April 12, 2021
Boyles’s debut collection bristles with intelligence and determination as her characters face the harsh realities of the American West, from the 1970s to the near future. In “Ledger,” a rancher’s daughter grapples with her father’s stroke and selling their land, which protects a grouse native to the area. Other stories trace domestic fault lines. In “Alto Cumulus Standing Lenticulars,” a woman reckons with expecting a baby while in an unhappy marriage, and “Early Warning Systems” tracks a marriage’s dissolution. “Sister Agnes Mary in the Spring of 2012” features a nun who takes a stand on fracking, and “Lost Gun, $1,000 Reward. No Questions,” follows two brothers en route to see their dying father. The linked “Flood Stories,” “Natural Resource Management,” and “Best Response to Fear” explore the lives of three sisters and their children, one of whom is a police officer convicted of falsifying evidence to incriminate people, including his best friend. At their best, the stories of women dealing with messes men left behind evoke the characters’ grit and hope as well as a sense of place, colored in by their concern for the environment. Fans of Annie Proulx and John Sayles will love this.