Where the Heart Was

Rarely have I come across a book which leaves such a strong impact, a sense of presence and truth. Each chapter strikes a chord of resonance with the past. I feel a strong kinship with the characters, the places they lived and the challenges they faced. I feel totally in accord with the praise and accolades written on the jacket cover. This book covers a rare time, the Great Depression. It reveals how one family struggled to survive these tumultous times and the uncertainty they faced as they lived day to day. Their courage, sacrifices and the many emotional upheavals they experienced while facing difficulties and challenges is told through the eyes of Bennie Todd who was a young boy in the early 1930s. What I love most about the book is how the author wove into this novel his vast knowledge about the American Revolution, the Civil War and various Indian Wars. It is Bennie's interest in history which often provides an opening to the past which should never be forgotten. One gets a strong sense of the debt we owe to those who fought in these wars and provided us the freedoms we often take for granted. There is an authenticity about the stories and lives of the main characters that makes this book very difficult to put down. There are extraordinairy experiences and adventures which keeps the reader spell bound and anticipating, hoping for more of the same. The author does not disappoint in this regard. The author creates a sweeping epic story which displays the human spirit in its full range: courageous, weak, loving, sensitive, and caring. The author's lyrical style of writing is both highly impressive and original but his use of the nonlinear technique to provide background information, although necessary for the story, can be daunting at times. Overall, this is a highly impressive literary achievement which leaves the reader appreciating a part of history which should not be forgotten. The book begins with the recollections of Newt Edwin Cheek when he was an eleven year old and had been enlisted as a drummer boy in the Civil War. Newt had wanted very badly to accompany his father Lt. Colonel Robert Cheek to this war and his mother reluctantly agreed. The impressions, feelings and interpretations of events as told through Newt's memories provide great insight into this time in history. In the next chapter, the reader is given a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of Abe Lincoln as he prepared to give his great address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In this manner, the author lays a foundation about how freedom and the common man who fought for it go hand and hand and neither should ever be taken for granted. Next, the reader is introduced to Bennie Todd, his parents and grandparents and their interwoven complex lives. One branch of the family were Wisconsin farmers. They took pride in their independence and ability to live off the land by their own hard labor from dawn 'til dusk. Another branch of the family were more educated, which included

Without doubt, Glenn Boyer's "Where the Heart Was," has first claim on that elusive chimera known as "The Great American Novel." But it is much more than that, incorporating history and those who made it (George Washington and Abraham Lincoln among others) with the saga of one midwestern family through the centuries and the Great Depression. It is blunt, tragic, magical, and in places lyrical, reminiscent of Dvorjak's New World Symphony. One can hear the music of our rivers, plains, mountains, the heart beat of the people who lived, loved, fought, and often bravely died for the land they loved. Everyone should read this book. It is a timely reminder of our heritage, of the America Lincoln called, "The last, best hope of earth."

Just so the air is clear, let me say that Glen is one of the few people I call friend, so I'm admittedly prejudiced. HOWEVER, I know Pulitzer material when I read it, and this book is it in spades. Poetic, dreamlike, crude, raucous, hilarious, heroic and above all, moving. The history of our country has been nailed, not with a lot of dry dates and political rhetoric but in the story of a family from the heartland. The book is going to be uncomfortable for a lot of PC folks since it does not apologize for a damn thing. Boyer's characters are real. I know, having grown up around folks like his characters, and perhaps even being one of them. Ferinstance, the guy who used to plow us out when we got snowed in turned out to be an escaped wife-killer. The mayor of the little town where I went to elementary school in packed a bullet in his leg, put there by his wife when she found out he was boffing the telephone operator. The little old man who lived next to the drugstore had been a 'sporting gentleman' who still had a Colt's revolver on top of his bookshelf at 90+. Buy this book. Read it. See where we REALLY came from.

In these days of chain bookstores and committee-constructed blockbusters, a book unlike any you've ever read before, that delivers everything at every level for the discerning reader, is a gem to be treasured and touted from the rooftops, which is what I'd like to do after reading Glenn G. Boyer's massive...well, I don't know what to call this book, and that is among it's charms. Part memoir, part American history lesson, some of it speculative...but not strictly a narrative history, either; let's call it stream-of-consciousness history. That may be a new genre but then, anyone who knows of Boyer's work as contentious historian and classic western novelist already knows that the man is a genre unto himself. WHERE THE HEART WAS is Boyer's magnum opus, and is highly recommended.

"IN A MODERN ERA WHEN TOO MANY PEOPLE CARE MORE ABOUT TWEETING THAN TALKING AND SCANNING THAN READING, IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE A MORE ASTONISHING BOOK THAN GLENN BOYER'S EPOCHAL 'WHERE THE HEART WAS'. SPRAWLING, UNORTHODOX, SOMETIMES CRUDE BUT ALWAYS INSIGHTFUL, THIS IS FICTION THAT DEMANDS READER EFFORT AND THEN REWARDS IT. THOUGH OSTENSIBLY THE COMING-OF-AGE TALE OF BENNIE TODD DURING THE DEPRESSION, IT'S REALLY A UNIQUE PRIMER ABOUT THE OFTEN MESSY GROWTH OF AMERICA, AND A LOVE LETTER TO OUR NATION'S HISTORY. FROM WHAT LINCOLN MIGHT HAVE BEEN THINKING WHILE DELIVERING THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS TO THE EXCITEMENT OF A POOR FAMILY IN THE 1930'S BUYING A LIVING ROOM SET FROM SEARS, BOYER BRINGS US THERE, ENLIGHTENING AND ENTERTAINING HIS AUDIENCE AT THE SAME TIME. YOU'LL NEVER READ ANOTHER NOVEL LIKE THIS ONE. (AND, AS THE AUTHOR NOTES, 'IF IT DIDN'T HAPPEN EXACTLY THAT WAY, IT SHOULD HAVE!' JEFF GUINN, AUTHOR OF GO DOWN TOGETHER, THE TRUE UNTOLD HISTORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE.