Useful Girl

by Marcus Stevens

Book Overview

Out on the western plains, two paths cross: those of a young woman running away from home and a Cheyenne girl running for her life. They're both on a heroic quest, though more than a hundred years separate their journeys. After her mother's sudden death, Erin Douglass is virtually alone in the world. When she witnesses the exhumation of a Cheyenne girl along the side of a dirt road, life in her Montana town indelibly changes. The girl's remains, gently wrapped in a faded army coat, with silver thimbles on her right hand, are more than a hundred years old. Though her father makes every attempt to keep the discovery quiet, Erin is haunted by questions: How did this young girl end up here, in the middle of nowhere, with no marker and all alone? Who was she? Together with Charlie White Bird, a young member of her father's road crew from the nearby reservation, Erin is determined to protect her burial ground. She and Charlie meet in secret, knowing that their encounters could threaten their divided communities. But as their commitment to their cause becomes more passionate, so, too, does their relationship. When Erin is faced with a crisis she feels she must bear alone, she runs away. With her mother's old suitcase and her granddad's journals on the Indian wars, she sets out, and as she moves farther from home, the Cheyenne girl's story vividly unfolds in her mind, guiding her toward another way out of her predicament. Sweeping and evocative, "Useful Girl" reminds us that the past, no matter how deeply buried, is never far from view. It is a testament to the power of the imagination and a novel of heartrending beauty.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565123662
• ISBN13: 9781565123663
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Required reading

This is the best-written book I have read in years. Marcus Stevens is a great storyteller and an amazing writer. The prose is absolutely beautiful in its simplicity, preciseness, vividness and economy. The book is worth reading just for the writing. It's perfect. I can't believe I have not heard of this author before. The book should be required reading in high school, college and beyond.

Great Read

Stevens topped his last book, "Curve of The World," which I thought could not be done. I love the way he writes. He brings you into the story - you feel the cold of the snow and the fear. I love the way he weaves a present day story with one of history. I read this in 3 nights it was so engrossing.

Beautiful

This is a beautiful book. I love the way Stevens weaves the threads of the two stories together. A really wonderful read.

A compelling novel

Useful Girl a novel about a woman who observes the exhumation of the hundred-year-old remains of a Cheyenne girl along the side of a dirt road. Life in the Montana town is never the same again. Who was the girl, and how did she come to die and be buried with no marker? The woman undertakes a harrowing investigation to learn the truth, and a personal crusade along with Charlie White Bird to protect the burial site, despite harsh repercussions. A compelling novel about growth, crisis, and the consequences of running away.

A voice to hear

If promises are made to be broken, are secrets made to be revealed?As Marcus Stevens's "Useful Girl" illustrates, what is buried deepest from view is sometimes the most important link to human relationships. The metaphors are thicker than Cheyenne fog on the Yellowstone River, but "Useful Girl" unfolds as beautifully as the river itself. Like Pete Fromm's 2003 "As Cool As I Am," Stevens has written a contemporary Montana story from a young woman's perspective. Clearly, neither present-day Montana nor first-person female stories by male writers are unexplored territories, but both can be inaccessible. Stevens is a gifted writer who has mastered both.