cover image No Reck'ning Made

No Reck'ning Made

Joanne Greenberg. Henry Holt & Company, $23 (296pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-2579-8

A shrewd observer of human nature and of societal differences, Greenberg has written 10 novels and four short fiction collections that present quiet, sensitive and poignant stories of individual lives and the cultural climates in which they unfold. In this novel, Clara Coleman surmounts her miserable beginnings in an isolated, dying Colorado mountain community by way of intellectual effort and a courageous spirit. Clara escapes her abusive father and works in the defense industry during WW II to finance her way through college. Newly married, she becomes principal-teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Gold Flume, another mining town fallen into desperate days. A gifted educator, Clara inspires the poor children she teaches and helps some of them to transcend their squalid backgrounds. The rebirth of Gold Flume through industry and ski development brings with it satisfactions and more responsibilities--a larger school, a staff of teachers--and also heartache, as supercilious yuppie newcomers look down on the area's natives and make unreasonable demands of the educational system and of Clara. Finally, falsely accused of sexual abuse by vindictive parents, Clara stands to lose her lifetime's work and her good reputation. In conveying the distinct social orders and the harsh codes of values that divide the town, gulch and ranching communities, Greenberg creates a clear demographic picture to complement her map of the heart. Her unflinching eye and sense of irony prevent a facile or sentimental solution to Clara's and the community's problems. The lure of a good story, artfully told, is augmented here by the empathy and wisdom of the storyteller. (Nov.)