Greasewood Creek

by Pamela Steele

Overview

Avery is no stranger to the weight of loss, the way it shapes and defines the expanse of a life. The death of her sister, when Avery was just a child herself, engulfed her and her family--a mother driven mad, a father who disappeared, and all the while, neighbors and friends ignoring and surviving. The loss shades Avery's full being, becoming a deep part of her past and her future.

As a young woman, Avery's life in Eastern Oregon ranch country is filled with an acquired family: her partner Davis Lovell, a ranch hand and father figure; Lennie, Lovell's daughter; and Davis's grandparents. When Avery suffers the loss of her and Davis's newborn child, it triggers and revives in her a familiar sense of guilt, one she has carried since childhood over the disintegration of her family.

Written with the precision of Cynthia Ozick and the blunt passion of Alice Munro, this riveting story takes place on a landscape--the deserts of Eastern Oregon--itself a deeply important character in this remarkable first novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582437705
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	11/08/2011
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pamela Steele was born in West Virginia, and grew up between Oregon and Tennessee. She received her MFA in Poetry from Spalding University and her poetry collection Paper Bird was nominated for an Oregon Book Award in 2008. She currently teaches composition classes at Blue Mountain Community College in Hermiston, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

In her debut novel, poet Steele (Paper Bird) finds spare beauty in bleak emotional and physical landscapes. When Avery was just a child, her younger sister, Jean Ann, drowned in the creek abutting their family's property in eastern Oregon. In the years following Jean Ann's death, her father abandoned the family, and her mother descended into depression and alcoholism. Now a young woman, Avery manages her own land with romantic partner and childhood best friend Davis Lovell. She flirts with the attractive possibilities posed by both flight and retreat before finding a third option that may help her look forward rather than back. Steele offers an eloquent meditation on patterns of grief, loss, and silence between generations, with the quiet, grounded narration moves fluidly across time and slowly revealing these patterns. Most memorably, Steele reveals the unexpected details in a landscape that many might dismiss as barren: "The moon is full up—a deep water sky coming with it, and a wind that makes a sound like a river moving through the trees, a wild and invisible thing that turns them inside out." (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Greasewood Creek

"Steele depicts the depression, grief, and guilt of living after a loss with expert clarity, making this a powerful and faithful story of finding the inner strength to move forward and be reborn." --Booklist

"The expressive language of poetry is unmistakable in Steele's lyrical debut novel . . . This is a spare but powerful novel from award-winning poet Steele. Intelligently written, the narrative offers insight into the depth of human loss and suffering." --Library Journal

"Steele offers an eloquent meditation on patterns of grief, loss, and silence between generations, with the quiet, grounded narration moving fluidly across time and slowly revealing these patterns. Most memorably, Steele reveals the unexpected details in a landscape that many might dismiss as barren." --Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

The expressive language of poetry is unmistakable in Steele's lyrical debut novel about Avery and her boyfriend, Davis, whom she has known since childhood. Life is difficult and demanding on the eastern Oregon farm Davis inherited from his grandparents. Davis is not a demonstrative man, so Avery suffers in silence, haunted by the childhood death of her younger sister, who drowned while in her care. This pivotal event destroyed her family. Avery awaits the birth of her own child with Davis, which she hopes will chase away her ghosts. When she tragically loses the baby, nothing is the same between her and Davis. To help her forget, Lennie, the daughter of one of the ranch hands, takes her to a Native American ceremony where an elder tells the story of the tribe's great loss of abundant salmon because of a human-made dam. Their sense of loss weighs heavily on Avery, giving her the strength to take a path of hope and healing. VERDICT This is a spare but powerful novel from award-winning poet Steele (Paper Bird). Intelligently written, the narrative offers insight into the depth of human loss and suffering.—Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO

Library Journal