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In some ways this is a tricky book for a non-American to review, and I do wonder what the home market will make of it. But BLEEDING KANSAS shows that Sara Paretsky, one of our most outstanding crime fiction writers, can move outside of the genre box with electrifying results. BLEEDING KANSAS is a searing, angry book that rips to the heart of what America is debating at the moment (even a Brit, reliant on media coverage from afar, can tell this). We're in small town middle America where farming is the main occupation for the struggling population. Two families, the Grelliers and the Schapens, have been at daggers drawn for years – and the spark to an already smouldering fire comes in the shape of Gina Haring, who has run away from New York to forget. Gina doesn't realise that you can't hide in the back of beyond, and the fact she may be a lesbian and that she's a Wiccan sends the town gossip mill into over-drive. But tragedy strikes when Susan Grellier becomes drawn into Gina's anti-Iraq war campaign and her horrified son Chip enlists in the army. From this point we see a hard-working family fall apart, as the fundamentalist Schapens gloat from afar. To some extent, in what is a character-driven book, Paretsky has sacrificed characterisation for the message. All involved are a fairly unlikable and slightly under-drawn bunch. And that's problematic when it comes to Susan's mental collapse and to the portrayal of Gina, given she is the catalyst for much of what happens in the book. Paretsky has drawn on her own – apparently unhappy – upbringing in the mid-West, and BLEEDING KANSAS oozes small town atmosphere and bigotry from almost every pore. My big worry is that the people who need to read this book won't, and that Paretsky will end up preaching to the converted, so to speak. Sadly the religious right will probably never read it because they are too insular and too entrenched to realise that they are part of the problem. The book suffers from a fair bit of tell, rather than show (particularly the tragedy that hits the Grelliers), which sometimes makes it feel like we are observing from afar. Paretsky is one of the most fluent storytellers around, but the diary excerpts from the 1850s, which so fascinate Susan, don't serve a lot of purpose and slow the narrative down. I hope this review doesn't sound negative, because it isn't. I sat up until 3am to finish the book, and some of the scenes, particularly the harrowing one where Susan's daughter Lara ends up at a fundamentalist meeting, are still powerfully etched in my mind. Reading BLEEDING KANSAS is like picking a scab. And it's a very angry, very topical book that Paretsky clearly needed to get out of her system. And despite my reservations, it's one that screams out to be read.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, February 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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