Heather Parkinson

Parkinson has created two memorable characters in Walter and Trina, seventeen year-olds who come together in 1917 rural Idaho and discover the aching sweetness of young love. But there is brutality, violence and heartbreak here too, as the world and the war all too soon intrude on these two young peple's idyllic relationship. Parkinson displays a remarkable facility for dialogue, and her male characters are as fully developed and real as the women in this respect. This is especially noticeable in the rude and rowdy exchanges between the young doughboys made old before their time by the horrors of combat. The sloping mountains and grassy pastures of Idaho, as well as the cratered landscape of war are made equally real in turn. This is quite simply a beautifully told story that left me hoping for a sequel.… (mais)