This story takes place in the mid-1950s in Minnesota/North Dakota and is about a young girl about to graduate from high school who is expected by her family to get engaged immediately and marry a neighboring farm boy. Unfortunately, that boy turns out to be a budding member of the Ku Klux Klan (MN is my home state and I never knew the KKK was active here - unpleasant surprise), and many of the surrounding neighbors turn out to have the same beliefs. Also, the girl - Emmy - wants a career as a writer and struggles to subjugate her desires to that of her prospective husband. The author writes in an oddly inaccessible way, and it took me 10 days to read this book. Unless you're REALLY interested in that period of time, I wouldn't recommend it. ( )

I really loved this book. It is a novel about Emmaline Nelson a teenager growing up in small town North Dakota in the 1950's. It is a well written coming of age story in which she struggles to overcome a very restrictive mother to become a well rounded and assertive young lady. She learns about things like racism, anti Catholicism and a somewhat dark family history. She is a very sympathetic heroine and you can't help but hope that she makes the right decisions in her life. The characters are very well developed and realistic. ( )

Emmaline (“Emmy”) Nelson, 18, is living in a rural area of Minnesota in 1958 under the thumb of her mother Karin, a strict Lutheran who is “cold and firm, hardworking and driven, serving Jesus with her every breath.” But Karin’s idea of serving Jesus had nothing to do with a love of life or even a love of her family. Emmy wants to do good works in her life, but also wants to be a part of a larger world than the one circumscribed for her by her mother.

It is only when the family moves into town and Emmy makes new friends that she begins to see there could be so much more to her existence. She also meets an attractive boy who seems interested in her. But not only is Bobby Doyle Catholic (anathema to Emmy’s family), but Karin has already picked out a husband for Emmy: their neighbor Ambrose Brann, ten years older than Emmy and at best, as cold and uncaring as her mother. Moreover, Emmy is soon to discover that Ambrose is much, much worse. (Karin’s response? In essence, Karin tells her to “get used to it.”)

And yet there is still more Emmy uncovers once her eyes are opened, including a horrific and vicious white supremacist movement in her community, preaching its hatred, fear, and subjugation of women in the name of Christianity and patriotism. Yet, amazingly enough, this is just the tip of the iceberg of violence, abuse, hypocrisy and betrayal that Emmy discovers in the people around her. Can she save her friends or her sister? Can she save herself?

Discussion: I found Emmy’s existence suffocating; I wanted to scream during the first half of the book. Thus I found it hard to believe Emmy seemed less affected by it than I; she had an open mind and heart that was a bit hard (albeit not impossible) to believe, especially considering she wasn’t allowed even to read anything except “approved” books. From whence came her sense of right and wrong? Clearly not from her family, her acquaintances, or her church.

And although some people will enjoy it, I thought the author spent too much time and narration on her meticulous recreation of the 1950’s.

Evaluation: Almost every conceivable aspect of race, class, gender, and religion are explored in this late coming of age story. Book clubs will find this book full of issues for discussion. ( )

This book started fairly slow for me, and I wasn't quite sure of where it was going. But after it "set the stage" giving some background on the people and families involved, it really took off then. It went down a road I never would have suspected.

Set in the mid-west in the 50s, the story revolves around young Emmeline Nelson, raised in a strict religious (Lutheran) home. It has been concluded that she will marry young Ambrose whom she has known all her life. But then she meets Bobby, a handsome Catholic boy. Now her world will never be the same again. Did she want it to be the same? She feels drawn to the local newspaper and wants to be a journalist. Her family and Ambrose are totally against it. Emmeline starts to research a couple of fires that took place in her small town. She thinks there is a common thread between them. She starts digging and uncovers some shocking truths about her family and people she thought she knew.

Having grown up in the South in a poor family, many of the scenes in the book took me back to my childhood. The writing is very descriptive. I found myself totally immersed into the story. ( )