Oh, she doesn’t mince things about how Midland looks. She talks about the dust, and the heat, and the mesquite trees (which she used to play under when she was little). She talks about the plain houses she and her friends grew up with, because there wasn’t time nor money to put on fancy things like shutters.
She also talks about her mother losing so many babies, and why she was SO worried when she was pregnant with the twins.
She doesn’t sugarcoat her own behavior, either. Talks about taking up smoking and how in those days everywhere you went there was smoking and drinking. (I am her age and this is true; I smoked all through my college years. At IU you could bring cigarettes and an ashtray into the lecture halls!)
I am not really good at describing her writing style, except to say she uses well placed descriptions to evoke a feeling for the place and time. And one thing she comes back to about Midland is the sky...how it is so big and how her mother always had her looking up at the stars.
ohioWfan: Yes, I am a very rapid reader. When I was in high school we had to take a class called “Developmental Reading.” It was based on increasing speed while retaining comprehension. I can read a paperback regency romance in 5 hours. Technical stuff takes me longer. It’s a result of that class I took when I was 16; I never lost the skill.
My elder daughter is like you. She loves to read (3 out of the 4 kids are book addicts - the soldier one is not. :), and she read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in 8 days!
I admire your ability to read.
As for your review, it is spot on!
This book reads like a quality novel. It's captivating and beautifully written.
You really can tell that Laura loves great literature and has absorbed it into her very being. I found myself almost in tears within the first few pages of telling about the loss of her siblings, and her Dad's war experience.
Marvelous book! (Not finished yet!)