Return to Abo: A Novel of the Southwest

by Sharon Niederman

Book Overview

Called home to a funeral in Monte Alto, a small ranching community in New Mexico, journalist Maggie Chilton finds herself face to face with everything she left behind when she graduated from high school. Against the harsh beauty of the landscape and the memories it holds, three generations of women--Maggie, her mother, and her teenage daughter--struggle to make peace with each other and the land they love.

"What a read! Sharon Niederman...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826337201
• ISBN13: 9780826337207
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

No, Mr. Wolfe, You can Go Home Again

Maggie has left her little home town in the dry New Mexico ranch country, for the romance and adventure life as a San Francisco journalist can promised. Some years later, the dream has gone sour. Divorced, traumatized by the murder of a woman she interviewed at a shelter, and struggling to cope with daughter Hannah's teen years, Maggie finds herself no longer able to write. On top of that, now she must return home to care for her ailing mother, with whom she doesn't get along. What will happen when she comes home? What will her mother say? How will her old childhood chums, classmates, and sweetheart receive her? How will her mother's friends welcome her? With open arms? Or by saying she's sold out by leaving? How will Hannah react when she sees the town where her mother grew up? How should Maggie handle everyone, including herself? Set amid the scent of fresh sage, and the richness of the earth after a sudden thuderstorm, Maggie's story unfolds as she struggles to answer these questions. Sharon Niederman has caught the spirit, and to an extent, the spite, a small town can produce in RETURN TO ABO. But she tempers the naster small town moments with gentle humor, and makes the nice encounters warm and fuzzy. Having lived in small towns across the country, I connected with moments in the local diner, in the hardwarestoe, on the street, and at the newspaper office. For that, I especially liked RETURN TO ABO. In addition, Ms. Niederman uses her wonderful command of the English language to describe her characters and their surroundings. As a New Mexico resident for 20 years, I can ascertain that her pictures are accurate. I could feel the gritty earth beneath Maggie's boots when she stepped onto her mother's property for the first time in many years, sense the eyes of old tongue-waggers boring into my back. Ms. Niederman also clearly the tensions between the characters as Maggie and her mother sort old issues, she revives old friendships, and Hannah arrives, a green-haired punker fresh from the city. The interactions between everyone drive the book to an exciting climax. Sharon Niederman also writes using several character's points of view. The switch between each is seamless. The only draw back to REUTRN to ABO is the end. The book ties up a little too neatly for my tastes. I like a few scraggly ends to leave me thinking about what might happen if someone wrote a sequel to the story. Still, return to ABO is well written and is well worth curling up with when the day outside is nasty.

Alongside Willa Cather

Sharon Niederman has captured the flavor of the pioneer west in a novel about women living in the 21st century. To compare "Return to Abo" to Willa Cather in "My Antonia" or "Death Comes To The Archbishop" is high praise, but a well deserved comparison. This book captures attachment to the land, in magical luminescent prose, while blending a tale of generational conflict with the western struggle to balance the desire for open space with need for development and growth. This is a wonderful read!