“The Government People” of Miller’s Valley

My prior blog post of July 26, 2016, is a book review that discusses the lives of people living, working, and planning out their days in a small, tightly knit community.

They are trying to do their best with what they have, tied down to the places of their birth by tradition, and dealing with bureaucratic officials planning to move them off their land and out of their homes, ostensibly for “progress.”

Below is an excerpt from the prologue of the book that I reviewed, Miller’s Valley, by author Anna Quindlen.

It conveys better than any paraphrase of mine could the frustration of dealing with public (dare I say?) ‘servants’ determined to do what they are determined to do, come hell or, especially as in this case, high water:

“It was a put-up job, and we all knew it by then. . .

A Lifetime in Miller’s Valley

In her latest novel, Miller’s Valley, Anna Quindlen weaves the tale of a family living deep in a valley about to be flooded for the expansion of a dam, a federal project that is supposed to bring “progress” to long-time valley residents

 

But they don’t concur.  These families mount a resolute, yet futile attempt to block the plan of government experts at public meeting after public meeting.  

“Tending to Grace”

A teen overcomes a bad start. (Bergeron Image)

If it had not been for a writing class that I attended – the only male in a sea of patient ladies – I never would have purchased the book, Tending to Grace.  But within its crisply written pages, I unearthed the gem of a story:  

A small paperback only 175 pages long, easy to read, with some chapters so small, that they consist of no more than a large paragraph.

I read it in one sitting.  You could do the same, maybe in two, but you won’t want to put the book down.  Although its theme seems aimed at young people, it pierces the artificial boundaries of age.

The main character, Cornelia, is an avid, quality reader, well beyond that of her teen years.  She stutters badly, and suffers from the neglect of her mother Lenore, a person who has fallen off the ship of life.