On Hell's Bottom Ranch, a section of land below the Front Range, there
are women like Renny who prefer a "little Hell swirled with their
Heaven" and men like Ben, her husband, who's "gotten used to smoothing
over Renny's excesses." There is a daughter who maybe plays it too safe
and a daughter plagued by only "half-wanting" what life has to offer.
The ranch has been the site of births and deaths of both cattle and
children, as well as moments of amazing harmony and clear vision.
Quotes:
“Laura
Pritchett's stories are beautifully written and unsparingly clear-eyed,
and an unsettling as a hot summer wind. These stories are among the
best I've read at depicting the everyday struggles of men, women, and,
especially children to reconcile nature's beauty with its
all-too-casual cruelties.”—Alison Baker, author of How I Came West,
and Why I Stayed and Loving Wanda Beaver
“These sensual
stories remind us again and again that no matter how much psychic or
geographical space we claim for our own, we cannot escape the messiness
and obsessions of ordinary life.”—Patricia Henley, author of
Hummingbird House
“A collection of well-crafted stories . . . [that] jump back and forth
in time, but their message is clear: this family's ties are as quixotic,
fierce, and enduring as the land that binds them together. Teens will
find this a moving portrait of the American West and what it takes to eke
out a living from land that is as harsh as it is beautiful.”—School
Library Journal
“Pritchett portrays human cruelty on the
margins of decency and, conversely, human kindness on the margins of
survival: Each story pivots on one of these points. . . . The
interlocking stories allow a reader to see incidents from many angles.
They ricochet like bullets off Renny and Ben's family tree. They are
jarring, deeply violent; the fates they hold seem unavoidable.”—LA Times
"In a book
that peels back the fibers of life's simplistic yet tantalizing ways,
Laura Pritchett gives birth to the true expression of families drawn
together through their Colorado ranches.”—Steamboat Pilot
“With
the rugged beauty of the Rocky Mountains as backdrop, Pritchett's spare
yet richly evocative stories portray the stark reality of life on a
Colorado cattle ranch, where three generations of one family tend the
land and animals, devoting and losing themselves to an existence few
would understand or choose to follow. Through love and loss, Pritchett
excels at juxtaposing the sensuous with the severe, the rapturous with
the repugnant.”—Carol Haggas, Booklist
“Vividly conveys a world
where decency and humanity are challenged repeatedly, and diminished,
yet still manage to gain small, significant victories. . . . An intimacy
and warmth in character and a knowing view of the land are great
strengths here: an impressive small-scale study of family dynamics.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Right up there with Charles Dickens. . . . A first-rate piece of debut fiction.”—Sybil Downing , Denver Post
"Laura Pritchett's debut work displays the talent of a brilliant new writer.”—Rocky Mountain News
“There
is more life in this book than you will find anywhere else in a long
time looking. Give it to yourself for Christmas.”—Colorado Springs
Independent
“Hell's Bottom is like a sudden shooting star, something at which to wonder.”—Rocky Mountain Bullhorn
