Customer Reviews

In Open Spaces

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"In Open Spaces" is a lovely read and reminded me somewhat of the tales my parents told me about their own trials and tribulations in the Canadian Prairies during the depression years.

The story is told in the first person viewpoint of Blake Arbuckle as he lyrically explains his families' struggle to keep their Montana Ranch afloat through the difficult years of WWI and the "dirty thirties." The setting and the ranch are characters just as clearly defined as the members of this emotionally charged family. The story tends to be character-driven and you can't help but love some and hate others as is appropriate. At the end of the book you are ready for more about this complicated family and Blake's own tantalizing romance.

Well-written and believable story of a ranching family in Montana. Convincing characters and vivid scenery pulled me into the book and kept me gripped till the end. Excellent descriptions of life on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. Really enjoyed it, a great read.

What a beautiful book. Quiet, gentle, but very strong emotions. Superb. I loved it.

I thought that this book was totally boring! I had to read it for a literature class, otherwise I would not wasted my time. Very slow. The author is great at his description of Montana, but his characters are so BORING!!!!!

With a style as sparse as the Montana setting, Rowland creates a simple story that starts slowly, gaining momentum and creating tension until his world has you in its grip. The land and weather become characters as powerful and yet as uncomplicated as the people. What is remarkable is that everything that happens is easily predictable, but when it happens, it's a surprise. It's a book without pretension or complexity, but one that engulfs you in a world of stunning clarity. The ever-present emotional upheavels rarely explode, but their presence is always felt. A truly wonderful book.

I picked up this book thinking I'd read a chapter or so before bed, but I couldn't sleep til I finished it. The opening chapter, describing the wide open spaces of Montana and the family farm, hooked me. It was the most lyrical thing I'd read in a long time, with a haunting storytelling remembering tone. Utterly beautiful.

But it occurred to me, Well, yeah, a lot of books have a really amazing first chapter, this can't go on ...

But it did. A humbly eloquent voice telling a story deep from the heart. Not with riffs of animated delivery or bursts of energy, just talking quietly on and on with that mesmerizing voice. Telling and telling. And seeing far far more than is visible on the surface.

An unforgettable cast of characters--many are the author's not-too-distant ancestors. The story? God, that kind of hard life, that kind of endurance and suffering and love ... in that setting? of giving and giving until you are exhausted beyond anything ... And enduring ....

It has a sweep, a magnificence even in the smallnesses. A grandeur even in the mud and death. I didn't know anyone could write a saga like that any more.

If Mr. Rowland's first book is an indication of his talent, I can't wait to see more. The Montana landscape is as much a character in this novel as the novel's narrator, Blake. The story takes place over 30 years in Blake's life, beginning from his return home from school after his brother's drowning. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the novel's structure, which is divided into three parts: fire, dust, and water. Also, the character of Art Walters is an interesting study on how the land "beats hell out of you." Mr. Rowland, please give us more!

Friends ask me why I read fiction, since it's "not real," and I've always maintained that I get a finer appreciation for life, politics, geography, culture, what have you, including history, which comes alive - the facts as well as the feel of it - through a good story. That is the case with this novel of eastern Montana. It has classic American elements: baseball, the west, hard work ethic, a love story, and a big boisterous family, like old big boisterous families, with its own sense of ideosynractic mystery. The patient pace and brusque, delightful simplicity of the narrative calls to mind the oral storytelling tradition, a style that seems to match the stubborn resilience of the people and the land of the setting. I liked this book a heck of a lot.

In Open Spaces does indeed have that epic feel, and I don't mean in the phony potboiler sense, but with a deep and unhurried unfolding that a reader can settle into. Great characters, setting and story, told with authority and charm.

Mr. Rowland's debut novel is a satisfyingly sprawling family saga about prairie life in Montana in the early half of the 20th century that shows him clearly to be the most worthy successor to Ivan Doig.