Read ’em? Say you did
The pressure’s on: Denver announced John Nichols’ classic “The Milagro Beanfield War” as its 2006 One Book on Oct. 18, leaving 74 days to complete the required reading. Don’t have the time? We didn’t think so.
To spare you pain when holiday party/watercooler chatter inevitably makes its way around to the topic of the One Book, we read it – and One Books from Boulder, Broomfield and Loveland – and created this cheat sheet of key plot points that will help you stay in the gab and included some darn good excuses you can make for not finishing.
Even we don’t have so much time on our hands that we could plow through all the One Books being devoured in communities across Colorado. If you want to know which tomes are One Books elsewhere, visit loc.gov/loc/cfbook/one-book.html.
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ONE BOOK, ONE BOULDER
Internment / “When the Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka (Random House, 2002)
“When the Emperor Was Divine” is a slim, smooth-as-silk novel that imagines how a thoroughly Americanized Japanese family survives internment in the high desert of Utah and their return, three years later, to their home in Berkeley, Calif.
The characters: The woman, a 41-year-old mother left to care for her children, the girl and the boy, after her husband is arrested and imprisoned for being Japanese.
Excuse for not getting past page 11: Preparing to leave her home for internment camp, the woman dispatches the family pet with a shovel.
Annoying, but understandable, literary conceit: The main characters’ names are never mentioned, though all of the peripheral folks, mostly Anglo, do have names.
Bringing it around to a conversation you can manage: There was a Japanese internment camp at Grenada from August 1942 to Oct. 1945, where the population reached about 7,300 at its peak, two thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. Then Gov. Ralph L. Carr spent the last days of his political career arguing against internment of Japanese-Americans. You can visit the remains of Camp Amache, about 140 miles east of Pueblo, between Lamar and Holly.
– Dana Coffield
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ONE BOOK, ONE DENVER
Town’s uprising / The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols (Ballantine Books, 1974)
“The Milagro Beanfield War” is the story of the little guys, in this case the Spanish-speaking descendants of Mexicans in the town of Milagro, fighting for their way of life against the big developers. When scrappy José Mondragón illegally irrigates his small beanfield, he puts a dam and golf course planned by local bigwig Ladd Devine III in jeopardy. Irrigation officials and state police quibble over how to diffuse the irrigation crisis while Mondragón becomes a hero to the townspeople.
Some of the many main characters: Mondragón. Ruby Archuleta, the Body Shop and Pipe Queen, instigator of a petition to save Milagro’s water. Amarante Córdova, still alive and kicking at age 93. Herbie Goldfarb, a poor VISTA volunteer stuck in Milagro who speaks no Spanish.
Excuse for not finishing, No. 1: My goodness, such language! The characters are universally foul- mouthed. This is especially effective if you understand Spanish.
Excuse for not finishing, No. 2: The Armijos’ animal slaughter that sends Herbie Goldfarb over the edge, beginning about page 140. First, the chickens go. Then the bunnies. Then they start in on the doggies. This would easily make most animal lovers pack it in.
– Janna Fischer
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ONE BOOK, ONE BROOMFIELD, ONE BOOK, ONE COMMUNITY (LOVELAND)
Western landscape / “The Meadow” by James Galvin (Owl Books, 1992)
“The Meadow” is a sweeping memoir about life along a windy, snowy, unforgiving patch of land near the Colorado-Wyoming border. There’s not so much a plot here as there are personalities; owners, workers, wives and weirdos who come and go over 100 years.
The characters: There are plenty, but you’d remember App Worster, who held the land’s deed at the beginning of the 20th century but lost it paying the medical bills of two successive wives (who happened to be sisters); Lyle Van Waning, a master house builder and hay grower who lived there for the middle-decades; and Ray, App’s son, who lived hard and died drunk.
Why it’s swell: The writing. Here’s how Galvin describes Lyle: “Long in the chin and nose, wide of mouth, eyes such a cutting blue that when he looks at you, he makes you think of whatever it is you are ashamed of. It’s like he can smell your soul’s feet.”
Why it’s not: The nonlinear storytelling will have you paging back to remember who’s who.
Excuse for not finishing: On Page 65, Shirley, a cow who produced calves for 12 years, is sent to the slaughterhouse for failing to get pregnant again. This book is that mean.
How to sound smart about it: Marvel at what a great companion read it is to “Close Range: Wyoming Stories,” Annie Proulx’s tough-to-read take about life and loneliness in the same part of the world.
– Ray Mark Rinaldi
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DO IT YOURSELF
Novel in a box / No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit, by Chris Baty (Chronicle Books, $19.95)
If you want to launch your dream of writing the Great American Novel, invest in this handy cardboard tool kit, created by the founder of National Novel Writing Month. This “contest,” which takes place each November, attracts 60,000 amateur writers. (Some first-time participants have won major national book awards or deals with megapublishers.) The tool kit has everything you’ll need to craft a 175-page novel in 30 days, including a progress log, gold stars and daily noveling briefs with such inspiration as: “Abandon the stultifying notion of brilliance and aim instead for the low mark of completion.”
For further inspiration, check out the National Novel Writing Month website at nanowrimo.org.
