Rating: 
Summary: Makes You A Member of the Family
Review: This is an impressive first novel. The Arbuckle family becomes your own as you become pulled into their story, which spans most of the first half of the twentieth century. The sheer hard work of running a ranch is graphically described. This family survives hard times and never takes the good times for granted.This is a grown-up look at the world similar to the one that many of us first saw through the eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Rating: 
Summary: A good solid read . . .
Review: This is an old-fashioned saga about a family on a ranch in the southeast corner of Montana. The story is told by one of four brothers, starting in 1916 when he is a 14-year-old boy and ending in 1946. Told in the first person, it maintains a 1940s sensibility. For even though it tells the story of the narrator's decades-long attraction to his brother's wife, there is still a chasteness about their relationship that would be implausible in a story told 50 years later. Suppressing his own sexuality, the narrator remains inexperienced well into his 30s, and there is a glancingly graceful moment in his story, as a widow he is courting discovers this on their first night together.
Moving slowly through 30 years of western history, the novel captures the hard-scrabble life of a family on the plains, with accounts of prairie fire, the withering drought of the Depression years, and finally the beginnings of economic recovery as war rages in Europe and the Pacific. Children are born, young adults grow old. There are marriages, illnesses, accidents, and deaths to be mourned. Personalities clash, and conflicts linger without resolution. One brother drowns, another disappears for periods at a time, one brother turns down a chance to play professional baseball, another marries unwisely. And as the years come and go, the family remains on the ranch, finding strength in the land when they do not find it in each other.
Rowland often rises well to the material. The narrator's trip to Omaha, where he secretly meets up with a baseball scout is well told, especially as it includes an encounter with the Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige. An especially vivid scene involves the efforts of two people (the narrator and his sister-in-law) tending to a cow whose womb has prolapsed after giving birth. Their struggle to save the cow, lasting hours, is told in breathtaking detail and grows to an emotional pitch that comes to represent the difficult intensity of their own relationship.
I recommend this novel for those interested in the rural West, ranch life, the Depression, and the intricacies of extended families. It's a good solid read.
Rating:
Summary: History with a heart
Review: This is not a topic I would normally gravitate toward, but from the first page I was gripped by this simple tale of sibling rivalry and pioneer grit on the Montana plains. Russell Rowland manages to infuse his characters -- especially his painfully honest narrator Blake Arbuckle -- with deeply felt inner lives. The prose isn't fancy, but page after page, you feel like you're really in these characters' lives, seeing the world from their unique vantage points. You don't have the feeling you do with so many first novels, that some whiz-kid with an MFA has cooked this all up to get a tenure-track job. This book feels necessary, as if the characters themselves demanded that it be written. This is a first book? So, where's the second one?
Rating:
Summary: Great representation of Montana during time period!
Review: This novel was a graduation gift from a co-worker. She knows and is fond of the writer, and naturally, it was a great gift. I usually am not a reader of Montana-like Ivan Doig books, but I soon jumped into the book, and the pages just kept turning themselves!!! Each character seemed to be so carefully crafted it didn't seem fiction-each has a flaw, but the reader loves each one anyway. This book was a great example of how life was in Montana during the early 1900s, and takes you through both World Wars, up and down, and all around. Even living in Montana, I had no idea this was what it was like in Southeast Montana!! I definitely recommend this book to any interested! And, because I can't recommend other books for some reason, I strongly recommend The Brothers K by David James Duncan...A+!!!
Rating:
Summary: Most Enjoyable!
Review: This was a totally enjoyable and delightful read. I felt I was right there with the Arbuckle Family as they made their way through 30 years of joy, sadness, obstacles and triumphs from 1916 to 1946. This book has a lot of heart!
Rating:
Summary: A compelling story
Review: Well-written and believable story of a ranching family in Montana. Convincing characters and vivid scenery pulled me into the book and kept me gripped till the end. Excellent descriptions of life on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. Really enjoyed it, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling story
Review: Well-written and believable story of a ranching family in Montana. Convincing characters and vivid scenery pulled me into the book and kept me gripped till the end. Excellent descriptions of life on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. Really enjoyed it, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A joy to read
Review: What a beautiful book. Quiet, gentle, but very strong emotions. Superb. I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, Boring, Boring
Review: With a style as sparse as the Montana setting, Rowland creates a simple story that starts slowly, gaining momentum and creating tension until his world has you in its grip. The land and weather become characters as powerful and yet as uncomplicated as the people. What is remarkable is that everything that happens is easily predictable, but when it happens, it's a surprise. It's a book without pretension or complexity, but one that engulfs you in a world of stunning clarity. The ever-present emotional upheavels rarely explode, but their presence is always felt. A truly wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Surprising Predictability
Review: With a style as sparse as the Montana setting, Rowland creates a simple story that starts slowly, gaining momentum and creating tension until his world has you in its grip. The land and weather become characters as powerful and yet as uncomplicated as the people. What is remarkable is that everything that happens is easily predictable, but when it happens, it's a surprise. It's a book without pretension or complexity, but one that engulfs you in a world of stunning clarity. The ever-present emotional upheavels rarely explode, but their presence is always felt. A truly wonderful book.
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