The Linden Tree (review)

Despite the constant pull of chores and hard work, there is a sweetness to Katy Sue's life on an Iowa farm in the late 1940s, a sweetness that is threatened when meningitis claims the life of her beloved mama. Nobody overreacts or underreacts to the tragedy; they all just react, their grief a dull shared ache that occasionally erupts into tears when individual triggers propel them into a full awareness of their loss. At those times, they support one another, and they have the further support of Papa's childhood friend, Jake, an ornithologist with a sprightly sense of humor, and Aunt Katherine, their mother's sister, who moves in to help out and eventually wins Papa's grieving heart. Woven into the gently moving story of the family's grief and recovery is a loving portrait of the rhythms of farm life at mid-century; Christmas traditions, favorite foods, the remaking of old clothes, a spell with a kindly itinerant handyman, Grange suppers, and an orchard wedding add to the texture and warmth of the narrative. Anticipating a taste for Willa Cather, readers who enjoy Patricia MacLachlan, Ruth White, and L. M. Montgomery will find themselves happily at home here.