Delta Girls: A Novel

by Gayle Brandeis

The disparate lives of two women—a single mother working hard to make ends meet and a young figure skater at the top of her game—entwine in an unforgettable novel of warmth, depth, and wisdom. Izzy and her daughter, Quinn, have been on the move for all of Quinn’s nine years. Izzy works the fields as a fruit picker, following the produce north and south through the growing season. When they reach a struggling pear orchard in the Sacramento River Delta, Izzy intends it to be just another way station in their nomadic lives. But the orchard and its kindly owners capture Quinn’s heart, and Izzy briefly forgets that she’s running from a past that still haunts her—until a strange incident brings national media attention to the Delta. Seemingly a world away, Karen is a rising young star in figure skating with an edgy, daring new partner. Nathan is everything her old teammate wasn’ sexy, dangerous, and extremely headstrong. As Karen nears her eighteenth birthday, the partners find themselves on the world stage—and the simmering intensity between them finally erupts.As each woman struggles with a sudden thrust into the spotlight, their narratives become more intertwined—until Izzy’s past and Karen’s future finally collide.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Book Club, Chick Lit, American, Novels

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Gayle Brandeis is the author, most recently, of Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Press). Earlier books include the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), the novel in poems, Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press), shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, the poetry collection The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Press), the craft book Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne) and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize, Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine), and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt BYR), chosen as a state-wide read in Wisconsin.

Gayle's essays, poetry, and short fiction have been widely published in places such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, O (The Oprah Magazine), The Rumpus, Salon, and more, and have received numerous honors, including the Columbia Journal Nonfiction Award, a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award, Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2016, 2019, and 2020, the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award and the 2018 Multi Genre Maverick Writer Award. She was named A Writer Who Makes a Difference by The Writer Magazine, and served as Inlandia Literary Laureate from 2012-2014, focusing on bringing writing workshops to underserved communities. Gayle teaches in the low residency MFA programs at Antioch University and University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. She currently lives in Highland Park, IL with her husband and youngest child.

Reviews

[Laura Often]

Eh - I liked Izzy's story way more than Karen's story - thought it was a waste of time and didn't enjoy that part of the book at all. I didn want to learn more about Izzy and Quinn and Abcde - felt like a lot of parts were left out.

[Paula]

I would have like to have given this book 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it, it was a good story and quick read.

[Emily]

More than 3 stars, less than 4 stars.

This was a quick read, alternating between Izzy's story and Karen's story. At some point, we know these characters collide (because, well, alternating POVs, for one thing, and the blurb intimates as much - so this is not a spoiler).

Two different worlds - one the world of a single mother, a migrant picker who finds herself on a pear orchard, and the other a world of a rising star in pairs figure skating. Clever. I liked the build on how the two main characters are connected, particularly the little Easter eggs that were placed carefully along the way, and I also liked the red herring in the form of the character of Isabelle, who could have been Izzy....but wasn't.

Loved all of the Vieiras and their kindness and generosity. Loved Quinn - her relationship with the abecedarian poet Abcde was terrific. Hated Karen's mother, Deena (such a caricature) and Nathan was just plain icky. The immediate forgiveness of Lance's family, after Karen was the impetus for a really heinous deed, didn't ring quite true to me, but was a convenient way to wrap up the story. OH, and Deena and Nathan were talking about marriage? Yuck.

[Kate]

This book feels like a love letter to the Sacramento Delta. Brandeis writes beautifully about the water, the creatures, and the land. And, whew, can she make a pear come alive in all its sensuality! She also captures so well the dynamics between people (mother/daughter, women friends, lovers). I thought the way the two narratives ultimately intertwine was fascinating...and says a lot about the ways the past and present live together.

[Amy Robertson-Smith]

I totally hated this book. It seems more like a teen book read. Written as if 2 people with lives that appear completely irrelevant to each other. Near the end you at least figure out it’s actually the same person. I found the whole read to be juvenile. I see it has questions like a book club read, just not my cup of tea

[Carolyn Radmanovich]

The details of pear picking and ice skating were woven in beautifully. The story was filled with suspense, which kept me turning pages. The characters were well developed and interesting. I was caught up in the life of the two women. Fantastic read.

[Sophie]

Didn't predict the twist, which was a nice change. Fairly quick read, but not particularly enthralling.

[Paschalis]

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[Kayleigh P]

DNF page 151. I’m just not engaged

[Mary Deal]

Authentic Delta Life and A Single Mom Coping the Best She Can

Delta Girls, A Novel, by Gayle Brandeis, was for me a walk back in time. I grew up in the Sacramento Delta. However, being the daughter of a well respected Foreman of a big farming conglomerate, I was not allowed to mingle with the laborers. Still, stories from among the workers made their way into our home. Brandeis addresses the harsh reality of the laborers and squarely hits it when she develops the part of the story where Izzy’s chance to find work is through the owner of Comice Island.

Though the story takes place in the Delta, emphasis is placed on Izzy and Quinn’s psychological profiles and hardships following and picking ripening crops, and the protective nature Izzy has for her daughter Quinn. I love Quinn. She is a precocious child just blooming out from under her mother’s tightly woven protective wing. Brandeis does a magnificent job of creating people you’d normally find in the Delta, their hardships, lives and the reality of farming. I understood ALL the characters and their personalities fit life in the Delta, even those passing through who affect Izzy and Quinn’s lives.

In alternating chapters, the author chronicles the lives of vulnerable Karen, a teen ice skater and Olympic hopeful, her skating partner Nathan of questionable reputation, and her controlling mother, Deena. Deena had been a skater who “blew out her knees” which is the reason she goads her daughter so terribly hard, as if living through her daughter’s successes. Then the unexpected happens and the bottom falls out of Karen’s life forever. Brandeis truly creates characters that ring true to their parts in the story.

I had not read any reviews or much else about this book before reading it myself. I prefer that my feelings for stories be original. Early on, I recognized that Izzy was running from something, which was one reason she followed the crops and home-schooled Quinn. Clues were dropped throughout the book and I eagerly read on because I knew these two woman, Izzy and Karen, would meet up. I honestly did not suspect what was to happen till the pipes broke in the cold-storage house, and then all the clues came together and hit me like a block of ice!

I found this story a delight to read, partly because I am familiar with life in the Sacramento Delta; partly because this author wove a story that seemed incredibly real and was highly entertaining. I loved the way it ended. Life moves on. Izzy made her best choices both for herself and so Quinn could know some stability. They could truly begin lives anew. I would recommend this book to any readers interested in life in the Sacramento River Delta, also for anyone who can spot clues in the plot and hang on till the end for their own Aha! moment.

[Rebecca]

After a bunch of autobios, as well as random novels, I hadn't read a "real" fiction novel in a while and this one was pretty good! It intertwined two peoples lives and for most of the story, you are like, how are these even going to come together, they are so different? It wasn't until like halfway through that I figured it out and of course, it all wrapped up at the end. Since I kind of enjoyed this book, I am not going to mention the "twist", but let me know if you want to know.

Story one is about a women and her daughter who go around working at various farms, picking fruit. They settle in a small farm outside of Sacramento (from what I gather) and the women seems very scared that someone is going to recognize her for some reason. I kept wanting to scream, no one cares! Story number two is about a teenage girl who is an ice skater and falls for her partner, but she has been sheltered her whole life and the partner is a total douche and so weird. Shit happens and she runs away. Anyone want to guess how the stories come together? I liked the skating story better as it was more on my wavelength in terms of points I find more enjoyable when reading. The older women story was just kind of boring.

[Rosemarie]

Brandeis provides background and local color that draws in the reader with its rich detail, while her characters are drawn with clean,spare strokes. The contrast between the two adds weight to the actions the characters take. Actions are spare, in contrast to their rich surroundings, yet they are emphasized by the clarity of the presentation. Brandeis switches between scenes in the present set in the Delta country of California that take place on a pear farm where a migrant picker and her nine year old daughter try to settle briefly and the chill scenes in ice arenas where aspiring Olympic pairs skaters compete for attention and reputation. She focuses on the common struggle of her characters to be true to themselves and survive without giving away too much of themselves. Relationships between mothers and daughters are not so much examined as laid out for view. The Delta scenes are enlivened and the theme of going one's own way and being true to oneself is underscored by the presence of a mother whale and her calf who are lost in the waterways but who resist efforts to lead them back to the ocean. This was a quietly engrossing book I read quickly, sliding from one shoret chapter to the next, always wanting to know what happened next.

[Lisa]

Wonderful wording and beautiful phrasing, but the two main characters just didn't jump off the page for me. (I'll try to phrase this without ruining the ending for anyone.) I like strong female leads, but these two just didn't seem to have the gumption to do what they were doing/did. And I certainly don't think that Karen's "solution" in her final chapter would have fooled anyone, especially not any decent law enforcement officer who would have known to follow the money trail. I did enjoy Abcde, although at first I rolled my eyes at her description because she's a total caricature of the supreme earth mama hippie-chick. Maybe that's what makes her so endearing, because women like her really do exist. I did have to laugh at how the description of her body odor changed as Izzy's opinion of her changed. Sorry, that's simply not believable -- just because you like someone better doesn't make their body stink any less or no one would be taking a shower! The abecedarian poetry was a lot of fun.

[Carmen Liffengren]

Delta Girls is told in the alternating voices of Izzy and Karen. Izzy, nomadic seasonal fruit-picker arrives in the California Delta with her daughter in tow while Karen is an up-and-coming pairs figure skater. I picked up the novel for a couple of reasons. I am both familiar with the locale, being not too far from where I went to college and I also know a thing or two about figure skating. Izzy and Karen's stories converge in a twist, but most likely the reader will see it coming. I found the twist slightly clever and something different since every novel I read these days seems to use the alternating voices device. I found Izzy's story way more interesting than Karen's especially since Karen's pairs partner, Nathan is just so creepy. Nathan just kills the whole figure skating plot-line for me. Brandeis wrote a whole novel using a play on the pears/pairs theme and it works most of the time.

[Roberta]

Izzy and Quinn are on the run, leading a simple life following the crops, moving from place to place as migrant workers, temporarily settled in the Sacramento Delta picking pears. Karen and Nathan lead public lives, in the national spotlight as champion figure skaters, ever striving to become better and gain more recognition in their sport. The doubled storyline is a little confusing at first,
but eventually it becomes clear that the two stories are intertwined.

The whole time that I was reading this book, I felt bathed in the aroma of pears. The author describes the setting of a pear orchard and the processing of the pears themselves so eloquently that the reader can't help but crave the taste.

[Dominique]

First up, it's not the fault of this book that every time I saw the cover, the lyrics of "Delta Dawn" would run through my head. But since that's what happened, I secretly hold it against this book. Plus I figured out what the book was about in about four chapters and then I was not so secretly bored. I mean, it was interesting enough (what's that flower you've got on?), but I'm not the queen of figuring out foreshadowing, so when I can figure it out (could it be a faded rose from days gone by?), the book is probably not my friend. It was perfectly fine young adult literature, but (and did I hear you said you'd be a'meetin' him here today?) just not my cup of tea.

[Mel]

Each chapter alternates between the story of two women. One is a mother with a 9y/o daughter she homeschools as they live a nomadic life as a farm picker. The other is about a 17/18 y/o ice-skater whose life is controlled by her mother and then her crazy pair partner.
The characters seemed immature to me. The topography was interesting - the Delta in California. I wouldn't say the book was a waste of time, but I admit to skimming over parts to get to more substance and hurry the book along. I was glad when it ended and I don't think I'd recommend this book to any of my friends.

[Christine]

The story of Karen and Nathan started out very good, but once the story reached her 18th birthday, it went down hill from there. Nathan changed, and Karen went along with it, never saying anything. It seemed the author was trying to create a male Tonya Harding, but crazier, and she succeeded. It was a bit too much. The way the plot unfolded was certainly unexpected, but again, it was too far out there. The way their story ends just plain sucked. I wish the story could have ended as well as it had started.

[Jennifer]

This novel is told in alternating chapters about two different characters - Izzy, a single mom who basically works as a migrant fruit picker, ending up on a pear farm in a river vally in California, and Karen, a teenage ice skater with an overbearing show mom and a pairs partner she swoons for but is a creep. I find Izzy's story much more interesting than Karen's, and I figured out the twist pretty early on. But it was an enjoyable story that kept me reading.

[Emma]

This literally is a tale of two emotions for me... I loved the Izzie storyline, it was evocative, juicy and vivid to me and could have stood alone.

Karen's story was to my mind hackneyed, and whilst the comparison was necessary for the narrative, I found that stylistically the book did not flow and Karen was less sympathetic due to this.. to truly succeed both characters needed to be equally likeable!

[Kristi]

There are two alternating stories in the book- I liked Izzy's much more than Karen's. Karen's felt like someone told the author to add as much sex or sexual references as possible because 'that's what sells'. And it wasnt even good sex! :) The best part of the book was its setting- I love Northern California and loved knowing where they were.

[Camille HR]

I enjoyed the Sac Delta (Locke, Isleton, etc) references in the book but wasn't that enthused about anything else. This might be more interesting for young adult readers (although there are some sexy parts) - especially those who live in Northern California.

[Laura K]

I liked this book. The chapters alternate between two characters in this book, like two separate stories-- IZZY and KAREN. Once I had the "aha" moment, I started to enjoy the story even more. I loved the descriptions of the Delta, probably more so since I am a native Californian. Good read.

[Heather]

This was a nice story, but occasionally some of the writing felt a touch too much like a romance novel. The tie between the two women was easy to figure out, which was fine, because I really enjoyed that part of the story. Overall, it was good, but it didn't quite meet it's potential for me.

[Mariah]

Quick read - short chapters that are nice when trying to just get a little reading in before falling asleep. Interesting story and characters and setting, but something about it was just a bit boring.

[Sydney]

This is the first novel I have read by Gayle Brandeis. I would rate the first two-thirds of the book as three stars and the last third as four stars. I enjoyed the plot twist as it unfolded in the last 75 pages.

[Sarah]

Great book. Quick read. Would have given 5 stars, but I figured out the twist early on, so took a star away for that.

[Brenda]

A lot of places mentioned in this book are from my childhood, so it was quite endearing. To my knowledge, the main town mentioned (starts with a "c"... can't recall right now) doesn't exist.

[Perkimom]

Delicious...the writing was ripe and juicy in its descriptions. I really enjoyed the plot but especially the Delta and the farm images.

[Lyndi]

I just couldn't get into this book. I felt like there were too many ideas trying to come together in this book (ice skating, whales, fruit) I just couldn't keep it all straight....