Like Dante’s Inferno, Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods begins in a dark forest, ends on a mountain, and passes through nearly every form of sin in between. The hero of this third novel by the author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons is no middle-aged poet, though. She’s a young woman named Luce, most of whose life has been a recurrent dark night of the
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In July 2010, I wrote a blog post about Letters of a Woman Homesteader, by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, whose wonderful letters, written in the early 20th century, described her life as a Wyoming rancher. The book had been one of my longtime favorites, and writing the post gave me great pleasure. I’ve always admired Elinore Stewart, not only for the obvious
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Hell is empty, and all the devils are here. –Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2, ll 214-15 The title of this book caught my eye as I hastily scanned the library shelf last week, looking for an audiobook to keep me company while commuting. The past few weeks have been especially difficult, so the word “Hell” seemed immediately pertinent.
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