Augusta Locke

Augusta Locke is one of the most compelling characters to emerge from the American West. The unbeautiful daughter of beautiful parents, a girl with a wandering habit who walks into Wyoming, she grows into a woman who reads the mind of the country around her -- the Wind River Range, the Great Divide Basin, the Big Sandy River, land where "the season can swing from heat to snow and back in the turn of a day." In Henderson's flat-out gorgeous prose, Gussie's life feels epic, not because the events that make it up are so big, but because we follow her so closely, watching her seasons change. She's a self-made orphan, a fierce mother, a lonely lover, a rough road worker, a woman in a man's world, sometimes a woman in a man's clothing. In the vast plains, such a small female figure might go unnoticed, her life leaving a shallow track like the roads "so barely scratched into the surface that a shift in the angle of the sun would erase them altogether," but Augusta Locke will live with you long after you finish the book and try to put her back on the shelf.

Augusta "Gussie" Locke is one of the most facinating and fully drawn female literary characters in recent memory. Her defiant, independent spirit is both inspiring and deeply moving. Henderson paints vivid and palpable landscapes of the West with some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read about the region. This book is not just for Westerners - although, I suspect that Westerners will particularly appreciate it. The book's great humanity, and staggering portrayal of the natural world, make it a must-read for everyone. I could not more highly recommend Augusta Locke.

Augusta Locke is one of those rare novels that makes you appreciate good, detailed writing. I loved taking my time reading this book. I am looking forward to this author's next endeavor.

Augusta Locke is as wild as the landscape she inhabits. Unable to sit still when her mother marries a man who'd like to tame her wandering ways, she escapes into the wild west. She lives as the men around her live, by ranching and working for the oil crews. Yet, in the midst of this rough life, she remains very much a woman. A one night stand early in her journey leaves her pregnant and she gives birth to a daughter who is destined to leave her, as well. Henderson's descriptions of the landscape, the hardscrabble existence and the people Augusta encounters on her journey, are among the most beautiful being penned today. The land itself becomes a character worth knowing in this beautifully wrought novel. Well worth the read.

Augusta Locke is one of those rare books that takes you to a new place and time and allows you to walk around in it. And what a relief to read of a character you've never met before. Gussie is not your everyday scrappy cross-dressing survivor; she's at times heroic, cowardly, selfish and selfless. She's a winning loser; an uncannily self-directed woman who also, at times, is completely lost. To embrace these contradictions is the mark of a writer. To make the reader believe them is the work of an artist.