Stuff
Product Details
Simon & Schuster, August 2002
Trade Paperback, 384 pages
ISBN-10: 0743211804
ISBN-13: 9780743211802
Description
Twenty-eight-year-old Iris Steele has just inherited her family's ranch in northeast Oregon. It is the ranch where she grew up herding cattle and harvesting wheat, and where her brother and father both died. It is also, it turns out, land that the Nez Percé Indians now claim is rightfully theirs. As Iris begins to piece together the property's legitimate ownership, she unearths not only her family's turbulent history but also two centuries of tortured relationships between homesteaders and Native Americans. Struggling with a new crop and a fragile romance, she must ultimately confront the true nature of her legacy.
In astonishing language, Joyce Weatherford combines unflinching descriptions of ranch life with the sensuous beauty of the Oregon landscape. part romance, mystery, courtroom drama, and history, Heart of the Beast is a family saga of epic power and import.
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Browse Inside Heart of the BeastElizabeth Strout author of Amy and Isabelle This is a story that is large and brave, told in a voice that dares to linger on the details of both the beauty of the landscape and the dangers of a family's inner terrain.
Janet Fitch author of White Oleander A gripping novel of the dark American West. The tragedy of the Steele/Winter clan takes on overtones of Greek drama, and Weatherford's understanding of the violent hunger for ownership of land and the rich details of its working is nothing short of miraculous.
Jim Harrison author of Legends of the Fall and The Beast God Forgot to Invent Heart of the Beast is an alarmingly beautiful book. I am sure we will all be reading Joyce Weatherford for a long time.
William Kittredge author of The Nature of Generosity Pioneers who settled the intermountain West were a hard, restless, and ambitious lot. But only the hardest and most ambitious survived. Heart of the Beast is the tough-hearted story of such a family, a fierce book about fierce, privileged, overweaning people. Joyce Weatherford knows her scene and her emotional territory cold, and she pulls no punches. This one will keep you up in the night.
Jo-Ann Mapson author of Hank and Chloe, The Wilder Sisters, and Bad Girl Creek Joyce Weatherfords Heart of the Beast earns my highest praise. In crystalline language, Weatherford relates a fresh, new story of farming life in eastern Oregon, the harm wreaked in the name of family, while also providing a unique slant on Native-American issues. Weatherford knows what it means to survive the above and how to evoke necessary change in the constantly evolving New West. Her voice is strong and unflinching; her story is poignant and heartfelt.
Kate Braverman author of Palm Latitudes This is not a book, but a spell, an act of magic. Joyce Weatherford writes with a ruthless, fearless intelligence like Plath. She's an alchemist of language. Fueled by ferocious intensity and a glittering love of danger and risk, Weatherford has composed a brilliant, daring work.
