Prairie Widow

By Harold Bakst

Book Overview

Jennifer Vandermeer hated Kansas. With all her heart, she wished that she'd never left the dull security of Ohio, had never let her husband, Walter, take her from the order and civilization of the East.

There was no preacher in Four Corners, Kansas, so Seth Baker, at the behest of his wife, improvised the words. Jennifer, her two young children, and a small group of strangers, listened as they clustered in a spot freshly scythed around the rectangular pit.

Walter had not been long among us before he was taken away, but, uh, he was a good, uh, farmer and a good, uh, man...

It just didn't make sense. Jennifer had told Walter over and over: "It's ludicrous, neither of us know the first thing about farming." But Walter had been adamant, and they came to Kansas.

Now Walter was dead. And Jennifer was marooned in a sea of grass with a farm to take care of and two small children to raise. Where would she go? What would she do?

It would be harder than she ever imagined. As she stood over her husband's fresh grave she couldn't know that her life would become a war every day. War against the elements, war against the will of the land, and most of all, a war, every minute of every day, against herself and her fears...

For every glorious legend of the Old West there are a thousand workaday stories of the boundless persistence and courage that turned a wilderness into civilization. Jennifer Vandermeer and the story of her hardship, disasters and triumphs, is one of the real stories of how the West was won.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590773322
• ISBN13: 9781590773321
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: M. Evans and Company
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Memorable Frontier Novel

I actually read this a while ago, and its amazing how many of the images stayed with me, and that doesn't happen too often. Some of the scenes are warm, some of them are pretty scary, but they feel so real. I really admire the writing in this book and wish the writer did a sequel. I can even picture it as movie. And I love the characters, which also seem very real, like you met them somewhere. This isn't just a great western, its also just a great novel.

Poetic Frontier Story

This book isn't a western but a frontier novel. You don't get much shooting, but you get episodes that are more realistic and more compelling, at least for me. I believe what happens to these characters, whereas I don't believe much in most of the genera westerns. It's more like Willa Cather (who I like) than Louis L'Amour (who I used to like). But what I loved most about the book was that you really felt what was happening to this poor woman. The scenes are very poetic. I still have certain images in my head. I really recommend it.

quirky western

This was recommened to me by a friend who thought I'd like it, and I did. For once, a woman is the main character of a western, and I found myself indentifying with her struggles in this alien environment. She's an easterner who's brought kicking and screaming to Kansas by her husband. I get a real sense of life out on the prairie, and I get the feeling it reflects the real west, not the western myth. Loved the ending--rather poetic.