cover image Shadow of a Bird

Shadow of a Bird

D. M. Toliver. Council Oak Books, $16.95 (353pp) ISBN 978-0-933031-13-5

Set on a 50-acre horse farm near a small Midwestern town, this gentle, meandering first novel spins the slow tale of a disintegrating family. Abandoned by her husband, middle-aged Sadie Douglas supplements her income as a breeder of horses by writing a gossip column for the local paper. Josie, her ingenuous and vulnerable 12-year-old daughter, distrusts her mother's romance with ambitious newcomer Lester Tessendorf, and is drawn to the secure but narrow comfort of a fundamentalist religious sect. Sadie's puritanical, 20-year-old son Patrick is unnaturally protective of his mother at first, but later both he and Josie react violently to Sadie's sexual relationship with Lester. It takes the non-judgmental attitude of Patrick's girlfriend to bring about insight and reconciliation. While the book labors under a heavy sweetness, a few gem-like characters break through the generally placid atmosphere, and the finely tuned rhythms capture the ticking clock of middle-American life. (October)