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Bleeding Kansas [Audiobook] [Unabridged] (Audio Cassette)

by Sara Paretsky (Author), Susan Ericksen (Reader)

2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Audio Cassette
Publisher: Brilliance Audio Unabridged (Jan 1 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1423319796
ISBN-13: 978-1423319795

Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Paretsky takes a break from the mystery genre with this powerful, emotionally genuine tale about the ties of love, family and religious belief in a rural Kansas community. The history of the Schapens, Grelliers and Freemantles in the Kaw River Valley dates back to the mid-19th century, but time, old grudges and religious differences have eroded the bonds of friendship. When John Freemantle's niece moves back to Douglas County, her Wiccan rituals and antiwar activism cause controversy and indirectly inspire teenager Chip Grellier to enlist in the army. After Chip's death in Iraq, the Grellier family begins falling apart. Meanwhile, the fortunes of the Schapens, devout fundamentalist Christians, rise with the emergence of an apparently perfect red heifer, the sacrifice crucial to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Second Coming of Jesus. This audio's power is in its richly evoked characters, and Susan Ericksen's expressive, sympathetic voice partners perfectly with Paretsky's text. She distinctively voices men, women and teenagers with careful shifts in pitch, inflection and accent. In the end, listeners will be both satisfied by the realistic, uplifting ending and bereft at having to say good-bye to Paretsky's painfully real Kansans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From AudioFile

ItÕs not a V.I. Warshawski mystery, but thanks to Susan EricksenÕs easy reading, listeners can enjoy Sarah ParetskyÕs latest effort. The story is about what happens to two longtime warring Kansas families, one symbolically good, the other bad, when a newcomer who is both a lesbian and a Wiccan moves nearby. Paretsky weaves into this story some considerable depth and contemporary issues like religious intolerance. The first third of the novel is surprisingly difficult to get through in its excessive complexity. But EricksenÕs fast-paced reading soon brings the listener to the more engaging part of the story. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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2.0 out of 5 stars A Ponderous Story Pitting Exaggerated Types Against One Another, Jan 24 2008

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Bleeding Kansas (Hardcover)

Bleeding Kansas is a NOT a V.I. Warshawski novel. It is also NOT a mystery.

Having dealt with what the book is not, let me address what it is:

Sara Paretsky has illuminated small town living in a farm community where three sets of neighbors represent different values and attitudes (not to mention different religious beliefs). In telling her story, she draws on a context of three conflicts that have occurred among the people of Kansas (Civil War fights between pro- and anti-slavery factions with the heavy violence being done by the pro-slavery people, the Vietnam era split between pro- and anti-war people, and the current split between religious fundamentalists and those with a more secular view).

The Schapen and Grellier families have been neighbors and poles of opposition for some time in the Kaw River Valley. A lot of what each family does is intended to be competitive with the other family. There used to be a third farm family, the Fremantles. The latest generation of Fremantles has moved away from the Fremantle home and land . . . until a remote relative, Gina Haring who is recently divorced and wants to find herself, moves into the house. The Christian fundamentalist Schapens are outraged by the lesbian, Wiccan Haring. The church-going but pro-science Grelliers are divided over Haring and what she adds to the community. The tension among the homes is increased when the Schapens produce a totally red calf which Jewish fundamentalists want to use to help re-establish the ancient temple in Jerusalem. As the residents interact more than is their custom, other events are set in motion that have unexpected consequences.

Bleeding Kansas is a very hard book to get into. You have lots of names (past and current) thrown at you in the space of a few pages. It's also hard to get an initial handle on what kind of book this is.

If you can stick it out until around page 125, the narrative begins to take off in a recognizable direction. From there, I think you'll be able to follow the story and characters fairly easily as more time is spent with each character and the number of characters mentioned at one time drops.

The plotting of the story leaves a lot to be desired. There are long stretches where not enough happens. And where there is action, it's often hard to understand what is being described.

The characters are quite exaggerated away from what you might expect of a person living today with just a few exceptions. As a result, I found myself thinking of the characters as characters that I was reading about rather than identifying with one or more of them and living inside the story.

Much of the plot development is pretty predictable once you understand the premise. I found it hard to motivate myself to finish the book.

My advice is that unless you want to read everything that Sara Paretsky writes, skip this book. My advice to Ms. Paretsky is to stick to her excellent V.I. Warshawski series.

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