Jeffrey LentReseñas

Lent can write historical fiction better than most.

IN THE FALL remains hard to rate, with Randolph, the first section, a Full Five Stars, the last Four Stars,
and the boring middle barely a One Star.

Beautiful renderings of life, births, and seasons on a farm include even a train!

Still a mystery is why Leah values her own desire for resolution of her past over
taking a risk that she knows could destroy the Family that she and Nathan spent 25 hard years building...?

Why subvert it with lies and, if she really deeply felt "fear" for her young son, Jamie,
why not stay to be certain that he was protected?

Her selfish refusal to speak to Nathan would have led him to question Mebane's tricks
and spared them all a Northern hanging.

Sure wish that Foster would have decided to stay close to his new-found Aunts who also needed
help and protection.

The story of some tragic murders and their effect on the people left behind, set in mid 19th century upstate New York. Much of the verbiage is an almost erotic paean to farm fecundity with detailed and rich descriptions of livestock, the harvest, old farm equipment, many meals, and occasional D.H.Lawrence-like sexual discovery. It seems at times to be a battle between Rabelaisian naturalism and the plot's dour elements – human self-interest and its pal, religion. Strangely, the murders themselves don't seem to trouble us or most of the characters very much. The novel is beautifully written, but its thematic elements didn't click for me, and the story ends rather arbitrarily.

I'm a big fan of Jeffrey Lent, but this one really fell short for me. Set in the 1920s, it's the story of Henry Dorn, a 57-year old English professor who decides, after his wife and son die in an accident, to take a luxury liner to Holland, where he plans to explore his familial roots. On the way, he meets the woman of his dreams. One main problem for me: I hated her. She's a cliché of the so-called independent woman of the day: she smokes {hashish as well as cigarettes), she drinks (including absinthe), she wears revealing clothes, she's a regular at sleazy underground clubs where "Negro music" (jazz) is featured, she refuses to talk about her mysterious past, she flirts, she eats "exotic" foods, she has radical political views, she lives a lavish lifestyle with no apparent means of income, she plays cat and mouse games (disappearing for days at a time without warning), and she wields sex like a sword. I hated her, and I hated that Henry fell for this crap; I had expected that he would eventually come to his senses, or that Lydia would dump him. But no, instead we get a cheesy O. Henry ending that was predictable as the last chapter slowly played out.

The novel is non-chronological, jumping from Henry's childhood and his relationship with the uncle that raised him, to his curiosity as a teenager about his absent father, to the earlier years of his marriage and as a father, to his guilt over the way he dealt with his son's issues when he returned from the war. A lot of the reviews of this book focus on his self-exploration. That might have been a lot more interesting if, in the end, he hadn't come off as just another middle-aged sap.

If I've turned you off of this book, fine, but please give Jeffrey Lent a chance by reading one of his wonderfully written, highly original, and absolutely captivating historical novels, like Lost Nation, In the Fall, or A Slant of Light.½

Another great book by Jeffrey Lent. If I have a single criticism, it's that this one could have used a little editing; it's really, really long, and heavy on description. Then again, description is one of Lent's strong points, and this is a sprawling family saga that runs through three generations. Besides, despite it's length, this is a real page-turner overall.

The novel opens with Norman Pelham, a twice-wounded veteran of the Civil War, making his way back home to Vermont after being released from service. He's accompanied by Leah, a beautiful runaway slave. Instead of taking a fast train home, Norman decided to walk home from Washington "to see the country"--much to his mother's dismay. And she is even more dismayed to learn that Leah is her son's new wife. It's the late 1860s, and even an abolitionist sympathizer like Mrs. Pelham feels this is taking things a bit too far. She moves into town, leaving the family farm to the young couple, with Norman's younger sister Connie stopping by every day to help out. Part I follows Norman and Leah, along with their children, through the hard times and the good, their love overcoming every challenge and sorrow until a final blow and secrets from the past tear the family apart.

I really don't want to give too much away. Suffice it to say that Part II focuses on the youngest child, Jamie, now an adult making his own way not too far from home. Something seems to haunt him; he's a quiet, overly cautious man but, like his mother, clever and resourceful. Jamie's sixteen-year old son, Foster, who is determined to uncover the truth about his father's past, brings the novel full circle in Part III. The novel explores issues of identity--the idea that we can never escape what made us who we are, and that running away from the past is never a clear-cut solution. Of course, it also examines attitudes towards race in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's a beautiful story of hope, perseverance, forgiveness, and self-acceptance. Highly recommended.

The long winded, overly complex sentences with awkward phrasing made the book difficult to read. The random unrelated details and incidents slowed down a slow story about a wrought iron artist living alone in a rural setting. The unexpected arrival of a bipolar? wandering miscreant introduced a possible distraction, but when the 40ish male protagonist reveals he still pines on his love from 20 years ago (a woman who was right to dump him) I had to roll my eyes. When he feels compelled to drop in on her a week or so after her husband dies in a car crash, and when she eventually lets him in to her kitchen and confesses he died after hitting a cow because he was driving drunk after being with her sister, I got bored. What a ridiculous soap opera with excessive drama and emotions. It felt like I had been reading the book for ever and was barely over a third through. I skipped ahead a bit and saw more ridiculous drama and didn't care a wit. Not wanting to waste any more time, I put the book in the donation bin.

I should have known what this book would be like when I saw a reviewer compare Jeffrey Lent to Faulkner. Obviously, Lent saw that also and it went to his head. The writing was smug and pretentious, leaving no way to connect with the characters. I normally give a book fifty pages to become interesting, but gave up on this ego-trip at thirty pages.

I'm a big fan of Jeffrey Lent, but this book really didn't cut it with me. For the most part, it's a glorified coming-of-age story, and I'm not fond of teenage angst. Katey Snow adores her father, but he has grown increasingly distant, and Katey and her mother don't get along. When she finds affectionate letters sent by her father's war buddy to her mother, she takes off in search of the man she believes may be her biological father. She encounters good people and bad, hippies and farmers, small town folk and smaller town folk, and encounters everything from kindness to rape. Her story alternates with that of her mother Ruth, who married her high school sweetheart, a man who was never the same after World War II experiences. I thought the novel really dragged, and the characters were dull compared to those in Lost Nation or In the Fall.½

I loved the first two novels I had read by Jeffrey Lent and was looking forward to this one, too. It certainly did not disappoint! It's one of those books that I almost hated to have end. As soon as I finished it, I downloaded the rest of Lent's works to my kindle. He has become one of my favorite authors.

Lost Nation is set in a territory between New Hampshire and Canada in the early 19th century--a territory claimed by both nations. The novel begins with a mysterious man named Blood guiding an ox-driven cart full of merchandise (most notably rum and lead). He's looking for a place to settle, a likely place where he can set up a tavern and live a quiet life. His other piece of merchandise is Sally, a fifteen-year old prostitute that he bought after winning at cards. Even though Sally knows what her job at the tavern will be, she is optimistic, and both she and Blood believe that her life will be better than anything she has known before. Blood chooses a northern community that has been settled by both French Canadians and Americans. His business ventures do well, and he becomes accepted by his neighbors as an honest and thoughtful, if somewhat enigmatic, overly-cautious man. But these are troubling times, and as much as Blood wants to stay removed from political conflicts, he feels obliged to tell the truth and to help his neighbors--and these good intentions eventually get him into trouble. Of course, the reader (and everyone in the story) suspect that Blood has secrets in his past, secrets that he is running from, and when we learn of them, they are heartbreaking--as is Blood's inability to shrug off his guilt.

As usual, Lent's writing is beautiful, his plot stunning, and his characters unique and memorable. Blood seems like a hard man initially, but even as he exploits Sally, he develops a relationship with her that shows his deep sense of responsibility; their friendship, tinged with mistrust, is one of the best aspects of the novel. I loved the realistic portrayal of the hard life these New England settlers lived, and I learned a lot about the history of the period, especially the conflicts between the Americans and the Canadians, British, and Native Americans. The conclusion at first seems surprising, then feels both inevitable and right. In short, I loved this book!

Stunning, spare writing, beautiful, moving story!

At the end of Jeffrey Lent’s Before We Sleep, Katey Snow must call her mother. She’s spent an eventful week on the road, having taken her father’s truck on an extended sojourn from Vermont to Virginia, but her imperative is to speak to her mother, from whom she had a fraught departure. The two characters, Katey and her mother Ruth, carry this graceful novel, and have alternating chapters named for each in turn. In Mr. Lent’s usual style, their stories unfold at an even pace, their revelations laid out in a magisterial and majestic tone. Another beautiful and gratifying book from Mr. Lent.

Salient events begin with yet another verbal set-to between Katey and her mother. This story, set in the mid-1960s, captures the era’s terrible tension between parents and teen-age children; Katey sees things simply and in straightforward terms, as 17 year-olds do, but her mother sees the same things in terms of threat to be avoided, and stridently challenges her daughter at every turn. One tense evening holds more of the same as mother and daughter go at it hammer and tong yet again.

Oliver, the father and husband, sits by as usual, but then, perhaps fed up by the constant bickering, lets fall a bombshell. It is a revelation that sends Katey off on a journey, one in which she discovers certain things about herself and her mother, which lend a new perspective to her life.

Mr. Lent deals with the heart’s agendas in unique ways. He makes his characters’ thoughts and feelings so abundantly clear, and in such plain language, that we find our journey with his characters rewarding and believable. This is a sympathetic group - Mr. Lent has a way of making you love his novels’ populace.

This novel follows Katey’s journey from indignant youth to sadder-but-wiser young adult in a matter of days. This speeded-up time frame allows for Katey’s progress - it is an eventful trip, as I say - and enough happens that she graduates into a much more nuanced and understanding view of Ruth. Ruth’s own narrative includes the horrifying truth about Oliver’s wartime experience in Germany, and how he and her life are altered as a result of it. Katey’s trip involves meetings with a gallery of strangers, each described in chiaroscuro-type clarity in which Mr. Lent specializes, and which I find kind of a drug.

In temporal setting and theme, this piece allies itself more to A Peculiar Grace than to the epics Mr. Lent has set in days of yore: Sleep and Grace portray young people coming of age through their own particular trials on the way to reflective and wise adulthood.

The speed with which Katey’s point of view shifts reflects the shock of her experience with true independence. Ruth’s position as a teacher gives her a close-up view of the novel vagrancies of 1960s high-schoolers; in her mind this warrants her carping over her daughter’s direction in life, although frankly there’s nothing much alarming there. As always, Mr. Lent achieves a deft touch with the simplest language. Conversations are real-life oblique and laconic in New England style. Real human growth through everyday striving and stumbling - these are Mr. Lent’s stock in trade and they are fully on display here. Take this one up by all means!

I've had this novel in my stacks for several years and am so glad that I finally got around to it. Jeffrey Lent is a wonderful writer, attuned to both the natural world and the human heart. The book opens with a wallop: Malcolm Hopeton, a farmer from upstate New York who has been away serving in the Union Army, comes home to find that Amos Wheeler, the hired man he trusted to watch over the land has not only neglected his duties but has sold off as much as he could and run off with Hopeton's wife Bethany. In the first few pages, the wayward couple return to the farm in a wagon and an enraged Hopeton kills Amos. When Bethany pulls a derringer and fires at him, her husband throws her to the ground, with tragic consequences.

You might expect this to evolve into a typical story of murder and revenge, but these only form the the barest framework. Malcolm Hopeton is, at heart, a good man who was momentarily blinded by betrayal. Once he realizes what he has done, his first act is to take Harlan Davis, a teenage hired hand who was injured when he tried to prevent his boss's attack on the couple, to the town doctor. It's not long after that he is captured and goes willingly to jail to await trial--a trial that he hopes will end in his own death. As for Harlan, he is taken to the home of August Swartout, to recover under the care of his sister Becky, who has been helping the widowed farmer keep up the house. Set in a religious community in upstate New York, the novel explores not only the relationships among the characters but the depths and dilemmas of morality, justice, love, and faith.

This is a beautiful novel, one I will long remember, and I hope to read more works by Jeffrey Lent soon. My only caution--and this is NOT a criticism, to my mind--is that if you are looking for a lot of fast-paced action, you won't find it here. Much of the book describes the natural world, life on a mid-19th century farm, and the characters' memories. For me, these are what makes A Slant of Light such a memorable read.

In many respects Jeffrey Lent’s In the Fall is a remarkable historical novel. Lent is a skilled narrator, he is knowledgeable about his subject matter, his observations about human conduct are incisive, and his characters are intriguingly exceptionally complex.

Lent’s story spans three generations. It is essentially three novels all of which relate to a violent event that occurs in Sweetboro, North Carolina, at the end of the Civil War. Without giving away important details in the story, I offer the following summary.

A young slave girl, Leah, is sexually attacked by her white, half-brother Alexander Mebane. She strikes his head with the hot iron that she has grasped off the kitchen stove. Believing that he is dead, she seeks advice from the stable-man, old slave Peter about how to escape. Days later she encounters Norman Pelham, a wounded Vermont soldier, lying in underbrush as the Civil War comes to a close. Sensing that he is a kind man, believing that she must atone for killing Mebane, she nurses him to health. They commit to each other and walked back to his family’s farm in Randolph, Vermont. They are married; they have three children. Leah is haunted by what she has left behind in North Carolina. Twenty-five years after the 1865 traumatic event, she goes back to Sweetboro to find answers to questions that have progressively daunted her.

The second part of the novel focuses on Leah and Norman’s youngest child, Jamie. At the age on nineteen, in 1904, he leaves the family farm and finds work in Barre, Vermont, making deliveries of home-made whiskey for his criminal boss. He meets a young woman, Joey, a singer at a local, private night club. He befriends her and then rescues her after she has been beaten by the brother of city police chief. They flee to Bethlehem, New Hampshire, close to Mount Washington, a tourist town with grand hotels that cater to the rich and famous. Jamie becomes a hotel manager and eventually establishes a bootleg whiskey business. Joey pursues a higher level singing career. After a rocky relationship, they marry. They have two children. Tragedies follow.

The third part of In the Fall is about part of the sixteenth year of Jamie and Joey’s older child, Foster Pelham. Living on his own, discovering a letter to his father from one of Norman Pelham’s daughters in Randolph, he goes to his deceased grandparents’ farm and learns from his two aunts the story of his grandparents’ meeting and what the aunts know about Leah’s return to Sweetboro twenty-five years afterward. Foster has not known anything about his grandparents. Intrigued, empathetic, Foster goes to Sweetboro. He discovers that Alexander Mebane is alive and is the source of the evil that has adversely affected his grandparents’ lives, his father’s life, and his own short life.

This exchange between Leah and Norman illustrates Lent’s narrative skills: pointed dialogue, visual clarity, intimation of depth of character, attention to detail.

She said, “I look at you, you know what I see? Norman?”

“I got no idea.”

“I see a man gentle right down in his soul. All the way down.”

Then she was quiet and when she spoke again her voice had lost a little edge and he heard it right away, a little less certainty and he felt this loss in his chest like hot water. She said, “So me. You look at me what do you see? Norman?”

His face furrowed like a spring field, wanting to get this just right. He had no idea what to say and kept looking at her hoping she’d wait for him, hoping she’d be patient. Hoping he’d find his way not out but through this.

She didn’t wait. She said, “You see a little nigger girl wanting to eat up your biscuit, your bacon, whatever you got? You see me thinking my taking care of you once overnight is something I can trade for lots more than that? Or maybe even just nigger pussy ready for you to say the right words, do the right thing? That what you see, Norman? And she reared back away from him now, sitting still on the bench, upright as if at a great distance, her back arched like a drawn bow, eyes burning wide open as her soul welled up but not at all ready to pour out without something back from him. He watched his hands turning one over the other, the fingers lacing and relacing until he realized she was watching him do this. He slid around and lifted his right leg over the bench so he sat straddle-legged facing her front on. With his face collapsed in sheer terror, he said to her, “Leah. All I see is the most lovely girl I’ve ever seen.”

She stood off the bench away from him and said, “I told you the truth, Norman. I told you the truth. But you lying to me if that’s all you see.”

And without even thinking about it he said, “What I see in the most lovely girl and one fat wide world of trouble. Trouble for both of us. That’s what I see.”

And now she stepped back over the bench to face him and said, “You got that right. You got that just exactly right.” He reached and took one of her hands and sat looking down at their hands lying one into the other, the small slip of warmth between his fingers, her life lying up against his, and still not looking at her he said, “Don’t you ever talk that way to me again Leah.”

“What way?” Her voice low, already knowing, needing to ask, needing him to tell her.

So he said, “That nigger-this nigger-that business.”

Lent’s story exudes authenticity. Here is what Joey tells Jamie about her being an entertainer.

“What that means is I wear outfits that make clear there’s a girl underneath and five or six times a night I stand up on Charlie’s little stage and sing. Songs like ‘If You Were a Kinder Fellow Than the Kind of Fellow You Are’ or ‘The Man Was a Stranger to Me’ … Between numbers I have to circulate, work up the crowd. Keep em buying drinks, let em buy me drinks – which is always nothing but cold tea. … Fellows tip you for a song, you flirt a little bit, they tip some more. And there’s some who’ll get a crush on a girl and bring presents to her, give her money that sort of thing. Charlie doesn’t allow his girls to hook but that doesn’t mean some of the girls some of the times don’t make arrangements to meet men outside of the club. … Now, the thing about that business is you have to pick and choose. Because what you want to do is keep the fellow coming around, both to the club and on the side. So you have to work them along, maybe giving a little but mostly putting the idea always in their heads like they’re getting far more than they are, or like they’re just about to.

I was especially impressed that Lent delved into the human psyche regarding coming to terms with one’s aberrant behavior. Here are several examples.

Norman: Telling himself no event lies or falls unconnected to others and that will is only the backbone needed to face these things head on.

Leah: But it was cowards finally who believe they can lay down one life and pick up another and not have them meet again. … That no punishment could be greater than to find in herself that all the rest of her life, that new life, all that was made from a lie. Lying to herself.

Jamie: He believed in luck. Not the ordinary luck that comes to all in runs of good or bad seemingly out of nowhere but luck searched out, sought in the corners and back rooms and cobwebbed recesses where no other might think to look. Luck, then earned someway.

Jamie: We can’t ever learn a thing. We just keep doing the same things over and over. Not even intentional. Like we can’t help ourselves. Like it’s who we really are. That’s it – we spend our lives just becoming what we already someway know we are.

Jamie: Mostly, …people are cruel, given the chance.

Abigail (Jamie’s sister, to Foster): He hated himself, your father did. Hated what he was. Ran out of here and never would come back. Because he did not want to be what he was. The same way Mother thought she could leave her old life behind clean he did the same. But it does not work that way.

Mebane: Every man is a curious thing – each one of us thinks we are nothing so much as our ownselves even as we fume about what had been done to us by others but we almost never see how we pass those wrongs along; we have our reasons for doing what we do and believe them not only to be right but the way things are, the way they have to be.

Mebane: Evil is not a thing that just sums up in a man. No. It is a thread that begins to run in a small way and then falls down through the years and generations to gain weight as it goes.

Mebane: It’s what we all do – we find a way to allow what we want but should not.

Mebane: That is what regret does. It allows you to live with yourself. You know what they say – all men in prison are innocent? … it’s that they grow to understand themselves in such a way as to see that moment, the trigger that set them off in the first place, that got them to where they are, they see that as something separate from themselves. They come to believe, to know, that ever again their choice would be a different one. Not only in the past but in the future. Because they cannot allow the truth.

In the Fall is well worth a reader’s time to read.

Some books are sleepers. This one was going so well with an Odessy feel building up. Wonderful characters barely lighted upon until time to move on to the next.
The Katey character was interesting and complex. Only 17 in January and a high school graduate. And a 1967 at that and accepted a full ride to become a member of the class of 1970
Small thing like that drive me crazy.
The mother character I could not stand and the last 30 pages were wasted on her redemption or whatever. My hubs says I can be hard on people but for the life of me I struggled to find any redeeming qualities.
The grandmother, Jo, I adored.½

Jeffrey Lent’s A Slant of Light features the life and death issues so closely associated with his work, and in this case an oblique approach to resolving the central conflict. These aspects of Mr. Lent’s latest novel don’t necessarily separate it from previous brilliant efforts like In the Fall and Lost Nation, not at all - but they reinforce and add depth to his already stunning body of work. A Slant of Light uses a device not often found in previous Lent novels: he uses a focused image to suggest the wider and more significant events swirling around the tragic hero. This book is a marvel.

Malcolm Hopeton returns to his Finger Lakes farm from fighting in the Civil War. He spent a full four years in what he felt was personal combat with evil. He comes home to find his farm fallow, stripped of crops and equipment, and his wife gone. At the root of all this damage is the man Hopeton had trusted to take care of things in his absence. The usurper made a clean sweep of everything Hopeton held as his own. In the stunning and brutal first scene of the book, Hopeton kills the villain, and also the wife he had called his own.

The book follows events in the murders’ wake: young Harlan Davis worked Hopeton’s farm and was trustworthy in Hopeton’s absence and remains so, although he thinks no one understands what really happened (he was a witness). Neighboring farmer August Swartout takes Harlan in after the crime, since he already employs Harlan’s older sister. Much of the plot revolves around these three who are caught up in the wretched business; they each have paths they must follow to see things set right, and particularly Harlan’s row is difficult to hoe.

The real focus here is Malcolm, however. While the state may be persuaded to clemency, he’s simply resigned to a death sentence, in fact thinks it’s the only just thing. Malcolm sits in a cell in the basement of the court house and half-consciously watches the progress of days in the form of sunlight slanting through a high window opposite. And the light of justice swings around in its inexorable way, its path pushed and bent by the actions of the principals. It’s a lovely, an elegant device, a fine and impressive stroke by a master.

We find the period’s religious preoccupations on display, as well as the daily, grinding challenge of running a farm at the time. We encounter interesting secondary characters, like the two legal professionals who will attempt to influence and decide the case, and a handful of wonderful women, each of whom enjoys Mr. Lent’s full and assured touch.

I’ve believed for years in Jeffrey Lent’s mastery. He’s ambitious and eloquent, and adorns his prose only with the most appropriate descriptive touches that never detract from his art. I think this is his best book yet, and from me, that’s a real compliment.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-slant-of-light-by-jeffrey-lent.html

Im amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg lernt der Nordstaatensoldat das Mädchen Leah, eine entlaufende Sklavin, kennen, heiratet sie und nimmt sie mit nach Vermonth. Obwohl sich beide sehr lieben, geschieht etwas, was wie ein Fluch über der Familie liegt. Ihr gemeinsamer Sohn Jamie geht weg in eine Welt, in der er als Weißer durchgeht und lebt von illegalem Schnapsverkäufen. Sein Sohn Foster schließlich macht sich auf den Weg, das Familiengeheimnis zu entwirren.
Das Buch ist sehr ausführlich und lang. Es enthält viele Schilderungen und Beschreibungen. Das Leben Leahs und Normans finde ich interessant. Leah ist für die Familie Normans die erste Schwarze, die sie sehen. Akzeptiert wird sie von den Mitbürgern ihrer Gemeinde nicht wirklich, sie lebt ein zurückgezogenes Leben als Farmersfrau. Allerdings geschieht etwas, was sie völlig durcheinanderbringt und das Leben aller Familienmitglieder verändert.
Jamie, der Sohn der beiden, geht als junger Mann weg und baut sich eine Existenz am Rande der Legalität auf. Seine Geschichte fand ich am schwierigsten zu lesen und ihn mochte und verstand ich auch nicht sehr.
Als Jamie relativ jung stirbt, besucht sein Sohn Foster die Familie seines Vaters, die er bisher nicht kennengelernt hat. Er macht sich dann auch auf den Weg, das Geheimnis zu lüften. Diese Teile fand ich sehr gut und interessant zu lesen. Insgesamt machte mich das Buch, machten mich die Geschehnisse fassungslos. Welches Unrecht tun Menschen einander an, nur weil sie in der Lage dazu sind. Das geschieht heute ebenso und ebenso geschieht es, weil sich die einen den anderen für überlegen halten. Männer über Frauen, Weiße über Schwarze, Erwachsene über Kinder. Wann wird man je verstehn?½

This novel was an extraordinary surprise. Published in 2000, I had heard neither of the author or the book when I found it on the discard rack at the library in 2015. But once I began reading I found it hard to put down. Set primarily in Vermont and New Hampshire, between 1865 and 1930, Lent tells the stories of three protagonists, members of separate generations of the same family, yet in a mysterious way their lives pivot around events that happened long before any of them were born. As the storyline developed I found myself anxiously anticipating what was coming next, but not wanting to get there too soon, as Lent is a master of developing the present moment fully before proceeding to the next. I enjoyed this book.

I liked this book overall. The story is told in two time frames -- circa 1925 and circa 1890-1923. I found the writing style odd in places--he uses quite a few sentence fragments--but I was intrigued by the characters & their stories. The ending took me completely by surprise.

Reviewed in the Colorado Springs Independent: http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/orhans-inheritance-pretty-ugly-a-slant-of-...½

Jeffrey Lent’s heroes face challenges out of the run of the mill. Some of these, as in In the Fall and Lost Nation, face an onslaught of outside forces strong enough to bow or break even the strongest protagonist. In A Peculiar Grace, hero Hewitt Pearce’s toughest tests result instead from his own past and his not-always-healthy ways of coping with it. In this book, Mr. Lent has shrunk his canvas down from the sweeping, heroic backdrops he used in Fall and Nation, to the emotional life of one stubborn yet searching man, who trusts his emotions and views of life maybe a little too much. And he succeeds beautifully again, the author does. This book makes me feel many things; however, surprise at the author’s skill is not one of them.

Vermont blacksmith Hewitt Pearce was lucky enough as a teenager to feel the desperation and euphoria of deep love. When this affair ends unhappily for him, he lets it sink him into an alcohol-soaked despair which he survives only through the last-ditch efforts of his friend Walter. Twenty years later, he’s essentially a hermit with a good blacksmith’s practice, and a tractor for getting to the store. Suddenly twenty-something Jessica crashes onto his property and into his life. She’s a fugitive from life’s vagaries, somewhat in the mold of Hewitt himself. Their quirky exploration of each other’s boundaries, beliefs, and personality form - and charm - the bulk of the book. This is the “peculiar grace” of the title. Although Hewitt’s life and heart become torqued up again when his onetime great love is widowed, he cannot revert to form - to chase her and/or pine after her - because of the new presence in his life.

I did what I very seldom do after finishing a book. I went back to re-read scenes of especially well-done dialogue, because they are some of the great charms of this charming book. We sink neck-deep into Hewitt’s psyche, and watch him take his painful steps toward a more balanced emotional outlook. Mr. Lent grants his hero the capacity to give and also gives him the knack of communicating, through a forthright and laconic way - almost a shorthand - that captivates. His writing captures this perfectly.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from A Peculiar Grace, after the previous heroic entries I mentioned. What I got demonstrates Mr. Lent’s mastery. He remains one of the very best practicing the craft today, as his every book amply proves. Take this up. It’s also one of the few that I definitely plan on rereading, even with my reading time at such a premium.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-peculiar-grace-by-jeffrey-lent.html

I absolutely loved this book and now have all of the previous books by Jeffrey Lent on my must-be-read list. This one is not a light read and it’s not a fast read but it is definitely an absorbing read. The author has a deep understanding of the human heart and knows how to portray that understanding with words. He’s created a literary work of art with this book.

Malcolm Hopeton is a soldier in the Civil War who spends four years fighting what he perceives to be the evil that has pervaded the United States, only to find evil on his own doorstep when he returns home. His story is the prevailing one; however, many of the characters have their own compelling stories to tell. I won’t go into any of those stories as I believe the author has done a perfect job of bringing to light each of their lives and backgrounds in a slow, sure way.

The author is a master at depicting the time period and the hardness of farm life. He has the heart of a poet and when he describes a picnic in a meadow, you’re there with them, smelling the flowers, feeling the warm wind on your face, tasting the food. Even the eating of a peach becomes a sensuous experience. This is a passionate, powerful book. Some people won’t like the ending and will feel like they’ve been left hanging but I believe enough was told towards the end of the book that you know how it will all turn out without being specifically told.

One of the best books I’ve read this year and well deserving of any prizes that are ahead for it.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

When Malcolm Hopeton returns to his farm in upstate New York, after fighting in the Civil War, he find most of his possessions and his wife gone. This novel opens with a act of violence and as a reader I thought I knew what was going to happen, a bad man would be caught and hanged. Wrong, the lines are not so clear. There is so much more to the story despite presumptions to the contrary and that is the genius of this novel and this author.

Through a young man who had worked on his farm for many years we hear some of the story, and in memories from Malcolm himself as he sits in jail awaiting his fate, we hear of the relationship between he and his wife. Such wonderful characters, women and men, and I really wanted to know the real story behind these actions. Amazing writing, his descriptions place you right there and are incredibly beautiful. Hard working farmers, a community of The Friends, people who care about each other, and a man who seems to be helpful but has his own agenda.

First novel I have read by this author but have now become a big fan.
A wonderful book to become immersed in with on a cloudy, cold afternoon.

ARC from NetGalley.

I didn't want to come to the end of this excellent story, which begins with a wounded Union soldier meeting the runaway slave who nurses him back to health, and ends with their grandson, a sixteen-year-old boy who sets out to learn the secrets of his ancestry, but finds something much more important--the secret to himself. Setting, character, plot---all incredibly fine. I need believable characters and a good story, but I am first and foremost a connoisseur of Place in novels. This one took me directly to the woods, hills, farm buildings and back roads of my childhood, complete with smells and tactile sensations. The man knows the inside of a long-used barn, and his descriptions of early morning are magical. The family saga is rich and compelling, moving from a Vermont farm boy who brings a black girl home as his wife; to their son who leaves the farm for the underworld of whiskey running, where he not only passes for white, but dismisses the entire subject of race from his life; to HIS son whose quest for a Faulknerian truth wraps up the novel. I want to find a first edition hardback copy of this book and place it on the shelf next to Absalom, Absalom!. It's really that good.

EDIT: And find one I did---signed by the author, as well.

What a book, I have only one word, searing. This is a roller-coaster of human passions, mistakes [for which people cannot forgive themselves] and just plain living. It tackles many taboos and at dark part of the USA's past. I have an American friend who casually and innocently uses the word 'miscegenation'. It is that horrible word that Lent confronts in a tour-de-force that challenges the black-white divide - but does so in the tale of three generations of New Englanders [is Vermont in New England?] for whom life is not a straight line. From the depths of the civil war to the follies of prohibition this novel has it all. Is there redemption? There is an accounting to be sure. Best read it for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

Well worth the effort of reading.