The Great Plains (review)

It’s been a while since I have shared a book with you all – it’s not that I haven’t been reading (although Beef Week did slow me down in that department) it’s just that I have been a little snowed with Life in General!

While I was undergoing chemo last year, I was lucky enough to be sent several great books by friends and publishers.  And while my concentration levels were not always fantastic, it was wonderful to be able to dive into another world for a little while when I was up to it.  I cannot promise to review all the books sent to me (seriously, whole months during that period are just a blur) but I will share a couple that made a real impact.

The first of these was sent to me by author Nicole Alexander, whom I was lucky enough to meet almost two years ago at the Brisbane Ekka.

We have stayed in touch (thanks to the magic of social media) and I have followed her family’s drought ordeal on their NSW property via Facebook and her blog.

I have to admit, while I was delighted to open the parcel bringing ‘The Great Plains’ with it’s very special handwritten note for me, I wondered if my poor old chemo-cooked brain was up to handling this hefty novel. 

I need not have worried.

Nicole is a gifted writer and incredible researcher – she delves deep into her characters and their surrounds, following each closely and bringing dramatic historical detail to her storylines.

With her plot leading the reader through the raw Australian bush during the infancy of pastoralism, and through America’s wild west before and during the terrible Dust Bowl droughts, Nicole paints her characters with care and colour.

The plot follows three generations of women: Philomena, Serena and Abelena.  It explores abduction, slavery, love, jealousy, greed and ambition in equal doses. I loved that the women in ‘The Great plains’ are such strong, imperfect, slightly mysterious identities.  Nicole also explores the relationship between indigenous people and the land, both in Australia and the USA.

I won’t lie – this is not a light, overnight read.  It is a rich, vast epic that covers two continents and several decades.  Once I had made the effort to get into it, and get to know the complex characters, I greatly enjoyed it.

I particularly loved reading the chapters detailing Abelena ‘s experience of enduring and attempting to escape the extreme poverty and the incredible dust storms in the ‘dust bowl’ of America’s mid-west in the 1930s.

I won’t give too much more away – except to urge you to put some serious reading time aside, and settle in with ‘The Great Plains’.

😀

NB This review is purely the opinion of Amanda, and has not been solicited or paid for in any way.

** This book available at all good book stores and via this link for your preferred ebook seller.