Review: Beautifully Written, Poignant Story of Love and Youth Lost in a Small Mountain Town
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2014
“The Winter Calf” held me captivated—it swings between gritty, magical, and heartbreaking, with prose that manages to capture both the wonder and hope of childhood as well as the harshness of adult reality.The novel opens with the town “witch”—Iris Littleton—casting a spell to bring her son, Elias, back to her. Elias drowned years ago and his body was never recovered, and Iris has been living a life of solitude and self-reliance in her small mountain home ever since. Henry, who lives down in Maple Gap, has a happy and idyllic childhood—he’s been given a calf to raise by his father, and his only real trials in life are Frannie’s boys (including Jerome), who bully him. In fact, Henry probably can’t imagine their lives, with an abusive father and hunger that stalks them more often than not.How the lives of Henry, Jerome, and Iris intersect is the rest of the plot, which swings in scope from the small tragedies of the everyday to the largest of them all.“The Winter Calf” is an entertaining novel that vividly brings to life a small mountain town; the author has a talent for description of both settings and a character’s emotions and inner thoughts. However, this book is more than that—it presents a host of deeper themes. For instance, what is an abusive mother who shouldn’t have her own children—is it one who allows her husband to abuse them all, or one who stitches up her own child’s wounds but otherwise is loving and tender? Why do small towns allow stereotypes to isolate members of its own community? The characters of Henry and Jerome are excellent foils—their childhood experiences are at the end of the spectrum—and comparing the both has an effective (and sometimes uncomfortable) emotional resonance. I especially liked the character of Iris—though the town’s children see her one way, as a reader you slowly come to know her and realize she is a kind person, full of grace, who has undergone great sorrow. And it all ties together in one shocking, explosive conclusion that ultimately ends in a wisp of hope, both for the characters in the story and for human nature as a whole. (And as a side note, the cover is beautiful—it manages to evoke nostalgia and a feeling of loneliness all at once.)I would wholeheartedly recommend “The Winter Calf” to readers who enjoy contemporary fiction set in small American towns; if you’ve enjoyed works by Connie Mae Fowler, Ken Haruf, or Robert Morgan you will also enjoy “The Winter Calf.”