Broken Ground

By John Keeble

Book Overview

2011 Outstanding Title, University Press Books for Public and Secondary School LibrariesBroken Ground employs a construction project in the Oregon desert as the basis for a story with far-reaching... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060158115
• ISBN13: 9780060158118
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A novel about the invisible realities of America today.

I read it about a decade ago when it came out. An excerpt from it was published while John Keeble was still working on it, and I remember being struck by the style, the elaborate artistry in it, the strength of language, primarily the strength of the verbs he uses. Every now and then during these past few years I take out this book when I want to be reminded of the care a writer puts into his sentences. What is most striking here is the writer's calm voice that conjures for us the power of visionary dread. Broken Ground is also rich in its knowledge of the land, the people, the smell of the air, the brightness and darkness of the Pacific Northwest where a privately run prison is being built...all add up to a frightening vision of the realities around us in the postmodern age. Lynn Sharon Schwartz described this novel as one of the best political novles of the 1980s. I agree with her. By Thomas Palakeel