The Last Cowgirl: A Novel

Excellent character development with accurate protrayal of the independent personality found so often in out-of-the-way parts of our country. Her writing made me ache with the main character and at times I felt like shaking her. Now, that is writing.

When I picked up this book, I felt like I did when I first read Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. At last, here was a voice that both told me what life is about and seduced me with a terrific story. I've given this book to several people, and everyone loves it. With a quick sense of humor, Richman follows her characters into a West that includes not just cowboys but military bases. The themes would make any book group stay long past their alloted time: fathers who are bullies; beautiful landscapes that hide deep poisons; and the humanity that makes surviving it all worthwhile.

I ordered this book by author Jana Richman, having so thoroughly enjoyed her non-fiction work Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman's Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail. I was hoping for more of her thoughtful insights into the Mormon culture in particular and human nature in general and 'The Last Cowgirl' did not disappoint. With a light and compelling style and clear prose, Richman weaves a tale loosely based on her own experiences growing up in rural Utah to fulfill her father's life-long dream to live the American cowboy life before it was lost forever. The story is a short epic, covering as it does the lives of its main characters over a span of 40 years or so. Along the way, the reader learns more about the uniquely Mormon culture, the difficult but sometimes fulfilling life of the small rancher in the American West, and the US Army's secretive and flawed chemical weapons testing program in the desert west of Salt Lake City in the '60's. The characters themselves are endearing, approachable and well developed for such a compact work, and I found myself wanting to jump in the car and drive out to that rugged valley where the story plays out in the hopes of running into one or more them - they are that appealing and believable. As with her earlier work, Ms Richman has written a book that is entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. I look forward to more from this talented writer.

I recently reviewed two memoirs, mentioning that they read like novels. Now I have found a novel that felt like a memoir. In The Last Cowgirl: A Novel, Jana Richman has brought her main character, Dickie Sinfield to life through a combination of contemporary narrative and flashbacks to childhood memories. The Last Cowgirl is a book about a woman coming to terms with her childhood on a cattle ranch, and her life in the 30 years since she left it. When she was 7 years old, Dickie's father George moved the family from a suburb of Salt Lake City to a ranch in the rural town of Clayton, complete with cows and horses. Dickie tells us at the beginning of the novel: Since then - nearly forty-six years ago - I've blamed anything that needed blaming on what Annie refers to it as Dad's "Gil Favor complex." Dickie's older brother Heber thrived, loving the change, while older sister Annie and mother Ruth ignored the move, continuing to be fashionable and ladylike. Dickie was stuck in the middle, and ended up torn between the two extremes. While she would say that she hated life in Clayton, she loved riding in the wilderness with her new friend Stumpy and helping their neighbor, Bev, with her garden and ranch. Dickie was a sensitive child who had thrived on orderliness of the green grass, sidewalks, and curbs, and felt out of her element in the relative wilderness of Clayton. Dickie's character comes across well in this quote about her unsettled feelings during childhood: It was the last three words that got to me. The three words I'd been hearing my entire life. Dropped off a horse onto her head. She'll be fine. Dragged by a steer. She'll be fine. Lost in the mountains. She'll be fine. Branded. She'll be fine. Shot at. She'll be fine. At what point, I wondered, do the actions of grown-ups add up to a child who actually won't be fine? Dickie leaves Clayton right after graduation with a college scholarship for a journalism program, then leads a very orderly life in Salt Lake City as a prominent writer for a Mormon newspaper. She has a house, a yard with a garden, a couple friends, and a neighbor who she has been casually dating for over 10 years. Dickie's orderly life is reminiscent of her suburban life prior to the move to Clayton. She has also tried to leave behind any emotional messiness; we are left only with hints about a past relationship. Dickie's liberal beliefs set her apart from most of the people at work and help her keep her distance from others, making her life very compartmentalized. The Last Cowgirl challenges its narrator to let go of her control, and brings the reader along for the wonderful ride, galloping beside her. Using Dickie's voice to tell the story, Richman makes The Last Cowgirl very personal. As we read her memories from childhood, we build a strong connection with her. Dickie's friends, family, and neighbors become like friends to us as we see them from her childhood through her adulthood. Richman writes very detailed

Now fifty-two years old and never married Dickie Sinfield looks back on her childhood when her father moved the family from the burbs to a Utah cattle ranch; at seven she went from suburban princess to mucking cowgirl. Over a decade after the transformation, eighteen year old Dickie had enough with the rough lifestyle and fled the ranch for Salt Lake City where she became a reporter. Over the decades Dickie wants nothing much to do with her family and denies her feelings for her childhood friend Stumpy Nelson. However, her mortality comes home to roost forcing her to reexamine her feelings when her brother, Hebert dies in a poison gas accident at Dugway Proving Grounds. She returns to the ranch for his funeral and to face her family, her friends, and mostly herself. This is an interesting family drama that looks deep at the impact emotionally on decisions in which people have reasonable choices to make; of fascination is how easily humans rationalize the selection vs. the rejections. In an aside subplot related to Herbert's death, the Feds are nuked by Jana Richman for their disregard of safety when it comes to handling of chemical and biological weapons, but the prime plot is people justifying poor choices. Harriet Klausner