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The Maid's Version (2013)

by Daniel Woodrell(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316205850 (ISBN13: 9780316205856)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: After taking so long to read Shadow Country, it was nice to breeze through this book. The setting is a small-town in Missouri, 1929. A tragic explosion at a dance hall claims the lives of too many young citizens. The cause of the blast is never brought to light and the townsfolk present various theories. I found it interesting that the author never mentions the racial background of the characters. No doubt a Missouri community during this time period would not be homogenous, with at least black and white citizens, and possibly families of other racial and backgrounds. This had to have been an intentional omission. The townsfolk are definitely segregated by social class, though, and we see how one's position in the hierarchy does make a difference in day-to-day aff... moreairs.
review 2: As I was reading this, I would have said the plot, while interesting enough, was less important than the little personal vignettes and the powerful socioeconomic critique he draws. Yet the final section is similar to the final crescendo of a well drawn-out fireworks display, when all the best notes are fired simultaneously. In the end though, it's hard to say which is more important, the mystery itself, or the social commentary that accompanies it, at first apparently only as color, but a color that gradually takes over the play. less

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