Book: Little Century by Anna Keesey

This is a grand, old-fashioned novel with a heroine named Esther which, of course, I liked. It is set in the high Oregon desert about 100 years ago and in large part is a story about the conflicts sheepmen and cattlemen. The nearest town is Century with Klamath Falls, Prineville and Redmond to the west.  Esther comes out on the train from Chicago after the death of her mother to connect with Pick, a distant relative, with hopes of starting a new and different life. She is young and has a sense of adventure.

Esther is persuaded to file a claim near Pick's land. She will have prove up by living on it, which she does, in an old cabin on the shores of a little lake.

And the story evolves from there as the social fabric of Century and the neighboring ranches and those who work both in town and on the land is examined. The reader leans of their blessings and tragedies, their goodness and evil, their work and ease, along with lovely descriptions of weather and geography and many credible characters who move in a dynamic dance through this good novel.

"Pick accompanies Esther to the cabin turnoff. There he polished the pommel of his saddle with his thumb. 'I don't have any explanation. I used to think, she's doing this because she's an Indian, she's doing that because she's an Indian. Sometimes she looked strange to me. Once, when she was sleeping, I measured her face with my finger. Maybe it was too wide, or her nose too short. Of course I couldn't tell anything by it. It was wrong of me. '"

"Joe doesn't like the piling up of the words into great heaps. He tells Esther that reading Whitman is like watching someone glut on a large meal and then pick the debris out of his beard. Esther herself likes the poems, and privately she thinks that someone who keeps his store the way Joe Peaselee does should think twice before objecting to someone else's debris."

These are a couple of random passages. It helps to have seen and driven through this country, but not necessary to appreciate the fine writing in this debut novel.