Love and Country

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEPT 8, 2003

A series of unlikely friendships and alliances are forged in this piercing, meticulously descriptive first novel by Adams (after the much-praised story collection Any Small Thing Can Save You), set in a ranching town on the scrubby sage flats of Idaho. Fourteen-year-old Kenny Swanson has just moved to town with his mother, Lenna, who is struggling to support her son after a bitter divorce. Kenny's pilot father rarely sends money and only sees Kenny every few years; a fleeting visit at the start of the novel is followed by news of his death in a plane crash. Quiet, watchful Kenny latches onto Cynthia Dustin, a striking, independent high school senior who is hoping to escape to music school upon graduation. Kenny's other idol is Roddy Moyers, a local rodeo star in his late 20s who woos both Cynthia and Lenna. Misunderstandings are inevitable as this web of relationships grows ever more tangled, and matters come to a head when Roddy gives Cynthia permission to use his parents' empty house to practice piano. Cynthia brings Kenny along and they are discovered asleep together in the house, causing Cynthia's strict, brutal father to misinterpret their friendship. Adam's loving portrayal of Idaho ranch country ("the dark red cattle in the snow looked like a crooked line of stitches in a blanket") and her strong supporting cast of hardscrabble cowboys and local eccentrics gives depth and texture to her tale. Though the novel ends with a rather improbable act of reconciliation, Adam's storytelling is loose and loping, leaving just enough unsaid.