The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Ann Weisgarber, Viking, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-02201-4
Weisgarber's atmospheric if unexceptional debut of pioneering hardships follows a staunch South Dakota farmwife as she struggles with misgivings about her ambitious husband. The story begins as Rachel DuPree, wife of one of the only African-American ranchers in the Badlands in 1917, watches her husband, Isaac, lower their six-year-old daughter, Liz, down a well to fetch water in the midst of a terrible drought. Though she concedes it must be done, Rachel—heavily pregnant with her eighth child—is distraught, and her worries set off a chain reaction of second-guessing her loyalty to Isaac, whose schemes include buying out the neighboring ranch and leaving the family to find work during the winter. As a series of calamities befall the family, Rachel must decide whether to follow the only man she has ever loved or strike a new path of her own. Rachel's homely voice isn't the most inviting, and while the racial tensions between whites, blacks, and Native Americans is pretty surface-level, Weisgarber's depiction of survival in the harsh Badlands has its moments. (Aug.)
Details
Reviewed on: 06/14/2010
Genre: Fiction
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-4640-4306-2
Hardcover - 306 pages - 978-0-230-70649-1
Hardcover - 429 pages - 978-1-4104-3191-2
Open Ebook - 336 pages - 978-1-101-19036-4
Open Ebook - 336 pages - 978-1-101-18982-5
Other - 304 pages - 978-0-330-50935-0
Paperback - 336 pages - 978-0-14-311948-7
Paperback - 309 pages - 978-0-330-45855-9