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The Books 
Sky Bridge Twenty-two-year-old Libby works at a small grocery store in a luckless town in the rural West. Endlessly daydreaming, she sees herself becoming an artist, moving out of her mother's house to have her own, learning to play guitar. When her younger sister Tess becomes pregnant, Libby convinces her not to have an abortion by promising to raise the child, a promise she never really imagines she'll have to keep. Thrust into instant motherhood when Tess gives birth and then promptly leaves, Libby finds herself caring for a crying infant and overwhelmed by the task. The colorful cast of characters who rise up to support her from the hippie beekeeper, Ed Mongers, to Miguel Mendoza, a single father widowed by suicide, and various other folks from the small ranching community--round out this spirited story. Libby's lucid, painfully honest observations and her complex interiority comes with a fresh perspective on what it means to inhabit a world that has little room for optimism. Pritchett's characters deal with the hidden underbelly of rural life the drug trafficking, the people who make a living driving "illegals" over the border, the litany of low-wage jobs. As Libby struggles to make sense of the world, she discovers humor and courage in unlikely places. As the beekeeper Ed Monger says to Libby, "I think we should all be living more dangerous lives. We have to be careful, yes. But when we get too fearful, we become small." Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly "How do we people go around in regular life, anyway, when the
truth is that we're wondering about love, and death, and things that
are on the verge of smashing us to pieces?" Libby, the 22-year-old narrator
of Pritchett's compassionate, finely observed first novel, finds herself
asking the big questions sooner than she might have expected when her
beloved younger sister, Tess, quits their one-horse Colorado town, leaving
Libby to care for her newborn daughter. Tess had wanted an abortion,
but Libby, a grocery store clerk, said she'd care for the baby; little
did she expect that Tess would vanish the minute she got discharged
from the hospital. Thoughtful, serious Libby muddles her way through
mothering darling, colicky Amber, getting no-nonsense advice from her
prickly ranch-hand mother, warm counsel from ranch owner Baxter and
fumbling, halfhearted attempts at support from the boyfriend she isn't
sure she really loves. The novel's graceful, leisurely pace and genial
characters overlay darker, tenser narrative threads, which include Tess's
involvement in smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. Pritchett, who
proved herself an astute observer of rural Colorado's hardy inhabitants
in her award-winning story collection, Hell's Bottom, Colorado, offers
an amiable, moving story of love, duty and family. From Booklist Even in the closest families, there should be limits as to what
one sister can demand of another. When 19-year-old Tess becomes pregnant,
Libby talks her out of having an abortion by promising to raise the
baby herself. As Tess drives off to the big city, the reality of just
what Libby has signed on for begins to hit home. At 22, Libby should
be the one embarking on a life of her own, not abandoned in a rundown
cabin on a two-bit ranch in rural Colorado, stuck with her own mother,
who is unabashedly contemptuous of the challenge Libby has assumed.
Proud and resolute, Libby struggles to raise Amber, a fight made harder
by the loss of her boyfriend, her job, and a custody battle with Amber's
father. In this spare yet haunting portrait of the American West, Pritchett's
powerful, poetic voice speaks with clarity, wisdom, and passion about
country, family, and one young woman's majestic spirit. From Library Journal This captivating first novel is the story of Libby, a 22-year-old
checkout clerk who has been a mother figure to her younger sister. Now
pregnant, 18-year-old Tess wants to have an abortion, but Libby convinces
her to have the baby, saying that she herself will raise the infant.
Within days of delivering, Tess indeed takes off to pursue her own dreams
outside their small Colorado town, and Libby finds herself raising Amber
while trying to deal with an alcoholic, abusive mother and make sense
of her own life. Libby is a protagonist who is not afraid to confront
her fears and loneliness; this very openness gives her a depth and strength
that others draw on. At the same time that she is trying to make a life
for herself and Amber, the baby's father reenters the picture, promising
a custody battle, and Libby discovers that Tess has gotten involved
in smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. The primary and secondary
plots captivate readers and ensure an ending that is anything but trite.
Reminiscent of Billie Letts's Where the Heart Is (Warner, 1995), this
book offers a gritty but redeeming picture of a family that never quite
lets go of hope, and characters who are not soon forgotten. From Library Journal Pritchett's debut novel finds an unlikely but likable heroine
in 22-year-old Libby. Libby convinces her unwed younger sister, Tess,
who is considering an abortion, to keep her baby on the condition that
Libby raise her. Not long after the child's birth, Tess sets off in
search of a more exciting, carefree existence, leaving Libby to cope
by herself. Though their mother, Kay, provides support, as a woman of
true grit she suffers no fools gladly. A series of unfortunate events
befalls Libby: first, the child's father, a Christian rodeo rider, decides
he wants custody of his daughter; then Libby breaks up with her boyfriend,
Derek, and loses her job as a supermarket clerk. Libby prevails through
these hardships, however, and Pritchett beautifully portrays how love
and support are what truly define a family. Though Sky Bridge is set
in a small, unnamed Colorado town, Pritchett defies any preconceived
notions readers might have about rural life and ranching in the West
and brings the novel's diverse characters to life with grace and compassion.
Pritchett's first short story collection, Hell's Bottom, Colorado, won
the 2002 PEN/USA West Literary Award for Fiction. Recommended for all
fiction collections. Other praise "At
the center of Laura Pritchett's Sky Bridge is the courageous
notion that a world that makes us all strangers makes us also, necessarily,
family. The beauty of the book lies in the way Pritchett, quietly and
without fanfare, explores this difficult balance."  
Hell's Bottom, Colorado
Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize On Hell's Bottom Ranch, a section of land below the Front Range, there are women like Renny who prefer a "little hell swirled with their heaven" and men like Ben, her husband, who's "gotten used to smoothing over Renny's excesses." There is a daughter who plays it too safe and a daughter plagued by only "half-wanting" what life has to offer. The ranch has been the site of birth and deaths of both cattle and children, as well as moments of amazing harmony and clear vision. Focusing on one extended ranching family in Colorado, this book balances gritty material with genuine warmth and understanding of character. Praise for Hell's Bottom, Colorado: Publisher's Weekly writes that "Pritchett's debut is an admirable, steely-eyed collection of stories and vignettes featuring a family of ranchers in mountain-shadowed Colorado. . . . Pritchett, raised a rancher herself, writes beautifully about the hard work and casual cruelty of ranch life. . . . Fans of Annie Proulx's Close Range and Jon Billman's When We Were Wolves should enjoy this visceral, accomplished collection." The Rocky Mountain News says that the book "displays the talent of a brilliant, new writer." Booklist writes, "Pritchett excels at juxtaposing the sensuous with the severe, the rapturous with the repugnant." Kirkus notes that the book "vividly conveys a world where decency and humanity are challenged repeatedly, and diminished, yet still manage to gain small, significant victories." This collection of short stories was also a recommended title in "Book Sense 76," the publication of independent booksellers. Home Land: Ranching and a West that Works |
