I am with Schopenhauer here. One piece of advice that is frequently offered to aspiring authors is that you should write about what you know. To what extent would you say you apply this principle to your own work? But I lay no claim to ever preparing for any kind of rodeo, except for that of hollering bystander. As an author, what is harder to write when it comes to a book: I would say they are equally difficult, or equally not difficult. Trying to find a rhythm or a meter specific to the telling of a particular story, and keeping on with it beginning to end, is the trickier thing.
Are there any particular authors who inspire you or that you feel have had a notable impact on your own writing? Certainly Schopenhauer, as I mentioned earlier. To my mind, there is no greater American writer alive than Cormac McCarthy. All of us, as writers—as artists—come out of some Petri dish, and I will admit to coming out of his. There is no such thing as the innocent eye, or the innocent ear, no matter what anybody tells you.
OLD BORDER ROAD by Susan Froderberg | Kirkus Reviews
On the other hand, we are each of us necessarily what no one else can possibly be. Do you find your philosophy background has enriched your writing? Probably, as the opportunity to study philosophy has enriched my life. For in Western philosophy you must follow formal logic—if A, then not B. In fiction, you may have both A and B, if you so choose.
You can be exhausted and you can be exhilarated at the same time: Or you can be derived and you can be unique, without contradiction. This is not to say we can do away with logic: Also, I would say my background—both practical and educational—has been so various that philosophy is only a part of it. My time as a critical care nurse enriched my life: My undergraduate degree after nursing school was in economics; that too opened me to a better way of understanding the world.
It was the era of interdisciplinary studies, and I was lucky to have been able to invent mine—no one there before had formally done anything in Medical Ethics. What are you working on next? When Delia Owens was growing up in Thomasville, Georgia, her mother encouraged her to venture Entering a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, for an annual investment conference some years ago, Amor Never miss an issue! What a great book! Susan Froderberg's novel is written with powerful and beautifully poetic language that takes one to a timeless place--dry and desolate-- filled with characters that are strange and compelling.
Feb 01, Lee Ann rated it it was ok Shelves: The writing was poetic, but the voice did not match the character and they were, at best, one dimensional and tedious. Such miserable souls, didn't really care what happens. This is one of those that I wished that I could not finish a book, it is just not in my nature. Jan 02, Ron Charles rated it liked it Shelves: When people talk about genre fiction, their list peters out somewhere after romance and sci-fi - long before they get down to westerns, those once-mighty bestsellers that now seem as quaint as leather fringe.
Who won this year's Spur Award? You don't have to be all that old to remember an era when the sun rose every day on novels about cowboys and horses, but two decades after Louis L'Amour took his boots off, Bantam is publishing his books in "Legacy Editions," a sclerotic label if the When people talk about genre fiction, their list peters out somewhere after romance and sci-fi - long before they get down to westerns, those once-mighty bestsellers that now seem as quaint as leather fringe.
You don't have to be all that old to remember an era when the sun rose every day on novels about cowboys and horses, but two decades after Louis L'Amour took his boots off, Bantam is publishing his books in "Legacy Editions," a sclerotic label if there ever was one. Cormac McCarthy has left horses for the apocalypse. And reviewing a Larry McMurtry novel last year, our reviewer said, "The prose seems summary in nature, imparting a 'let's get this over with' quality.
So I'm doubly curious to see a talented new writer publish her first novel about the tribulations of a ranch family in southern Arizona. Admittedly, "Old Border Road" isn't a western by any formal definition of the term, but Susan Froderberg builds on those old tropes to tell a mournful story of men and women scraping by on America's arid frontier. These people use trucks and electricity and telephones, but they still depend on the land and their horses and especially the weather, and the big event in their future is the regional rodeo.
In many ways, it's a world that seems closer to the 19th century than the 21st, and like Karen Fisher's "A Sudden Country" and Molly Gloss's "The Hearts of Horses," this is a Western transformed by its focus on a young woman. The story itself is fairly thin, but Froderberg's narrator, year-old Katherine, has a raw poetic voice that makes the tale an arresting incantation of longing and regret. Katherine's plans of one day becoming a scientist are brushed aside when she drops out of high school to marry a cocky young cowboy named Son.
He introduces himself by unclasping her halter top; he's classy like that. After a wedding marked by enough omens to give Oedipus second thoughts, she says, "I am so much in love these days, I take pity on anyone who isn't us. Yes, we are yet the happy pair, we are, with not a thing to mar any day of all the days on the road for us. Amply alerted by these foreboding lines, no one should be surprised that Son makes a pretty wretched spouse, but Froderberg, who has a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University, has written a story thick with atmosphere, not suspense.
When Katherine moves in with Son's parents, she falls under the care of two rather odd people. Her mother-in-law, Rose, teaches her how to be a good farm wife, which mostly involves ignoring a husband's philandering. And her father-in-law, creepily nicknamed Rose's Daddy, sits around delivering blessings and jeremiads in King James Version English: And within the blackness of the days, humankind was terrified.
Old Border Road
Froderberg gives over a lot of control to her young, unschooled narrator, allowing the story to follow Katherine's interests without much concern for context or elaboration or, sometimes, chronology. Water rights, local and international politics and ancestral real estate claims hover on the edges of Katherine's consciousness and around the margins of these pages. Alluring characters fade in and out of the foreground, and we learn about them only erratically, always aware that we don't really know much about them at all. A seductive minister dressed in white preaches a flatulent New Age doctrine of self-actualization that seems comically irrelevant to these parched ranchers.
A wealthy beauty named Pearl Hart seems as ready to crush Katherine as help her. Almost the entire story takes place during a drought that slowly bakes everything for hundreds of square miles around. It's a conflagration in slow motion - a "calamity of the heat and the dust" - and Froderberg displays a limitless capacity for describing its effects: This is a novel that teaches you how to read it, and you either join in or get outta town.
The effect is often moving and evocative, if at times irritatingly vague - an Old West version of Toni Morrison. It's good to be reminded again that this classic American form is no one-trick pony; it's still evolving, still turning those sepia myths into challenging new fiction. Sep 11, Cynthia rated it it was amazing. Feb 28, Bonnie Brody rated it liked it. A dry, hot and dusty tale of young love. Old Border Road is about a headstrong and very young bride newly wed into a prosperous desert family.
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Her husband is called Son. Son's father, father also of Rose, is called Rose's Daddy and by no other name. All of the elders speak in poetic, sometimes biblical or even prophetic language. The author's voice twists and bends language poetically to make you think about the meaning behind the surface of the words. The locale is unspeci A dry, hot and dusty tale of young love. The locale is unspecified but clearly resonates with the landscape near Yuma, Arizona. The heat is palpable.
You can feel the grit of the sand and dust in your throat. The rodeo is coming and our protagonist is being groomed to ride in the barrel race. Her husband is a philandering louse. She is nurtured by her in-laws, but not by either of her parents. Much grief comes to the elders in this dark tale of financial ruin, natural disaster, death, crippling injury and adulterous betrayal. Water and water rights, drought and endless searing heat are as much characters as the people.
This manner of writing requires close attention. Words are used in unusual ways. What the characters say needs attention, especially the difference between what is found on the page and what is commonly spoken or written. I found the language more appropriate to a more disturbed protagonist than our clearly intelligent and more or less rational girl bride.
She is both mentally healthy and mentally tough. Her voice is stream of consciousness with a twist, partaking of an innocent perception of terrible events. There is a fairly straightforward plot. I wanted to find out what was happening next and how the characters would respond to their changing circumstances. I came to care for the protagonist and those elders who cared for her. The poetic and challenging language gave a powerful sense of place, but made following the plot more of a chore.
I look forward to more from this obviously talented writer. Jul 03, Amy rated it did not like it. Although I am only two chapters into this book, I'm struggling with the writing style. The author has been sprinkling each page with words that I have to stop and look up because there are so many in such close proximity that I have no way to use context to suss out the meaning. This is such an unusual reading experience for me that I find myself impatient and frustrated with the book and the author.
For the second time today I have set the book aside and gone off to find something else to do, again a very unusual reading experience for me , and I question whether I will be able to finish this one. Out of curiosity, I began keeping track of how many words I came across that were unfamiliar to me and that I couldn't either immediately guess using context or dismiss as possibly from another language given the book's setting.
- Mademoiselle Zazie a-t-elle un zizi ? (Premiers Romans) (French Edition);
- Novell GroupWise 7 Users Handbook (Novell Press).
- Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg - Interview | BookPage | BookPage.
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In three pages I came across That seems like a large proportion, as I had not recorded ALL of the words that were unknown. The writing style became more familiar as I went along and therefore easier to follow to some extent, but reading this book was effortful. The story was told in a forward and back manner that often told the outcome and then went back to tell the cause, without necessarily making it clear that this is what was happening. As for the story, there were moments that seemed as though the plotline was about to redeem itself, but it never fully came through for me.
I was just as lost and unsure at the ending as I was at the start. Sadly, this book was a loss for me. Sep 28, Cassandra rated it it was ok Shelves: Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg was a hard read for me. The story is about a young woman named Katherine who married young to a man named Son.
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Katherine moves with Son and begins to think she can have the happy family with her handsome new husband. Although Katherine soon finds out after her honeymoon that Son is a philander with little regard to how she feels. Son stays out almost every night drinking and cheating with a string of women. Katherine finds the only solace with his parents, whi Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg was a hard read for me.
Katherine finds the only solace with his parents, which even though they are displeased with their son's behavior they too dismiss Katherine's hurt. I had a hard time getting into the book, for one I felt that Katherine's character lacked substance and depth. I also thought that Katherine lacked very little emotion especially with finding her garnet necklace around her husband's mistress. Katherine finds her escape from her horrible marriage in the horses she soon becomes fond of, although the horses belong to the parents of the girl that her husband is having an affair with.
The story ends with Son having an accident with a horse which Katherine the ever dutiful wife stays by his side until the end. Nov 29, Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews rated it it was amazing. Old Border Road has exceptional descriptions of characters, situations, and Arizona scenery.
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The characters are unique, and the storyline is appealing. The main character, Katherine, lives with her in-laws in southern Arizona and must work with them in their everyday routine of keeping up their ranch while her husband is habitually absent at night.
As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walke Old Border Road has exceptional descriptions of characters, situations, and Arizona scenery. As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walked down the aisle as a seventeen-year-old bride have been an omen for her life's path? All characters mesh well together even though they are distinct in their own ways. Froderberg's style is splendid I thoroughly enjoyed the book Dec 19, April rated it liked it Shelves: This is a story of girl meets boy. Yes, Girl is her name and boy's name is Son. It has teenage marriage, martial conflict,and life changes.
Son is the son of a weathy rancher. Girl marries young only seventeen. Son is a gambler, a cheat, a drinker and cheats on his young bride. A drought hits Arizona causing families to have to struggle. After Son's father commits sucide, Girl decides to leave her cheating, drinking husband. But Sun gets into an accident and Girl returns back to care for him.
Something in this book just didn't click for me. I don't know if the writing was more complicated than needed or the characters just didn't same to have true faces and identities. It just couldn't same to get into the story line. This book was received for the purpose of review from the publisher and details can be found at Little, Brown,and Company and My Book Addiction and More.
Feb 08, Denise rated it it was ok. When she falls in love with Son, the only child of a local rancher, marrying him seems the way out of her desolate life. Though his parents accept her as part of the family, it is soon clear that Son himself is beaten down by the drought and other circumstances and has no will or motivation to help her create a better life.
As the drought worsens their marriage falls apart. This book was just too blea In Old Border Road young Katherine grows up poor and neglected in rural, drought ridden Arizona. This book was just too bleak and depressing for me.
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I liked Katherine and it was frustrating to feel that she never had a chance. The writing style is very abrupt, the book jacket describes it as "almost biblical" and I found it difficult and unsettling to read. She does a marvelous job of evoking the landscape and atmosphere, I would put the book aside feeling like there was a coating of dust in my mouth. I would say Susan Froderberg accomplished what she set out to do admirably - it just wasn't to my taste.
Jul 18, Hope Decker rated it really liked it Shelves: I was shocked to learn that this was Susan Froderberg's firt novel! A thoroughly enjoyable read.