Review: West of the Moon

West of the Moon by Margi Preus

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Nancy warned me the ending might be disappointing, but I didn't realize she meant the very ending! Instead of the last mini-chapter, Preus should have written just, "And they all learned their lesson and decided everyone could be friends." Gads, she held it together right until then. I literally threw the book down. Was this Margi Preus, a bully editor, who made the call on that too-easy ending?

Okay, so that bothered me, and a handful of loose strands she left hanging from earlier in the story. But I think Astri will linger with me for a while. She was a complicated, well-drawn antihero and I couldn't help but follow her along like Greta and have my heart broken a bit by each bad decision she made. She felt like a real person with real regrets that would follow her around. I started out rating this book as a three-star, but then I thought about how the middle of the book really drew me in with its character development and nice work with suspense.

In a piece of historical fiction I appreciated such a clear page of citations. Just enough to get one started. I think editors need to press the issue of being more clear about what is the difference between sources and extension material. The vague term 'bibliography' does not suggest academic sources enough, especially since its overuse as a term for extension materials in children's books for the past 20 years. I favor the term 'sources' as an honest representation of research. I'm not sure [b:Growth of the Soil|342049|Growth of the Soil|Knut Hamsun|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320482326s/342049.jpg|2435698]is the Hamsun title I would have picked to cite as an influence for this story. And did Preus not read Theodore Blegen or Ole Rolvaag?--I find these omissions from the list strange. Also, Astri feels like a page pulled right from Kristin Lavransdatter, especially the first book. I guess you can't credit every influence, and maybe I'm just being hyper-aware of possible Norwegian influences.

It was fun to see the stories about death I knew from Katherine Briggs' English tales (in addition to the traditional Norwegian raft), and I thought Preus might use these motifs to lead herself to an interesting and maybe elegant finish to the book with Astri dying. No dice. [Nancy also reminded me this nice weaving of folk material was so well done in [book:The Tiger's Wife|8366402], and I could certainly see that. The Norwegian storytelling also brought Paulsen's [b:The Winter Room|207589|The Winter Room|Gary Paulsen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386922287s/207589.jpg|1097662] to mind.]

I just felt like with a little more attention to the ending this could have been a book for the ages. Lois Lowry comes to mind as someone who has figured out how to craft a difficult ending that leaves one thinking and wanting to talk to people about what it all meant. Who else does it well?



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