I found the dating process in the book absolutely beautiful. When I first started reading Sarah, I thought "ah, the precursor to internet dating." A single man posts his profile; an available woman answers. The only thing that made this different from internet dating is the lack of "must-haves." i.e. she must be 5'4", must be a size 2, must be X years younger than I am, etc.
I'm glad Sarah was an independent woman. She knew how to fix a roof, learned how to ride a horse, drive a wagon, etc. She wasn't waiting for a man to make her happy, or to provide for her, or to "complete her."
I liked that the narrative was from a child's perspective. So innocent, so full of faith, and so straight-forward, totally lacking in pretense (my favorite quote from Sarah: "In the morning, Sarah dressed in a pair of overalls and went to the barn to have an argument with Papa." Every emotion was totally real. Like Laurenda, I found myself smiling with Caleb every time he took something Sarah said to mean she would stay (for example, "..[Caleb's] mouth formed the words I had heard, too. Our dune.") And I found myself crying with Caleb when Sarah returned from town.
I also loved the simplicity of these books. I enjoyed reading them, and found that, at the end, I wanted more. Patricia MacLachlan's writing was a lot like Jacob's way with words. Most of what was said wasn't written.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment