Martha Moody

Susan Stinson's Martha Moody is an extraordinary and evocative book. Set in the "Old West," it tells the complex and uneasy story of two women loving each. I wanted this book to keep going, never to end, so that I could stay suspended in Stinson's poetic voice. Contrary to the dismissive Publishers Weekly review, this book is anything but predictable, boring, or silly. It is unconventional in many ways (its characterizations, its lush language, its integration of stories within stories) and seeks to fully explore how two individuals choose and are forced to act within their social and personal circumstances. A gorgeous read.

Martha Moody is definitely a book I'll be reading again. It's a keeper.It's kind of an unusual book. The main character, Amanda, is given to rather fantastic type daydreams and musings.She is wed to a somewhat taciturn man named John Linger, but neither of them appear to be in love with the other.She becomes quite captived by Martha Moody, a woman who runs the general store in town. She takes her cow, Alice's butter into town to sell to Martha. Amanda at first secretly ... in which Martha becomes a .... that takes on the traits of a ....Then the stories ... and Martha becomes ....The book is written in a delightful, captivating style, and the women in it are quite unique and interesting characters.