Book: Come Again No More by Jack Todd.

"Oh hard times come again no more." by Stephen Foster, which is the source of the title. I do think that choosing a good title seems to be difficult. As in this book. WhateVer..this is the second in a trilogy. At first I fell into this novel...relishing every word. An older gentleman is driving home to his ranch in Wyoming, in a big Cadillac in winter. It is the early part of the 20th century. He has an 100,000-acre ranch, called the 8T8. He loses control of his car and finds himself broken and bleeding in the middle of the cold night with a wrecked car.

He is returning from the funeral of his daughter Velma whom he has not seen for years. His name is Eli Paint; he has a twin brother Ezra and many children and grandchildren. It is the Depression, and dust and drought are threatening their livelihood, their way of life, as it is for thousands across the country.

It is also the story of Velma's daughter (and Eli's granddaughter), Emaline, who lives in far western Nebraska.

This is the third novel I've read lately that takes place nearly 70 and 80 years ago, all wonderful family sagas. When the story moves from Wyoming to Nebraska, I wanted to stay on the high prairies with Eli and Juanita and the ranch. Still, Emaline and her life were also compelling, and I very much enjoyed this book. There were many, many vignettes of small town life, of the endless dust and failed crops, the constant wind, of traveling to Oregon to find a better life, of life in a lumber town west of Portland; there were tales of the bright lights in the bigger cities and many lesser but lively characters. It is a period of our history not so far removed and not forgotten if authors continue to write these great stories.

The first book in this trilogy is Sun Going Down.

The author has been favorably reviewed and compared to Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy. It is another tale of horses, a sky full of stars, bitter cold winters, the smell of sage, creeks, small towns, cowboys, Indians, mountains in the distance, and the people who choose to live on this land.

The author says, in his acknowledgments, that. "...the fourth section of this book is, in part, a homage to Annie Proulx, whose work has put a different slant on the state of mind we call 'Wyoming'."

Emaline has recurrent dreams of The Burning Man and this is a thread that recurs. Sometimes the lesser parts of a story are as lovely as the broader sweep. Her Burning Man, the wild Black stallion, the Indian Two Spuds, Colonel Amen....this is a rich book.