The South Dakota woman who wrote this novel twenty-five years ago had the narrative skills of a serious writer -- the ear for dialogue, the attention to details that make a scene come alive, the desire to tell a story.  It reads well and easily.
     But this is more of a down-to earth accounting than a champagne-and-caviar romance.  It rings with authenticity, with the gritty realism of the real experiences of a woman left with three young children to raise by herself (one of them a brain-damaged son) who is struggling to establish an academic career for herself, while coping with her own strong need for love and support.
    The value of this narrative for me lies in the insights that can be gained into the mind and heart, the thoughts and feelings, of an emotionally distraught woman struggling for survival, to maintain her

especially dialogues with the children, that ring true with the daily preoccupations of many of us.  There is also an endearing dog named Sukie who takes our frustrated mother on walks and gets tender, loving care from her.  There is even humor in some of the scenes with various men who, for the most part, seem intent on taking, not giving, love.
     It is probably Barbara's need to survive, for herself, for her children, that carries her through to action.  She leaves her son in the institution, her daughter with her ex-husband, arranges to follow a lover to Germany to study there, and leaves us with the fervent hope that she will regain emotional strength and resilience in the new setting, with more authentic and satisfying relationships.
     Tesseract Publications is to be congratulated for publishing this fictionalized case history from a subject's viewpoint.  Which Way The Wind Blows, volume II of the Trilogy, Valley of Many Winds, is also available from them.

Shouting to the Wind, Tesseract Publications, 220 pp, 1996, ISBN 1-877649-25-2, L. C. 95-062365, $12,95, perfect bound

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Click here to order just Part I