NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

This is a Bildungsroman that covers several generations of a family, some of whose origins are in the eastern part of the United States, but eventually take root in the western part, specifically California, on a sprawling ranch that has its existence perpetually challenged by the L.A. Water Corporation. The patriarch, Rocky Rhodes, has a twin sister, who, herself is a solidifying force in running the ranch. Rocky and his wife give birth to twins, who are not filled with that same sense of purpose, duty and commitment. The bombing of Pearl Harbor is a monumental turning point for the United States and for the Rhodes family when a Japanese American internment camp is built adjacent to the ranch. Marianne Wiggins has created a vast array of characters whose personalities, motivations and interactions are both troubling and surprising as they encounter the challenges of war, ecological damage, malfeasance, greed, personal tragedies and a reckoning with what cannot be remade or recovered. The novel is a Bildungsroman, but also a work of historical fiction with a robust complexity that is as incisive and probing as any major Greek or Shakespearean tragedy.