What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Center of the Nation
When a mining company discovers gold near the Badlands, South Dakota bank president Larry Sorenson moves to secure ownership of four cattle ranches that control access to the gold, beginning a feud between ranchers and developers
- GenresFiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1991
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Dan O'Brien
18 books58 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 28, 2020
https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/in...
Rick Bass called this book “a big beautiful story.” Jim Harrison marveled at O’Brien’s “magnificent eye for that high plains landscape.” I don’t have much to add as they said it all. O’Brien has a knack for emotionally attaching you to his characters. His first novel, Spirit of the Hills, was so good and I do believe better than this one, but I am still looking forward to getting on to his chronological third novel. O’Brien writes with a whole lot of feeling, and the weather, land, and animals play a huge role in the human lives he takes great care to show us. He may be our best living writer working today.
Rick Bass called this book “a big beautiful story.” Jim Harrison marveled at O’Brien’s “magnificent eye for that high plains landscape.” I don’t have much to add as they said it all. O’Brien has a knack for emotionally attaching you to his characters. His first novel, Spirit of the Hills, was so good and I do believe better than this one, but I am still looking forward to getting on to his chronological third novel. O’Brien writes with a whole lot of feeling, and the weather, land, and animals play a huge role in the human lives he takes great care to show us. He may be our best living writer working today.
December 11, 2017
This story takes place in western South Dakota, in the town of Harney. The people that are in story are like the rancher that are still here today. A mining company came in and was wanting to buy all these ranches from the bank because of their over due loans. The people came together and got all of their loans payed off and the mining company offered them top dollar for their place, but all of them turned it down. These people may have been rich after selling their places, but they would not of known what to do after that. These people are ranchers and never will change, and will never leave the place that they live on.
Read
October 5, 2025South Dakota as metaphor for contemporary life, as ranchers battle a depressed market, foul weather, and unscrupulous financiers who want to claim their ranches in order to set up a gold-mining operation. He does a good job of developing characters and believable relationships, as well as exploring the thorny patches of economic inequality, race relations, and urban-rural culture clashes. Motif fans will enjoy the parallels between the Lakota Tuffy Martinez trying to kill a pack rat, and the Christian John 8:44-citing bigot Cleve Miller trying to kill Jews.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews