Lone Women, by Victor LaValle (One World)
In the early 20th Century, a Black woman named
Adelaide Henry sets out from California to the wilds of Montana. Like many
others, she dreams of homesteading a much-hyped paradise. Everywhere she goes,
she lugs an enormous steamer trunk…which she sings to as it makes ominous
thumping sounds.
Montana turns out to be anything but a paradise. The weather
is unimaginably brutal, and the physical labor of setting up a homestead is
unrelenting. Worst of all is the crushing loneliness. From practically the
moment she sets foot in the shack that came with her deed, neighbors appear--women
desperate for a friend, and men equally desperate for female company and
possible courtship.
Not all the visitors are benign and they all harbor secrets.
There’s a family of grifters, thieves, and murderers, whose innocent-appearing
blind children are the most vicious of the lot. A single woman schoolteacher with
a clouded past and a child shunned inexplicably by everyone. A lesbian couple,
one Black, one Chinese. Adelaide, with her work ethic and essential decency,
soon settles into the community. She’s ever anxious to protect her own secret:
What’s in the trunk? And what havoc will it wreak if it
gets out?
Gorgeously written, the book alternates between passages of
emotional depth and suspense horror. Everyone hides something, and some secrets
are more deadly than others. The layered unveiling of those secrets, and the
compassion of the central character are handled with exceptional skill.
Highly recommended.
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