(pb; 1979)
From the back cover
“Simmering under the Kansas
sun [in 1944], Crowley Flats looks like a typical prairie town. Now comes the
time of the stalker─relentless, violent, death-dealing. Fear trembles like the
dust, stirring up naked emotions and lustful passions long held in check. . .”
Review
Blooding is an excellent, cinematic-vivid novel with well-rounded characters, steady pacing, clear explanations of the literal disease (rabies) that brings to the surface darker passions and resentments within a small town. There are no bad guys in this well-written, measured work, just people who afraid and act on those fears. Blooding is one of those rare books that is at once many things: a love story, a coming-of-age story, a home-front-during-wartime [1944] story, a lone-hero-doing-the-right-thing story. A book worth owning, this, and one of my favorite reads this year.
