The Plain Sense of Things

by Pamela Carter Joern

Book Overview

In prose as clean and beautiful as the stark prairie setting, The Plain Sense of Things tells the stories of three generations of a western Nebraska family. These tales of sorrow and hope are connected by the sinews of need and flawed love that keep families together. A farm wife struggles to support her children after the death of her second husband; a young woman grapples with the shift from girlhood to motherhood; World War II wreaks havoc...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080321619X
• ISBN13: 9780803216198
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.2" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

tales of the midwest

I like this writers' style,terse,not overwordy but telling the story and letting the reader fill in. The book carried over several generations and times beginning in 1930 with a grandfather and grandson and ending with the grandfathers' three grandchildren, two sons and a daughter who move far away from the great plains. Their mother was devoted to her husband and worked when he didn't. He had problems adjusting to modern life and cared more about the land,always the land plus was a wonderful mechanic. His two sons grew up with his great mechanical skills but with their mothers' work ethic, good sense and stick toits. The book ends with the grown kids and their kids. Grandmother and Grandfather and father have died. A good story of the great plains people,people who lived in the big emptiness, but with its own beauty. Billy who moved to Florida with his grandmother, but then grandma moved back to live with her twice widowed daughter when the daughters' children were grown and gone. The coming together of the families when there was death or a wedding. Good book about down to earth, non pretentious people. Much like the Willa Cather novels.