The Widow Smalls and Other Stories by Jamie Lisa Forbes Book Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Publisher: Pronghorn Press (October 20, 2014)
ISBN: 978-1-932636-97-0
Category: Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Available in: Print & ebook, 231 Pages

Thirty years of browbeating from rancher Bud Smalls has penned his wife, Leah, into emotional isolation.  Now Bud is gone and Leah owns the ranch, but there is no help forthcoming from Bud’s brothers who want to force her out and take the ranch for themselves.  When their attempt to humiliate her instead becomes her opportunity to succeed, Leah begins to find her way back to herself and learns how much she can gain by opening her heart.

The Widow Smalls is just one of the stories in this collection by the WILLA Award winning author of Unbroken, Jamie Lisa Forbes, who writes about the hardships of making a living from the land with an understanding that comes from first-hand experience. 

Her deftly drawn characters include star-crossed lovers, a young rancher facing his first test of moral courage, an inscrutable ranch hand claiming an impressive relative, a father making one last grasp for his daughter’s love and a child’s struggle to make sense of the world around her.   Each will pull you into the middle of their stories and keep you turning the pages.

Praise for 'Unbroken':

"Throughout this beautifully written story, I pictured the scenes, the characters, and visualized it all as if I walked among them. Five stars."-Laurel Rain-Snow, Rainy Days and Mondays

"Unbroken is a powerful, absorbing book from the first page to the last. Forbes' Wyoming ranch background adds rich flavors to the story. The author draws realistic, complex characters. Unbroken is an unvarnished testimonial to a way of life that few of us know."- Mary E. Trimble, author of ' TUBOB: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps'

"The author brings to life the setting in this story. I could easily envision ranch life, and how being responsible for the land could consume someone. The harshness of the elements, or the struggles of managing livestock seemed so realistic. I found myself being drawn into this story right away. There was so much to this story, the author not only allowed a very realistic look at ranch life, but also paints a story of family drama and broken relationships. A story well worth reading."- Brenda Casto, VW Stitcher

"The writing is realistic and true to the nature of life in rural Wyoming. Harsh winters, endless wind, and dependence on neighbors to survive form the backdrop of this novel. Ms. Forbes writes with a sparseness of prose to match the landscape. This book is one that opens a window onto a way of life few people experience."- Suzanne Lilly the TeacherWriter

"Unbroken was a very satisfying read for me.  I found myself putting off eating so I could read "just one more chapter" because I was so involved in the lives of the characters.  Ms. Forbes has a way of drawing you into the lives of the characters and making you feel like you are there living and working beside them, being friends with them.  It's wonderful and when the book is over you feel sad, because you want more of the story even though the story has come to its conclusion.  But you want more because you don't want to leave the characters. 

To me that is the mark of a good book, when the characters and the storyline stay with me after finishing.  When I'm still thinking about something they said or did or wondering about a point the author was making or even applying something to my life.  Unbroken has something for everyone.  Descriptions of ranching life, romance, friendship, parenting, tough decisions and so much more.  There is never a lull in the plot and I found it to be an amazing read."- Crystal Fulcher, My Reading Room

Excerpt:

Dad pulled the truck into the lean-to and the three of them—Dad, Mama and Cal—listened to the engine die. Cal’s wool suit scratched against the seat with every breath he exhaled. Staring at the plank wall, he recollected Jean’s train rolling into the distance, knowing that his parents’ spirits were strung behind it, bouncing on the crossties like empty cans.

Without wanting to peek at her, Cal and his father waited to see how Jean’s absence would weigh on Mama now, whether she would pick up and go on, or melt in front of them.

At last, she unpinned her hat from her hair and said, “I’ll warm up yesterday’s roast.”  The door creaked open and they watched her cross the yard, dust settling on her patent leather shoes.          

Dad shifted toward Cal. 

“It’s still daylight.  There’s hay to put up.” He trailed Mama, loosening his tie as he went.

 He shuffled like an old bull, Cal thought, not like the man who, when he owned his own ranch, covered the yard from the barn to the house in three strides.

Cal waited until the porch door slammed shut. He flicked a cigarette from the pack he’d hidden in his pocket. He took a drag and tipped his felt cowboy hat into his palm. How proud he’d felt when Dad had first placed it on his head—it meant that today, he’d take his place as one of the men. But once Jean had retreated down the aisle, packaged for shipping in her white dress, he reckoned how shallow the pageant had been. Though the two of them had done nothing but fight for fifteen years, Cal dreaded the house without her.

In the gloom that had settled over the house once the couple had trumpeted their engagement, Dad had ventured, “Jeanie would have lost all interest in that boy if he hadn’t a been thrown off the hay rake last summer.”

Mama whipped around from the stove. “Don’t give me that, Frank! I warned you if you taught her to drive she’d take detours you couldn’t stop! Now you’ve lost her!”

Sure enough, Jean’s detours to the burger joint had brought about Fergus’ first visit to the ranch.

It had happened in early May. Skiffs of muddy snow lingered in the yard and though the sun burned Cal’s face, an icy wind kept him from shedding his jacket. He and Dad were loading the truck, getting ready to check fences. Every few moments, he glanced down the road looking for Markham. Laurie would be along to ride her horse for the first time this spring and he didn’t want to miss it.   

Laurie wasn’t allowed to ride with Cal or his father. Dad would fetch her palomino and then she would tear around the corral, her red curls bouncing, while Markham leaned against the rail and smoked his pipe. Through the long winter, Cal had plotted on how he could take his father’s place in this routine. 

When at last he saw Markham’s dirt plume spiraling in the distance, he jumped off the truck and shouted over his shoulder, “I’ll get Buddy!” By the time Laurie’s boot touched the ground, he was parading Buddy past her.

“Cal,” said Markham, his head snapping back at the unexpected substitution, “where’s Frank?”

“He’s in the shed.”

Markham looked undecided, as if he couldn’t decide whether to stick with Laurie or go find Dad. “I suppose you can saddle Buddy for Laurie, can’t you?”

Now Cal turned to look in those sky-blue eyes that had mesmerized him at Markham’s house three years earlier. 

“I guess so.”

“Go with him, honey, I’ll be along.”

Damn. Now that he’d secured their moment, he couldn’t put two words together! 

“How are you, Cal?”

“Good.” 

“Buddy looks so slick and shiny.  Did you take care of him over the winter?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, though he and Jean fought every day over whose turn it was to feed the horses.

Cal tied the horse in the barn and was looking for Laurie’s tack when a disheveled boy, narrow-shouldered as a Brahma steer, walked into the barn.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for Jean Lansing.”

From the greasy shock of hair in his eyes, Cal guessed that it had been primed earlier in front of a mirror when no inkling of wind had ruffled this boy’s thoughts. And the good shoes he wore showed he hadn’t planned on wading through ankle-deep mud.

At any other time, Cal would be dying to know who the boy was but at this instant, he wanted him to vanish.

“She’s in the house.”

“Well, I need some help.” The boy pushed his hair back over his forehead. “What I mean to say is, I got my dad’s car, stuck in the gully back there.”

The porch door slammed and there was Jean with braids wound around her head and little pink ribbons woven through them. Cal hadn’t been the only one with plans. 

 “Fergus!” she called out. 

Dad and Markham joined the barnyard huddle and Fergus re-told his story. “Don’t worry,” Jean said brightly, “Cal will get your car out.”

No, no, NO, thought Cal. Judging by the amount of mud on Fergus, that was a job that could take hours while Laurie was here circling round the corral. He looked to his father for reprieve.

“Cal, go help him out.”

About Jamie Lisa Forbes:

Jamie Lisa Forbes was raised on a family ranch in southeastern Wyoming.  She graduated from the University of Colorado with honors in 1977 and then lived in Israel until 1979, when she returned to her family’s ranch and raised her own family over the next fifteen years.  Today, she writes and practices law in Greensboro, North Carolina.  She enjoys spending time with her grandsons and playing old time Appalachian fiddle.  With her Arabian horse, Cody, and her cattle dog, Reb, she still devotes part of her life to the outdoors.

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My review:

I just finished reading The Widow Smalls and Other Stories and I really enjoyed it. The storyline are good and the characters are strong. Leah has taken a lot from her husband over the years but now she owns the ranch. Her husband's brothers want her out. Leah has to be strong and find herself. This is a book about a woman realizing that no one has the right to tell her what to do with her life. It was a very nice story. I give this book a 4/5. I was given this book for the purpose of a review and all opinions are my own.

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