Diane's review of Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky's Bleeding Kansas has a strong sense of place, especially for those who are familiar with the Lawrence area. However, the characters aren't developed as flesh and blood people, but as signifiers for attitudes. The extremist right-wing Christians are too extreme even for someone like me who has little love for these people and their interfering ways. Jim, the patriarch of the good farm family, is too good to be true, always moderating his attitude and telling his daughter to avoid saying bad things about people. Further, I had to keep reminding myself that the teenagers around whom a great deal of the story revolves weren't still ten years old. Chip, the unfortunate young man who dies in Iraq, is hardly memorable enough for a reader to mourn his death.
Having heard Paretsky speak and read several times and having read all of the V.I. Warshawski novels to date, I always look forward to a new Paretsky book. As a native Kansan, I wanted to love this book. I liked it well e...more
Having heard Paretsky speak and read several times and having read all of the V.I. Warshawski novels to date, I always look forward to a new Paretsky book. As a native Kansan, I wanted to love this book. I liked it well e...more
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Your assessment is almost a twin to mine, except I haven't finished the book yet. I got bogged down and put it aside, hoping that when I went back to it I would become lost in it.
Heard Paretsky on KC's NPR affiliate and wasn't impressed - why do writer's have such big egos? What is it? Publishers pumping hot air into them must go to their brains. I won't read the book because based on the interview I think she abused the terms "Bleeding Kansas" words that are too weighty to be used in a work of fiction. Especially given the absolute fact that the largest bomb ever built by terrorists to be detonated in the US was built at the Geary County fishing lake near Ft. Riley. Paretsky seems to make more of attitudes than actual actions. Like most Kansans have forgotten that Lawrence was repeatedly victimized, bombed and raided before the Civil War's famous massacre.
I routinely conduct an informal poll during my rare trips to Lawrence and find 90% of those asked can only recall the massacre. People don't remember much, or seek to find out much now a days. Can you tell I got an attitude, eh?
Michael--I've heard Sarah speak three times and all three times, she's been gracious and the least "hot air" of any well-known writer I've run across--and I've met a few in my time. A couple of years ago, she came to Wichita for a Wichita-NOW fundraiser and is a strong supporter of all the things we support. When her family first moved to Lawrence, her dad was the first, and for awhile the only, Jewish professor at KU. She's stood up against the right-wing nuts, both in her life and in her books. It may be true that she's off the track in this particular book, but that's not enough for me to discount her.
As for the history of Lawrence, I doubt if most of the people I grew up with know that Quantrill massacred a bunch of Union soldiers in my home town of Baxter Springs. In fact, the little cemetery there where my folks are buried is a national cemetery because those soldiers are buried there. I've always been fascinated by that historical fact about my town, but not everyone cares that much.
Speak of the devil--Sarah Paretsky is going to interviewed on KMUW right now. I must listen.
