Milkweed

An independent woman is not an anomaly today. She was in the first half of this century, especially if she lived in the farming country of North Dakota and Minnesota. Her life was supposed to revolve around the needs of her husband and home. Mary Gardner has given us a proud, soft spoken, strong protagonist in Susan Carson, a woman who is not afraid to live beyond her expected role. Her word portrait is painted over a period of some 70 years, as she creates an existence for herself on her own terms. After leaving college to marry Susan suffers the loss of her first child. Later, when it becomes clear to her that her husband is unable to accept her as she is, Susan takes her other two children and moves to another town where she opens a boarding house. Her life unfolds as she interacts with friends, her daughter and son-in-law, and a grandson. Susan Carson is a woman we will remember long after the last page has been turned. - Gail Cooke