Miss Etta

Sletten (Maggie’s Turning) eloquently captures the mystery of Etta Place, lover of Harry Longabaugh (aka the Sundance Kid) and friend to Butch Cassidy. The story opens in 1972 as 96-year-old Ethel Emily Pleasants has a story to tell her granddaughter, reaching back to the year 1911, the year she and her toddler son, Harry, moved to the small town of Pine Creek, Minn., where Emily will become the schoolteacher. Emily is genteel, prim and pretty, and gains the attention of Edward Sheridan, a banker and school board/town council member. Emily appreciates the attention of the handsome Edward, and wonders if she can settle in the town, but reports about whether Sundance—the love of her life—is dead have yet to be proved or disproved. The story moves further back to the late 1800s, the years of their courtship and love and outlaw days, and then returns to Pine Creek in 1972 as Emily’s granddaughter attempts to take it all in. Etta’s small-town experiences in 1911 are the highlights; at one point, the local sheriff wonders how a schoolteacher can thwart an attempted store robbery because she’s “capable of shooting like a gunslinger.” The imagined personality of Etta is endearing, and her story of restarting life after love is as touching as her earlier life was exciting. [em](BookLife) [/em]