July 25, 2022
Playwright Anger bases her accomplished debut on a historical Texas honor killing. To pay a debt owed to the Martin family, mercantile owner J.R. Campell hires out his 17-year-old daughter, Jessa, as a helper for the Martins’ two young sons. Jessa, who is close with her father, loves working on her own family’s farm but detests the labor she is forced to do at the Martins, where her cooking and cleaning skills never seem to meet household standards. Sheltered and naive, Jessa blooms under the attention of Will Keyes, the Martin sons’ handsome piano teacher who takes the blame for Jessa when she accidentally breaks a statue. But after Will gets Jessa pregnant, Mr. Martin orders Jessa to leave. Upset at Will for abandoning Jessa, J.R. sets off in search of him. As the story turns violent, Jessa fights to keep her family together. Anger expertly combines fact and fiction to create a riveting narrative richly enhanced by questions of morality, justice, and revenge. Historical fiction fans will be delighted.
July 29, 2022
Playwright Anger's first novel is a bleak portrayal of Texas frontier life circa 1895. Parents bury their children. Young men roam around saloons, preying on impressionable young women. Jessa has long been her father's favorite, working the family's rural homestead and admiring the simplicity of farm life. After several lean years, a prosperous shopkeeper agrees to forgive Jessa's father's debts in exchange for Jessa's labor as a cook and nanny. When Will Keyes, a local piano player, flirts with her, Jessa becomes instantly smitten. Much too late, she realizes Will is neither honorable nor a simple ne'er-do-well; rather, he is cruel and vicious. Jessa's foolish decisions bring shame upon her family, and her father snaps out of desperation and fury. In the face of social ruin and literal starvation, Jessa shoulders her family's burdens. As the pages dwindle, hope seems lost. However, Anger refuses to end the novel on a grim note, choosing instead to suggest a future for Jessa and her family filled with the potential for love and fulfillment.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.