Of Lizards and Angels: A Saga of Siouxland

Manfred's latest chronicle of the prairie territory called Siouxland (after No Fun on Sunday ) is an earthy, epic novel focusing on an Iowa farm family from 1884 to 1966. The initial chapters are slow going, not for lack of incident, but because the reader is bombarded with too much detail. The story does not develop narrative momentum until the marriage of Tunis Freyling and Clara Shortridge, each of whom keeps a secret from the other: in his case, a violent temper; in hers, a family history of incest. Their secrets turn out to be their legacy. Manfred's strength is his dialogue. His ear for natural and archaic speech is employed to good effect since the Freylings are a family of raconteurs, relentlessly digging up their pasts in a hermetic milieu. Outside events rarely intrude; two world wars and the Great Depression hardly affect them. The lengthy narrative could have benefited with some pruning. The dialogue is often verbose and the style clunky (``She smiled funny at him''). But readers who persevere eventually will find themselves caught up in the individual and collective struggles of the Freyling clan. (May)