Savage, Thomas. The Sheep Queen/I Heard My Sister Speak My Name. Little Brown & Company, 2001.
Reason read: Idaho became a state in July.
This is the western saga of the Sweringen family. Emma Russell Sweringen is dubbed the Sheep Queen because in 1909 she had 10,000 head of Idaho sheep. Impressive for that time period, considering her gender. Men were supposed to be the dominant members of the family and yet Emma was so powerful she was not one to be messed with. She ran a tight operation and had high standards. Her daughter did nothing but disappoint yet she doted on her grandson. Time moves forward and backwards in Savage’s story. It is all about family, identity and legacy. Grandson, Tom, is all grown up with a family of his own when he is contacted by a woman claiming to be the granddaughter of the Sheep Queen; professing to be his sister. Amy is adopted and looking for her roots. Tom does not want to accept her but even he understands the power of identity. The theme of loss is also pervasive, sometimes subtle and sometimes profound. There is triumph in discovery. The controversy surrounding giving up children for adoption – should people research their biological families? What is the harm in that? What are the rewards? I found myself asking if one needs to pack up their entire life and physically move to escape ancestral ghosts.
I enjoyed the hints of the passage of time: new Palmer method replaced the Spencer script. Hem lines trend up over the knee.
Lines I liked, “We have not seriously considered divorce, but sometimes after a few martinis we should and pick at old scabs” (p 3) and “They were, then, never more than good friends, and there wasn’t anything wrong with that except that everything was wrong with it, but what exactly?” (p 33). Confessional: this line hurt. Another good line, “That’s what they all came down to the sea to hear” (p 153).
Author fact: Savage got a degree from Colby College.
Book trivia: The Sheep Queen was originally published under the title I Heard My Sister Speak My Name. My copy included a Reading Group Guide.
Playlist: “Tiger Lily Waltz”, Bach, Mozart, “Autumn”, Delius, Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy”, “Nola”, “Maryland, My Maryland”, “Marcheta”, “Tea for Two”, “The Life of a Rose”, “That Old Gang of Mine”, “Valencia”, “Gimme a Little Kiss”, Carrie Jacobs Bond’s “End of a Perfect Day”, “At Dawning”, Schumann, Chopin’s “Nocturnal”, “Everybody’s Doing It Now”, “Allah’s Holiday”, “Liebestraum”, Aida,
Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say much about Sheep Queen/I Heard My Sister Speak My Name except to say I Heard My sister Speak My Name is a much more evocative title.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in “Idaho: And Nary a Potato to be Seen” (p 121) and again in “Men Channeling Women” (p 166).
~*LunaSea*~ 