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155th out of 265 books
—
1,351 voters
The Quickening
by
Michelle Hoover (Goodreads Author)
A July 2010 Indie Next Pick
Enidina Current and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in the flat, hard country of the upper Midwest during the early 1900s. This hardscrabble life comes easily to some, like Eddie, who has never wanted more than the land she works and the animals she raises on it with her husband, Frank. But for the deeply religious Mary, farming is an awkwa...more
Enidina Current and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in the flat, hard country of the upper Midwest during the early 1900s. This hardscrabble life comes easily to some, like Eddie, who has never wanted more than the land she works and the animals she raises on it with her husband, Frank. But for the deeply religious Mary, farming is an awkwa...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
June 29th 2010
by Other Press
(first published June 1st 2010)
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Bailed after 3 pages. A debut novel from a person who teaches writing at Boston U. and it shows. The voice is some hardscrabble farming woman in turn-of-the-century Iowa, so the style was conversational, but very dense and oh-so-clearly created and crafted. The setting/time period is interesting and why I picked it up in the first place, but I can't wade my way through that kind of prose as a casual read.
3.5 stars
This story is very sober. It could almost be a morality tale, teaching that if you willfully hurt others, you could end up losing what you hoped to keep for yourself.
The tale is told by two Midwestern farm wives of the early 20th century. Enidina and Mary are very different in temperament and beliefs, and they don't particularly like each other. One has healthy children and the other does not, which deepens the divide between them. But they live on neighboring farms, so they associate...more
This story is very sober. It could almost be a morality tale, teaching that if you willfully hurt others, you could end up losing what you hoped to keep for yourself.
The tale is told by two Midwestern farm wives of the early 20th century. Enidina and Mary are very different in temperament and beliefs, and they don't particularly like each other. One has healthy children and the other does not, which deepens the divide between them. But they live on neighboring farms, so they associate...more
5 likes
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The Quickening, at its core, is about the intersecting lives of two women – the stoic and large-boned Edinina Current who grew up on the farm and knows the virtues of working hard, and her less adaptable neighbor Mary Morrow, who crumples under the isolation of the rural farmland.
One part literary, one part gothic, one part historical, it is, in essence, an exploration of a symbiotic relationship between mismatched women who have no choice but to cling to each other for companionship and surviva...more
One part literary, one part gothic, one part historical, it is, in essence, an exploration of a symbiotic relationship between mismatched women who have no choice but to cling to each other for companionship and surviva...more
1 like
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This is beautifully written, but so dark and full of despair that I couldn't wait for it to end so I could reenter the light of my clean and well-ordered life. That it took only a quiet morning to read is testament both to its gripping power and my determination to not linger in the dust and mud of Depression-era Iowa.
The words and scenes are powerfully rendered and unflinching in their depiction of the isolation and desperation of American farm life in the early years of the 20th century. But t...more
The words and scenes are powerfully rendered and unflinching in their depiction of the isolation and desperation of American farm life in the early years of the 20th century. But t...more
4 likes
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Hoover's tale of two women wrangling an existence out of the Iowa prairie in the years before the Depression is reminiscent of both Willa Cather and William Faulkner. I have been waiting for a writer to create fiction about Midwesterners that transfered Gothic themes from their usual perch in a rotting Southern house to a cabin on a windswept prairie. Hoover advances the pioneer tale genre with her unsparing descriptions of the tragedies and burdens of the women's lives. The men, one quiet, one...more
2 likes
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The Quickening is a subdued story based on two women who live in Iowa in the early 1900s though the story actually takes us all the way through 1950. Mary is a proper housewife with spotless floors and shined silver and a yearning for something more. Her husband Jack is hard working and equally hot tempered. Mary's neighbor Enidina (Eddie) likes to get her hands dirty and works alongside her kind husband Frank as they tend to their fields and care for their animals. [return][return]From their fi...more
This is the kind of novel that often says more in its chapter breaks than other novels say in an entire chapter.
The Midwest farmland that serves as its setting transforms almost immediately from being a beautiful, wide-open home to a stark, haunted, claustrophobic prison. The fields seem entirely too small to hold the personalities of the two women who serve as the book's narrators and protagonists, Enidina and Mary. Their loneliness and isolation, paradoxically, make the farmlands seem too crow...more
The Midwest farmland that serves as its setting transforms almost immediately from being a beautiful, wide-open home to a stark, haunted, claustrophobic prison. The fields seem entirely too small to hold the personalities of the two women who serve as the book's narrators and protagonists, Enidina and Mary. Their loneliness and isolation, paradoxically, make the farmlands seem too crow...more
Masterful. I read this literally in one day. It was that gripping and engaging. The story is tragic, heart-rending, and difficult.Two women live on neighboring farms on the remote plains of the Midwest in the early 1900s. They must rely on each other to survive the difficulties of Plains life. They reluctantly become friends as well as neighbors. Their lives intertwine more than they'd like, with tragic results. There's violence. A lot of it. And a lot of sadness. Don't read this if you're looki...more
From the dust cover blurb, I thought The Quickening would be a story of the complex friendship between two women living on neighbouring farms in the early 1900s. Enidina and Mary were certainly not friends. They may have needed each other at times, but it was merely a result of geography. There was only acrimony between them. The alternating points of view is a device so overused now that it is getting trite. It was completely unnecessary here because their differing views didn't illuminate anyt...more
I picked this book up at a launch held in Cambridge in June 2010. I always want to support local artists. My expectations did not extend to the level that this book held. It is a fabulous read with a quick flow of words and an engrossing story. It is written from the point of view of two complex farmers' wives and their conflicting perspectives on the truth, with the hardships of farming, war, The Great Depression, and drought as a mere backdrop. There is some typical epic-like drama--secret aff...more
This is not going to be one of those books that you run to for an uplifting experience, Enidina (Eddie) Current and Mary Morrow are two very different women living quiet desperate lives from 1913 to 1950. Being farm wives and living far from town, they are the only neighbor that the other has and you could not find any two different people.
I found myself liking one character more than the other, not sure if that was the writer intention, but Eddie’s character was so much more for me then just a...more
I found myself liking one character more than the other, not sure if that was the writer intention, but Eddie’s character was so much more for me then just a...more
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover is a prairie tale. It's 1913 and both Enidina Current and Mary Morrow are farmer's wives. Their places are adjacent and this rather than like minds makes them friends or rather friendly. Enidina and Mary are very different. Enidina is happy in her hard work life while Mary chafes under the yoke of the plow. Years go by, both families grow and more or less remain close. There are small betrayals and conflicts but proximity and loneliness has decreed that the Curr...more
The Quickening is the story of two midwestern farm wives during the Great Depression. Enidina and Mary are neighbors in an area where neighbors are hard to come by. Though they have little in common, they forge an uneasy friendship out of their proximity. The book is all about their relationships with each other, with their husbands, and eventually between their children. The Quickening highlights the harsh realities and bleakness of living on a farm in this period and shows both the nobility an...more
I'm not usually a fan of slow moving historical fiction. It's nearly painful for me to mire and slog through the deep and boring sentiments of relationship dynamics. I've been examining this particular characteristic of mine lately however as in the past, these features in certain fictional novels didn't detract from its enjoyment the way it does now. Now though, I choose books that move quickly and keep me entranced. Perhaps books with deep self-reflection and deep emotional interactions that a...more
A powerful, lovely book. A paean full of regret, awkwardness, fear, and lack of self confidence. I see my own awkward self-destructiveness in the hurtful acts of the protagonists. I see my own foolishness in their inability to communicate their regrets. I feel the heart string tugs in their losses.
A visceral sense-oriented book full of organic smells, tastes, and textures such as dust coating skin, tongues, and eyes--sometimes overwhelmingly so. These descriptions immerse the reader especially w...more
A visceral sense-oriented book full of organic smells, tastes, and textures such as dust coating skin, tongues, and eyes--sometimes overwhelmingly so. These descriptions immerse the reader especially w...more
There is some beautiful imagery in this book about two women who live on neighboring farms in the 1910's, but the imagery and the prose sometimes takes over good sense. At times a searing, honest looking at farming, the great depression and the vein that runs between any and all women, it had it's good moments. But I hate when a book is so vague, wordy and fluttery that you aren't actually really sure what happened. The author wants you to use her endless vague imagery "The moon fell on our fami...more
You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. You
also can't choose your neighbors. However, due to isolation these two
women sort of need each other. Set in rural Midwest before and during
the Great Depression, The Quickening looks at the relationship between
two families as they work their farms through tough times. The
narration interchanges between the women of both households, Enidina
and Mary, two very different women. One is a hard-working, "salt of
the earth" woman, who is not...more
also can't choose your neighbors. However, due to isolation these two
women sort of need each other. Set in rural Midwest before and during
the Great Depression, The Quickening looks at the relationship between
two families as they work their farms through tough times. The
narration interchanges between the women of both households, Enidina
and Mary, two very different women. One is a hard-working, "salt of
the earth" woman, who is not...more
This not a happy book it is dark and thought provoking. It is beautifully written and almost has a gothic feel to it. It is set somewhere in the Midwest (I am from North Dakota so in my mind that is where this took place) and spans from 1913-1950 and tells the story of Enidina & Mary neighbors on the plains yet different in every way. I don’t think these women were ever friends. Enidina is a hardworking farmer‘s wife who grew up with brothers on her family farm so is no stranger to hard work...more
I was swept along by Michelle Hoover's lyrical rendering of the hard lives of farmers in the first half of the 20th century.The beauty of the prose contrasts with the tale of heartbreak, deceit, loss and betrayals. I felt the tragedies as keenly as I would feel the sharpness of the knives that did such damage, physical and emotional.
The hardscrabble lives on Midwestern farms are vividly, but plainly told. The lives were never easy, but they became cruel during the Depression and the Dust Bowl....more
The hardscrabble lives on Midwestern farms are vividly, but plainly told. The lives were never easy, but they became cruel during the Depression and the Dust Bowl....more
I was at first skeptical of such a book simply because I’m not usually drawn to historical fiction. My reading tastes seem to lean towards more contemporary issues and people, but with The Quickening, I was drawn to Hoover’s novel by her story of how she wrote it. Like Hoover, I am a descendant of Iowa farmers, and while not a historical fiction fan, I was compelled at the chance to read something so close to my own background.
And I was surprised. The Quickening is a strong, well-written novel....more
And I was surprised. The Quickening is a strong, well-written novel....more
I am giving The Quickening four stars not so much because I liked it but because I found it very interesting and hard to put down. I'm not sure why but I always end up liking books set in the farming Midwest. The story lies more in the ambience than in the actual plot and I think the day-to-day life is intriguing. The main characters, Enidina and Mary, can be infuriating at times. I often wondered about Mary's motives and the actions of both women. Not everything is spelled out. Emotions and inn...more
In our air-conditioned houses, with plumbing and electricity, in our cities with next-door neighbors and supermarkets and doctors, we tend to wax romantic about little houses on the prairie and life on the farm. “The Quickening” presents a much more realistic picture.
Inspired by her great-grandmother’s short written recollection of her life on an Iowa farm, Michelle Hoover has written a novel of the prairie, of farm life and the connection, for better or for worse, between two women.
The narratio...more
Inspired by her great-grandmother’s short written recollection of her life on an Iowa farm, Michelle Hoover has written a novel of the prairie, of farm life and the connection, for better or for worse, between two women.
The narratio...more
Beautifully written, so well told. It's the story of two Iowa farm wives beginning in the early 1900s and then on through the Depression. The chapters alternate their two voices, as their shared story is revealed. The descriptions of farm life during the Depression are unbelievably real and evocative. There's a scene in which Enidina describes the work of slaughtering a hog--the mess, the stench, the hard work of it all--it was just beautifully written. But what made the novel great, at least fo...more
The Quickening was a fast and engrossing read. I read about half the first night and felt completely immersed in farm life on the prairie in the olden days. I have to admit it seemed more like the early 1800s than the early 1900s, except for the few references to other people's cars. But I guess things probably didn't change all that much in really rural farm areas over that century.
The descriptions were lovely and I loved the author's writing. The book got needlessly violent about 2/3 of the wa...more
The descriptions were lovely and I loved the author's writing. The book got needlessly violent about 2/3 of the wa...more
This book snuck up on me. At first I hated it - so depressing! I thought, "Oh here we go! Another 'deep, dramatic, artist' author with the prose of perfect pain.. blah, blah, blah." But as the story continued I wanted to know what the hell was going to happen to everyone and I got caught up in it. There were a lot of times where the author completely lost me. The story would be going on about one topic and then all of a sudden it would seem to reference something else that had nothing to do with...more
The Quickening is a very special novel. Painfully told, it records the lives and friendship of two farm women in early 1900s Iowa. The chapters alternate between the voice of Enidina (Eddie) and Mary, who are very different women. Eddie is strong in body and spirit, made for country farm life. Mary is delicate and at odds with farming and the isolation of rural living.
They form a friendship, a bond born of necessity rather than choice. Through the years with its many life changes they remain loy...more
They form a friendship, a bond born of necessity rather than choice. Through the years with its many life changes they remain loy...more
The story of two women who live on neighboring upper-Midwest farms from the early 1900s through the Depression. They are not really friends, but as only a couple hundred acres separates them, they depend on each other simply because no one else is around. Both women take turns telling the story, allowing for greater perspective but limiting the "whole picture" for the reader. I didn't mind this so much, because it made me feel I had an active role in the process, fleshing out in my mind what was...more
WOW!!!! This is will be one of my top reads of 2010! This is an absolutely beautifully written book! It is about two completely different women living in on farms in the Midwest during the Depression. It has a dark Gothic feel, yet I was not depressed while I was reading it. These two women came to this area at the same time as brides, and their relationship happens over the course of events in their lives. Eddie was raised on a farm and is built for farming so farm life comes second hand to her...more
My books are always recommendations from my friend Carol, she is a good book "matchmaker". After several months I usually finish her selections. This book was unique for several reasons. Several times during the reading I felt like the author was writing my own family history. Several coincidences to my own family farm background were exposed. Michelle Hoover nailed it. I also liked the way it was organized between the thoughts of 2 farm women in the early 1900s. Most of the time the setting mad...more
Michelle Hoover sat me at the kitchen tables of her characters in her stunning novel, The Quickening, and served me a slice of the human condition I will never forget.
Her book is a brutally honest narrative of Edwina Current and Mary Morrow, neighbors who are thrown together because of their need for companionship on the isolated Midwest plains in the early 20th century. In it we hear out-of-tune piano music in a tiny church; we smell the blood of the slaughtered sow; we feel the singe of a prai...more
Her book is a brutally honest narrative of Edwina Current and Mary Morrow, neighbors who are thrown together because of their need for companionship on the isolated Midwest plains in the early 20th century. In it we hear out-of-tune piano music in a tiny church; we smell the blood of the slaughtered sow; we feel the singe of a prai...more
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Michelle Hoover teaches writing at Boston University and Grub Street and has published fiction in Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best New American Voices, among others. She has been a Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference scholar, the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, a MacDowell Fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and in 2005 the winner of the PEN/New...more
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