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PETER BEESON'S RURAL READING LIST A Very Eclectic and Egocentric Selection A number of years ago I became
interested in literature where the setting was primarily rural (small town,
farm, open country, wilderness). As I explored this "genre" I
discovered writers who could eloquently and evocatively communicate the essence
of the rural environment and the various ways in which the human drama plays
itself out in rural settings. A number of friends and colleagues have, of late,
asked me for recommendations in this area. In responding I am forever
forgetting the proper citation or leaving out an important work. Therefore, I have decided to
compile a list that I hope will serve as a beginning guide to others who would
like to partake of this rich source of American literature and wisdom. This is
an incomplete list in that I am always adding to it. If at anytime you would
like an updated version, just let me know. I have read (from cover to
cover) all of the books listed below and recommend them all (but not for all
the same reasons). There are many books that might legitimately fit in this
list that I have not included because at the time they just didn't strike my
fancy or I started them and was not drawn to finish them. It is with some hesitation
that I offer this list. I know all too well that for a book "to work"
it must not only match an individual's preferences but also be able to speak to
who they are at that particular moment in their life. It is likely that some of
the books I have listed would not appeal to me today (although they did at one
time) and certainly there will be many that will not appeal to others. In listing the books I have
"stolen" quotes from jacket covers to try to convey something about
the book. However, in reviewing these I find most are woefully inadequate to
communicate the true value and content of the book. Finally, for want of a
better scheme, I have grouped the books by geographic (states) location of
where the primary action takes place. There are, of course, several
classics that I felt could not be left out even if this is a
"contemporary" listing. Therefore, I have included a section at the
very beginning on the classics from my point of view. There are also other
sections toward the end on "Road Trips, Canada, and Other." I do hope that this leads you to
a few worthwhile selections and encourages you to take up the quest on your
own. There is a lot of great stuff out there. I, of course, am always looking
for new titles to check out; so, if you have any suggestions, let me know. "But no matter how good a book is, it isn't worth anything
until you're ready for it"
-Anne Raver New York Times Book Review THE CLASSICS Aldrich, Bess Streeter The Rim of the
Prairie, University of Nebraska Press, 1925. Cather, Willa My Antonia,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918. O Pioneers,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. The Song of the
Lark, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. Hudson, Lois Phillips The Bones of
Plenty, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984. A powerful and absorbing novel about a proud, independent North
Dakota wheat-farming family and its struggles during the depression. Billed as
a truer and more human account of the depression than "Grapes of
Wrath." Rolvaag, O.E. Giants in the
Earth, Harper Perennial, 1992 (Original copyright 1927). A moving narrative of pioneer hardship and heroism. The background
of the boundless Dakota prairie with its mysterious distances and its capacity
for evil, is painted with alternating beauty and grimness. Sandoz, Mari Old Jules,
University of Nebraska Press, 1935. Ross, Sinclair As for Me and My
House, University of Nebraska Press, 1941. A small prairie town in the drought belt of Saskatchewan during
the 1930s is the backdrop for this rather sad novel about a minister and his
wife. CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE ALABAMA Bragg, Rick All Over but the
Shoutin', Pantheon Books, 1997. A haunting memoir about growing up dirt-poor in the pines of
Alabama--and moving on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, but never
really being able to leave. Covington, Dennis Salvation on Sand Mountain:Snake Handling and Redemption in
Southern Appalachia, Addison-Wesley, 1995. A nonfiction conjuring of southern Appalachian culture, the
people, the cadence of their language, the intensity and desperation of their
religious experience. Flagg, Fannie Fried Green
Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, McGraw- Hill, 1987. This is a folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting story of the
rural south filled with humor and drama. Hemphill, Paul The Ballad of
Little River, The Free Press, 2000. A true story of race and restless youth in the rural south. Violence
and family dysfunction in a small rural community. ALASKA Krakauer, Jon Into the Wild, Villard, 1996. The author examines what can be discovered about the life of a
young man found dead in the Alaska wilderness against the back drop of his own
life as an adventurer. McPhee, John Coming Into the
Country, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976. A set of interrelated narratives that aptly describe the faces of
Alaska. Nickerson, Sheila Disappearance: A
Map, Doubleday, 1996. A unusual book exploring and reflecting on the many people who
have disappeared in the northern latitudes. Paulsen, Gary Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, Harcourt
Brace & Company, 1994. An eloquently written account of the author's running of the great
sled dog race. Shaine, Benjamin A. Alaska Dragon,
Firewood, 1991. A complicated mystery/suspense story that takes place in a very
small town in the Alaska wilderness and is based on a true story. COLORADO Haruf, Kent The Tie That
Binds, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984. An authentic novel of fidelity and courage in the life of a woman
of the western plains. Where You Once
Belonged, Summit Books, 1990. The tale of the betrayal of a small town by its local hero, and of
the town's insidious revenge. Plainsong, Alfred
A. Knopf, 1999. The story of how seven members of a tiny prairie community come
together, in the face of great difficulties, to find family and community. Hendrie, Laura Stygo, MacMurray
& Beck, Aspen, 1994. A study of a variety of characters who inhabit a small Colorado
town with themes of loneliness and struggle. Kesselheim, Alan S. Silhouette On A Wide Land, Fulcrum Publishing, Golden,
Colorado, 1992. The author relates his year of work on a farm in eastern
Colorado. Penley, Gary Rivers of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered, Filter Press,
Palmer Lake, Colorado, 1999. A memoir about growing up on a ranch on the
eastern plains of Colorado. GEORGIA Dexter, Pete Paris Trout,
Penguin, 1988. A haunting and dark story of a shocking crime that eats away at
the social fabric of a small town, exposing the hypocrisies of its ways and
shattering the lives of its citizens. Greene, Melissa Fay Praying for
Sheetrock, Addison-Wesley, 1991. A wonderfully rich documentary account of racial change in a small
rural community where a poor black man rises to political prominence, ousts a
corrupt white sheriff, and then falls from grace. Nonfiction. Kay, Terry The Year the
Lights Came On, The University of Georgia Press, 1976. An evocative coming of age tale that coincides with rural
electrification in Georgia. To Dance With The
White Dog, Washington Square Press, 1990. This short novel is a story of love and grief. Set in the South,
it opens to readers the best about the region, and its people, traditions and
loyalties and ethics of work, love and remembrance. White, Bailey Mama Makes Up Her
Mind, Addison-Wesley, 1993. Through a series of memoir vignettes Bailey White explores rural
southern living with both humor and compassion. IDAHO Barnes, Kim In The
Wilderness, Doubleday, 1996. A memoir that traces a young woman's journey through childhood and
adolescence; marked with the transformations of her parents and herself. Fromm, Pete Indian Creek Chronicles, St. Martin's Press, 1993. An account
of a winter spent alone in the Idaho wilderness. Voted book of the year by the
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Spanbauer, Tom Faraway Places,
Penguin, 1988. A profound and evocative account of coming-of-age and the end of
illusions in the 1950s. INDIANA Kurtz, Don South of the Big Four, Chronicle Books, 1995. This novel makes
you see the American Midwest with fresh eyes. Neither romanticized nor
satirized, it is a place of arduous but compelling labor, or moral
apprehension, and of transformative beauty--a place almost unspeakably
exotic--with a way of life that is disappearing almost as quickly as you can
turn the pages. IOWA Brown, Bruce Lone Tree, Crown,
1989. This a true story of a farmer who killed his wife, his neighbor,
and his banker and then committed suicide in the midst of the farm crisis. The
author provides an excellent understanding of the social history of farming and
farm policy. Drury, Tom The End of
Vandalism, Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1994. A funny and warm hearted novel that focuses on the struggles of a
county sheriff, his love, and her ex-husband. Scot, Barbara J. Prairie Reunion,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. Part memoir, part social and cultural history, part ecological
exploration, Prairie Reunion takes the author to Scotch Grove, Iowa, the small
farming community of her childhood where she succeeds in coming to terms with
her parent's legacy, a bittersweet history that involves love, abandonment, and
suicide. Smiley, Jane A Thousand Acres,
Fawcett Columbine, 1991. A compelling and tragic story of a farm family in Iowa. Winner of
the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. KANSAS Day, Robert The Last Cattle
Drive, University of Kansas Press, 1977. An evocative and, at times, comic tale of trying to drive cattle
to market in modern day Kansas. Heat Moon, William PrairyErth,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. A lengthy, ambitious, in depth, and comprehensive look at a single
county in rural Kansas. This book takes commitment to get through but it is a
worthwhile journey. Mason, Harry Morgan Life on the Dry Line: Working the Land 1902-1944, Fulcrum
Publishing, 1992. Using his family's experience, the author describes
life on the plains of western Kansas during the transformation from horse-drawn
to mechanized farming. KENTUCKY Caudill, Harry M. Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed
Area, Little Brown & Co., 1962. A comprehensive and very well written
social history of Appalachia and the impact of coal mining on eastern
Kentucky. DeRosier, Linda Creeker: A Woman's Journey, The University Press of Kentucky,
1999. A memoir about growing up, leaving, and taking with you the hills of
Appalachia. LOUISIANA Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before
Dying, Vintage Books, 1993. Set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, a young black
school teacher is pushed into helping a young man sentenced to die for murder
to regain his pride. A National Book Award winner. MAINE Chute, Carolyn The Beans of
Egypt, Maine, Warner Books, 1985. A dark and powerful look at poor family life in rural Maine. MICHIGAN Harrison, Jim Farmer,
Delta/Seymour Lawrence, 1976. This is the story of a 43 year-old farmer-schoolteacher who
suddenly finds himself at a crossroads. Forced to choose between two
lovers--one a tantalizing young student, the other his beautiful childhood
friend--he must also decide whether or not to stay on the farm or finally seek
the wider, more worldly horizons he has avoided all his life. MINNESOTA Holm, Bill Prairie Days,
Saybrook Publishing Company, 1985. A collection of essays that celebrate both the austere beauty and
melancholy of rural life in Minnesota. Malcolm, Andrew H. Final Harvest,
Random House, 1986. A true crime account by a New York Times reporter of a farmer and
his son who murder two small town Minnesota bankers. Olsen, Brent The Lay of the
Land: A View from the Prairie, J&L Lee Co., 1998. A farmer's reflections on life, land, family, farming, and today's
world. Paulsen, Gary Clabbered Dirt,
Sweet Grass, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. A lyrical tribute to the farming life of the days when horses were
still work animals and self-powered machinery was just making inroads Weaver, Will Red Earth, White
Earth, Simon and Shuster, 1986. A novel of surpassing power that deals with a young man's
coming-of-age in the Minnesota farm country of the 1950s and coming to grips
with his heritage and that of the native Americans who live in the area. Hemingway, Lorian Walking Into the
River, Simon & Schuster, l992. This is a dark novel dealing with growing up in the south in a
very troubled family and the struggle to come to grips with the legacy of that
life. MISSOURI MacLean, Harry N. In Broad
Daylight, Harper & Row, 1988. On July 10, 1981, Ken Rex McElroy was shot to death on the main
street of a small rural town as 45 townspeople watched. This is the story of
the events that led up to that and why to this day the town has protected the
killer. MONTANA Bass, Rick Winter: Notes From Montana, Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence,
1991. In this celebration of winter in a remote valley of 30 inhabitants, the
last valley in Montana without electricity, the author describes the wildness
and freedom of the valley people, the slow-motion quality of life, and the
beauty of severe winter. Platte River,
Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1994. Three novellas that explore the human heart in the midst of the
great outdoors. Beer, Ralph The Blind Corral,
Penguin, 1986. Winner of the 1986 Spur Award for Best Western Novel, this book
tells the story of a Vietnam Vet returning to his family's ranch where he
confronts old ghosts and the changing ranch life scene. Blew, Mary Clearman All But The Waltz, Penguin Books, 1991. A compelling memoir of five generations in
the life of a Montana family. Bowen, Peter Coyote Wind, St.
Martin's Press, 1994. A mystery whose central character is a cattle brand inspector and
occasional sheriff's deputy. Doig, Ivan This House of
Sky, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978. In this memoir of growing up on cattle and sheep ranches in north
central Montana, Doig established himself as one of the finest of western
writers. Nominated for the National Book Award. English Creek,
Penguin Books, 1984. Drawing on his family heritage, Doig's novel creates a rich and
varied tapestry of northern Montana during the time between the Depression and
the Second World War. Dancing at the
Rascal Fair, Harper and Row, 1987. This novel traces the roots of the McCaskill family that Doig
created in English Creek from when they left Scotland to their establishment of
ranches in Montana. Ride with Me,
Mariah Montana, Atheneum, 1990. Set in 1989 as Montana celebrates its statehood centennial, this
novel competes the trilogy Doig began with English Creek. Heart Earth: A
Memoir, Atheneum, 1993. A companion to "This House of Sky," Doig focuses on his
mother in their family's life during WWII in Arizona and their return to the
high country of Montana. Ford, Richard Wildlife, Vintage, 1990. A heartbreaking and compelling
tale of a young man struggling to grow up at a time when his parents are
struggling to stay together and make a life in Great Falls, Montana. Maclean, Norman A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, University of
Chicago Press. A memoir and other stories about growing up in Montana and about
fly fishing. Young Men and Fire, University of Chicago Press, 1992. An extraordinarily wise and lyrical narrative of wildfire and
Smokejumpers; a haunting commentary on birth, sex, death, memory, and rebirth;
memoir of 'heat and loneliness.'..Gretel Ehrlich..A mystery of a tragic fire
that killed 13 Smokejumpers. Watson, Larry Montana 1948,
Milkweed Editions, 1993. Stunning...a kind of thriller and certainly a page-turner, but,
moreover, it is a quiet, almost meditative reflection on the hopelessly complex
issue of doing the right thing. White Crosses, Washington Square Press, 1997. A small
town sheriff trying to cover up what really happened in a traffic accident to
protect his community ends up destroying his own life. Welch, James Winter In The
Blood, Harper & Row, 1974. The tale of a sensitive, at times self-destructive, young man
living on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. NEBRASKA Abbott, Raymond H. That Day in
Gordon, The Vanguard Press, 1986. A novel that explores the lives of Native Americans from the
reservation and white ranchers. Alleman, Roy Blizzard:1949, The Patrice Press, 1991. An account of one of
the worst winters ever in the midwest and Great Plains. Agee, Jonis The Weight of Dreams, Viking,1999. A novel set in both
the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Flint Hills of Kansas. Harrison, Jim Dalva, Washington
Square Press, 1988. Set mostly in the Sand Hills, this is a story of a woman's search
for the son she gave up for adoption and for her self. The Road Home,
Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998. A continuation of his saga of the Northridge family that he began
in Dalva. Set in the Sand Hills and other parts of Nebraska Janovy, John Keith County
Journal, St. Martin's Press, 1978. A naturalist's observations and reflections while doing field work
on the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills. Morris, Wright Plains Song,
Penguin Books, 1980. A hypnotic elegy of the women of the Nebraska plains; the story of
the Atkins family, who settle, farm, and raise three generations from the early
years of this century. McNeal, Tom Goodnight,
Nebraska, Random House, 1998. Set in a small town in northwest Nebraska, Pete Dexter refers to
this book as "An irresistibly engaging novel, full of all the things that
matter: character, chance, compromise, sex and violence." Norton, Lisa Dale Hawk Flies Above,
Picador, 1996. A memoir set in the Nebraska Sandhills where the author, with
sensitive and lyrical prose, explores the landscape and people of rural
Nebraska and her own internal landscape including the demons that inhabit it. Tobias, Julia Brown Thunder & Mud: A Pioneer Childhood on the Prairie, High
Plains Press, 1996. This is a memoir about growing up at the turn of the
century in rural Nebraska. Yost, Nellie Snyder Evil Obsession:
The Annie Cook Story, Westport, 1991. The sad and tragic story of a truly evil woman and her deeds in
North Platte from the late 1800s into the 1950s. Welsch, Roger It's Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here:
Tales of the Great Plains, Villard Books, 1990. This collection of stories richly demonstrates that small-town
life is filled with color and variety, ideas and humor, friendship and
contention, wit and warmth, silliness and depravity, calm and violence. Touching the
Fire, Villard Books, 1992. A fictional archaeology of a tribe's traditions that seeks to
convey the essence of Native American culture. NEVADA Martin, Gregory Mountain City,
North Point Press, 2000. A memoir that is a portrait of a small, dying mining town and the
author's family (and their Basque heritage). NEW HAMPSHIRE Banks, Russell Affliction,
Harper & Row, 1989. This story of the downfall of a small town, well-digger policeman
with a ruinous and awful affliction of violence. NEW MEXICO Bradford, Richard Red Sky At
Morning, Harper Perennial, 1968. A coming of age story set during World War II where a mother and
son from the deep south struggle to adapt to their circumstances and each other
in rural New Mexico while the father is in the navy. Hillerman, Tony Talking God, A Thief of Time, Skinwalkers, The Ghostway, The
Dark Wind, People of Darkness, etc. Harper and Row. The above fast-reading mysteries are but a few of many published
by Hillerman. They provide an excellent introduction to the four corners area
of desert southwest and to the Navajo culture. The heroes are Navajo
Policemen...I prefer the Jim Chee novels over the Joe Leaphorn ones. Nichols, John The Milagro
Beanfield War A classic story about rural development, its effect on indigenous
people, and the reluctant hero. NEW YORK Banks, Russell The Sweet
Hereafter, HarperCollins, 1991. The author tells a story that begins with a school bus accident in
upstate New York. Using four different narrators, Banks creates a small-town
morality play that addresses one of life's most agonizing questions: when the
worst thing happens, whom do you blame? Jones, Matthew F. The Cooter Farm,
Hyperion, 1991. Set on a dairy farm of upstate New York, this novel of childhood
resonates with dark humor and betrayed innocence. Schreiber, Le Anne Light Years:A Memoir, Lyons & Burford, 1996. Set in a small
town in upstate New York, the author explores her life amid the death of family
members and the discovery of the outdoors. NORTH CAROLINA Butterworth, Dan Waiting for Rain,
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1992. A penetrating chronicle of one farmer's struggle to hold on to a
vanishing American dream. McLaurin, Tim Keeper of the
Moon, Norton, 1991. An honest, absorbing memoir of growing up poor in the rural south.
Owen, Howard Littlejohn,
Villard Books, 1992. A sensitive and finely wrought tale of a proud, decent North
Carolina farmer humbled by age and haunted by tragedy. Parker, Michael Hello Down There,
Charles Scribner's, 1993. This serious, memorable novel shows a deep affection for its chief
characters: a man who is hooked on morphine and jazz and the high school
student he falls in love with. Set in small town rural south. NORTH DAKOTA Erdrich, Louise Love Medicine,
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984. The Saga of two Native American families on a North Dakota
reservation. Winner of the National Book Critics Award for Fiction. The Beet Queen,
Henry Holt, 1986. The story of a brother and sister growing up in their mother's
sister's home in a small North Dakota town. Young, Carrie Nothing to Do But
Stay, Delta, 1991. The story of the author's pioneer mother and their life living on
the plains of North Dakota in the early 1900s. OKLAHOMA Askew, Rilla Strange Business,
Viking, 1992. Eleven dovetailed stories that chronicle twenty-five years of
memory and experience in a fictitious small Oklahoma town. OREGON Duncan, David James The River Why,
Sierra Club Books, 1983. A wry, funny, and thoughtful novel that uses the context of fly
fishing to explore the meaning of life. Heilman, Robert Leo Overstory: Zero, Real Life in Timber Country, Sasquatch Books,
1995. A memoir and social commentary on life in a small logging
community. Kittredge, William Hole in the Sky: A Memoir, Knopf, 1992. A story of growing up
in rural Oregon and a life time of hard times and growing self-awareness. SOUTH CAROLINA Allison, Dorothy Bastard out of
Carolina, Dutton, 1992. A sad and powerful autobiographical novel about growing up poor,
white, and abused in the south. Conroy, Pat The Prince of
Tides, Houghton Mifflin, 1986. A story that alternates between the lowcountry of rural South
Carolina and New York City. A very psychological novel that has themes of
mental illness, southern culture, family dysfunction, and redemption. Morgan, Robert Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage, Algonquin Books of Chapel
Hill, 1999. A story of a young couple and their struggles in the hills of
Appalachia during the early part of the 1900s. SOUTH DAKOTA Matthiessen, Peter In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse, Viking, 1980. An extremely
ambitious work which tries to explore the Lakota Indians struggle before,
during, and after the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. Norris, Kathleen Dakota: A
Spiritual Geography, Ticknor & Fields, 1993. This rare and splendid book tells us much about the history and
character of the Great Plains and their inhabitants, and much also about how
dwelling in small towns, and in vast, remote places, may challenge and inform
the spirit. O'Brien, Dan Eminent Domain, Crown, 1987. A collection of short stories that
won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Spirit of the Hills, Pocket Books, 1988. An absorbing novel of
a Vietnam vet who heads for the Black Hills in pursuit of the drug dealer who
killed his younger brother and the last of the great wolf trappers who comes
out of retirement to stalk an animal who has been killing livestock on the
prairie. In The Center Of
The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991. A contemporary story of cattle ranchers in conflict with mining
interests in the badlands of South Dakota. Equinox:Life, Love, and Birds of Prey, Lyons & Burford
Publishers, 1997. A memoir about a single season of life and hunting with
peregrine falcons on the plains of South Dakota. TEXAS Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and |