. The author has a terrific way of writing so that you see just what's happening as she provides colors and happenings. Moustakis provides a very realistic picture of fairly recent history. [Homestead] is a confident first novel by a young author. It covers three years in the 1950s in Alaska - the time period when the territory becomes a state. Lawrence and Marie meet in a bar and quickly decide to get married. Lawrence has ambitions to claim a homestead and needs a wife and subsequent children to complete his dream. Marie is looking for escape and her sister already lives in Alaska. The novel becomes a portrait of this new, inexperienced marriage. Lawrence is damaged from his time in the war, and even without that has a secretive, loner personality. Marie is more open and youthful and can't understand how or if she is supposed to really connect with Lawrence. They are lucky to have Marie's sister, Sheila, and her husband Sly nearby for support and company. While close, the four also deal with jealousy and keep secrets. Marie quickly gets pregnant and Sheila seems unable to get pregnant, despite years of trying. As time goes by, Lawrence and Marie begin to build a marriage, but Lawrence is keeping a secret that could easily destroy everything they've built. All this is set against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness. The descriptions of the land and the people living there add a lot to the book. My one complaint, though, was the writing style/tone. Moustakis uses short, clipped sentences and the description is sparse. I was actually so annoyed for the first 80 pages that I almost set the book aside. But I stuck with it, and about half way in I was fully invested and enjoying all of it. I would definitely be interested in reading whatever Moustakis writes next. This is the story of the early days of a marriage, set in Alaska in the late fifties, as Alaska becomes a state. Marie goes to Alaska to visit her sister, eager to get away from the grandmother resentful of having had to raise them. She wants to belong, to be part of a family and to own her own space. Lawrence grew up in poverty and views owning land as the factor that can save a family from ruin. He chooses his homestead with care, and then looks for a woman to marry, because a farm needs many children to help out. They are looking for the same thing, but the differences between them make the marriage difficult, even as they struggle to get a working farm going in the Alaskan wilderness. As a picture of what life in Alaska was like seventy-five years ago, this novel illuminates the stark realities and the hopes and dreams of people who came to Alaska, and of the people that were displaced as a result. But it's in the portrait of a marriage that this book excels. It's understated, and both Lawrence and Marie are very much part of the time they live in and their approaches to the marriage reflect this. The writing is lovely, with a muted tone that suits this quiet story. Marie and Lawerence meet and are immediately drawn to each other. They marry within a few days of meeting. Marie wants land and Lawerence really wants a help mate. This is not actually the way to start off a marriage. Can they overcome and stay together through all the hardships Alaska homesteading has to offer? Marie and Lawrence definitely had a rough go of it. They lived in an old bus for their first year, they lost a child and then there are so many secrets! Lawerence has a past he does not want to share and he does not want to put Marie’s name on his land. So, there are quite a few issues in their marriage. I did feel this plot is a little thin. I wanted a bit more to occur. But…I do I love this setting. This is what made this story for me. I loved reading about the landscape, the stars and of course, the bears! I did enjoy this narrator. Ariel Blake did a wonderful job! Need an atmospheric novel…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today! I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
A book that's as stark and beautiful as its icy setting ... Homestead is a deeply interior novel by necessity: Lawrence is reticent by nature, and the characters frequently find themselves alone with their thoughts. There is dialogue in the novel, and it's unfailingly true to life; Moustakis particularly does a wonderful, understated job with Marie and Sheila's east Texas vocabulary and cadences. But she's equally adept at the silences that mark the characters' seemingly small moments ... Homestead is a beautiful novel, quiet as a snowfall, warm as a glowing wood stove. It's also a profound look at how we navigate one another, and what it means to reveal ourselves to the ones we care about. Moustakis’s language is spare and exquisite, tough and lovely. The sentences build on themselves, becoming expansive and staggering in their sweep....Claims, proof, stakes: The language of homesteading is the language of argument, of making a case for oneself. Marie and Lawrence lay out the evidence. They point to the reasons. They insist. Nuanced and suffused with poetry, Moustakis' novel paints an indelible portrait of a couple finding their way in the wilderness ... An atmospheric debut about the savagery of nature, learning to trust, and the wilds that exist within all of us. Moustakis shines in her debut, the dramatic rendering of a young couple’s homesteader life in mid-1950s Alaska ... The wondrous descriptions of the back-breaking labor involved in clearing and farming the land, and of the region’s vast beauty, will make readers feel like they’re there. This evocative, well-drawn account of Alaska’s American settlers is so convincing it ought to come with a pair of mittens. OnderscheidingenErelijsten
"From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders "Moustakis has OCEANS OF TALENT." --Pam Houston "A writer who TRULY HAS EVERYTHING." --Jaimy Gordon Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don't know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying? Immersive and wild-hearted, joyfully alive to both the intimate and the elemental, Homestead is an unflinching portrait of a new state and of the hard-fought, hard-bitten work of making a family"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The writing is fine in places, but there is an awfully lot of description of trees, mountains, snow, etc. and at times I just had to reread a sentence to make sure it made sense.
Marie insists on having her name on the deed to the property, Lawrence, however, want to have the land all to himself. The ending involves a violent fight, but the feeling that all will be well. ( )