I’ve been hearing good things about The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin and since I love historical fiction, it was a natural choice for me to read. Based on the Jan 12, 1888 blizzard in Nebraska and the Dakota Territory, Ms Benjamin created the characters caught up in this tragic true life event. The fast moving blizzard struck without warning just as the prairie schools were dismissing for the day. School teachers as young as sixteen were faced with an impossible decision: keep the children inside and risk freezing to death when fuel ran out or send them home praying they wouldn’t get lost in the storm. Her story follows two sisters, both schoolteachers—one who becomes a heroine of the storm, the other who is ostracized in the aftermath because of her decision.
Benjamin’s primary sources for research were the non-fiction book The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin published in 2004 and a collection of memories of those who survived and witnessed the storm, In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of January 12th, 1888, published in 1947. She created such compelling characters that the memory of one child who survived the night huddled in a ditch clutching her best friend who didn’t survive left me in tears. I couldn’t put this book down.
For a “complete” change of pace and genre I read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, published 2017. If you like quirky characters, you’ll love this book. Set in present day Glasgow, Eleanor is an eccentric, awkward, office worker insulated from her traumatic past. She is tone deaf to social conventions, often with hilarious results.
Beautifully written, the story draws you in with humor, then turns out to contain both a suspenseful and sometimes dark subplot and a sweet romance. Ms Honeyman said she wanted to write about loneliness and the importance of friendship and kindness with regard to the human condition. Eleanor’s life unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger and depicts her transformational journey towards a fuller understanding of self and life. I was anxious for resolution and wasn’t disappointed.
More good reading: This Tender Land by Kent Krueger and Marcello’s Promise by Jane Coletti Perry now available in softcover and ebook on Amazon. (See what I did there?) What have you read this summer? I’d love to hear from you so send me an email or reply on my website. Happy reading!
What you told me about the Children’s Blizzard seemed very interesting. But now that I know it happened on the same date as my birthday, I have to read it! Thanks Jane!