One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow follows the lives of two families, the Webbers (Substance and Nettie Mae) and the Bemises (Ernest and Cora), who live in eastern Wyoming, within walking distance of each other but with no other humans within twenty miles. Mr. Bemis shoots his neighbor when he catches his wife and neighbor in flagrante delicto. The killer is then jailed for two years. This leaves two families without their men with winter approaching all too rapidly.
The surviving wives, understandably, become enemies. But when getting enough firewood and food put by becomes a challenge, eventually they must band together for survival. Nettie Mae has a teenaged son (Clyde) while Cora has a teenaged daughter (Beulah) and two younger children. Beulah is a strange child with a deep connection to animals and the earth itself. The teens soon begin to fall for each other, ugh against the wishes of Nettie Mae.
This is a novel about infidelity and betrayal, lost love, found love, women’s strength, survival, the inevitability of death following birth, acceptance, and forgiveness. The story is told from multiple points of view. What I found irritating is that scenes are frequently retold almost verbatim from a different POV, so there’s a lot of repetition. That said, at times the prose is poetic and the vivid, but accurate descriptions of life on the American frontier are fascinating.
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One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow (Lake Union Publishing, October 8, 2019) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble (paperback)
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