The Wedding Dress: Stories from the Dakota Plains

The seven tales in Young's winning fiction debut transport readers to the North Dakota plains in the first half of this century to tell of the mostly Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded there. Morals are clearly defined, and the Dust Bowl is remembered with trepidation. Young ( Nothing to Do but Stay: My Pioneer Mother ) emphasizes relationships among the characters; slight or profound, friendly or embittered, these connections take on the utmost importance in the small community of Little Butte. A man is shot for dating two barmaids in a single evening (``Bank Night''); a woman becomes a midwife by default (``The Nights of Ragna Rundhaug''); two brothers must marry two sisters after they keep them out all night (``The Sins of the Fathers''). In the title story, a wedding dress is lent to many brides over the years until its owner, who never wore it in life, wears it in death. The leisurely narratives match the pace of the subjects' lives, and the author's warm, straightforwardly charming style falls within a classic storytelling tradition. (Aug.)