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Zorrie
“It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew.”
As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.
But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.
Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.
As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.
But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.
Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.
176 pages, ebook
First published February 9, 2021
About the author
Laird Hunt
33 books488 followersLaird Hunt is an American writer, translator and academic.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,310 reviews
January 24, 2021
The unsung lives of ordinary people sometimes make for extraordinary stories. This novel is one of them. It’s a quiet story, my favorite kind. I found here the impeccable, beautiful writing that I found in the first book I read by Laird Hunt, Neverhome. In less than 200 pages, Hunt not just beautifully, but skillfully tells of Zorrie’s whole life, one filled with the sadness of loss and the grief that comes with it, the uncertainty of where she wanted to be , who she was, and the joy and comfort when she finds it, the peace of acceptance. Zorrie Underwood reminded me of a quieter version of the inimitable Ivy Rowe in Fair and Tender Ladies She’s not as outspoken as Ivy, but equally fierce in her determination and steadfastness, equally brave. Farming life in the Midwest, the Great Depression, the radium girls, the war are all reflected in Zorrie’s life story. I’m not going to touch on the plot aspects of these because sometimes it’s enough to just say - this is a beautifully written story. I recommend you read it and let the book speak for itself.
I read this with Diane and Esil. It’s always a great experience to share our thoughts.
I received a copy of this book from Bloomsbury Publishing through Edelweiss and NetGalley.
I read this with Diane and Esil. It’s always a great experience to share our thoughts.
I received a copy of this book from Bloomsbury Publishing through Edelweiss and NetGalley.
January 25, 2021
A moving and beautifully written story of a life.
Zorrie had an ordinary life, this follows her from childhood in the Depression era, in Indiana, where she was orphaned at a young age..to her last day, all in less then 200 pages.
Very good!
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for the ARC!
Zorrie had an ordinary life, this follows her from childhood in the Depression era, in Indiana, where she was orphaned at a young age..to her last day, all in less then 200 pages.
Very good!
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for the ARC!
February 6, 2022
A moving story of a woman whose childhood and young days during the Great Depression symbolize those days. Zorrie's life is simple, filled with love for a brief moment and hard work on a farm.
A quiet novel about an ordinary and modest woman.
*Many thanks to Laird Hunt, Quercus Books, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
A quiet novel about an ordinary and modest woman.
*Many thanks to Laird Hunt, Quercus Books, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
April 3, 2021
Ok ...so where to start after reading the rave reviews of my GR friends.
For me I was underwhelmed. The writing was good - the author successfully coveyed the quiet life of Zorrie. A character who came to life during the depression. A strong character who found joy in the simple things.
I just felt depressed reading it. The loneliness; the unspoken truths.
Could be just having read another depressing one and going into yet another lockdown, it just didn’t lose me in a place I was looking for.
I can appreciate however, the life of Zorrie. I just hoped for more for her.
3.5 ⭐️
For me I was underwhelmed. The writing was good - the author successfully coveyed the quiet life of Zorrie. A character who came to life during the depression. A strong character who found joy in the simple things.
I just felt depressed reading it. The loneliness; the unspoken truths.
Could be just having read another depressing one and going into yet another lockdown, it just didn’t lose me in a place I was looking for.
I can appreciate however, the life of Zorrie. I just hoped for more for her.
3.5 ⭐️
January 25, 2021
Laird Hunt is a master storyteller. In less than 200 pages he gives us the life of a hard-working woman of the thirties. It is a simple story, simple only in that there are no big scenes, no car chases, because we know life, in fact, is never simple. Zorrie wants what we all want, security, a home, family, friends, love, and a way to make a living. It also takes place in my own stomping grounds in Illinois and Indiana, places in which I'm very familiar.
Her parents die when she is young and she is raised by a rather cold aunt. When Zorrie is 21, her aunt dies and leaves her with nothing. It is now up to her to find her own way. She spends time working in Ottawa, working with radium, painting the dials on watch faces. She doesn't stay long, but long enough to make two good friends and for the detriments of this work to have an effect , showing up later in her life. From there she eventually finds the place she will call home. This book is her story.
The tone is a quiet melancholy one, the prose, the phrases, beautiful. Zorrie, herself draws the reader into her life. We care about what happens to her, her life is not easy, but in many ways it suits. She makes the best of what she has and if her life is not particularly joyful, it has its moments. It feels real, authentic, one can envision this life, there is no phoniness. I'll just say it left it's mark, since I woke up in the morning still thinking about this story.
This was a read I shared with Esil and Angela, and the first in a long time where we all gave it five stars. I always feel fortunate when I share a reading journey with them.
If you liked the novel Miss Jane, or the novels of Kent HarufI think you'll enjoy this one.
ARC from Edelweiss.
Her parents die when she is young and she is raised by a rather cold aunt. When Zorrie is 21, her aunt dies and leaves her with nothing. It is now up to her to find her own way. She spends time working in Ottawa, working with radium, painting the dials on watch faces. She doesn't stay long, but long enough to make two good friends and for the detriments of this work to have an effect , showing up later in her life. From there she eventually finds the place she will call home. This book is her story.
The tone is a quiet melancholy one, the prose, the phrases, beautiful. Zorrie, herself draws the reader into her life. We care about what happens to her, her life is not easy, but in many ways it suits. She makes the best of what she has and if her life is not particularly joyful, it has its moments. It feels real, authentic, one can envision this life, there is no phoniness. I'll just say it left it's mark, since I woke up in the morning still thinking about this story.
This was a read I shared with Esil and Angela, and the first in a long time where we all gave it five stars. I always feel fortunate when I share a reading journey with them.
If you liked the novel Miss Jane, or the novels of Kent HarufI think you'll enjoy this one.
ARC from Edelweiss.
October 14, 2021
Zorrie is an elegant telling of one woman’s life in Clayton County, Indiana, in the middle of the 20th century. Zorrie lives a quiet rural life of the kind that midwestern white people tended to live a few generations ago. It’s a world where cops are good, folks are neighborly, and diversity is beyond the horizon. The novel doesn’t break any new ground, and at times I struggled with the narrowness of Zorrie’s world, but at a craft level the prose and pacing were flawless.
February 11, 2021
Oh the perils of life....
I had an experience of Zorrie—her strength and resilience even before I even read this book...( thank you Cheri and Angela).... but glad I took my turn.
I loved Zorrie...
....her hopes, dreams, work ethics, sadness, loneliness, grief,....
her strength, and truth.
Laird Hunt exposes the realism about struggling families, love, survival, and above all - the strength of our hearts: which cannot be broken.
Beautiful novel!
I had an experience of Zorrie—her strength and resilience even before I even read this book...( thank you Cheri and Angela).... but glad I took my turn.
I loved Zorrie...
....her hopes, dreams, work ethics, sadness, loneliness, grief,....
her strength, and truth.
Laird Hunt exposes the realism about struggling families, love, survival, and above all - the strength of our hearts: which cannot be broken.
Beautiful novel!
October 5, 2021
Now a Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction 2021
Laird Hunt illuminates how we become the accumulation of our experiences: Zorrie is born in the early 20th century in rural Indiana, where she spends most of her life, except her faithful time in Illinois as a "ghost girl" painting clock faces with glow-in-the-dark paint (see The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women). In moving, lyrical language, Hunt depicts how Zorrie grows up with her aunt after losing her parents to diphtheria, how she becomes homeless after the death of her aunt and how she falls in love with a man who will go on to fight in WW II - and many more episodes from Zorrie's life after she settles in a farming community and becomes strongly connected to the land and people around her, until her death in old age.
There is a quiet grace in Zorrie and in this story that draws its strength from connecting the past and the present and pondering how both always coexist, because everything that has happened is preserved in the people who lived through it. Time, grief and community are core themes throughout the book, and how time relentlessly marches on, whether we like it or not. The way Hunt plays with the metaphor of the radium-induced glow on the time pieces Zorrie and her friends have produced is just masterful, and the multi-faceted images leave hauting impressions on the reader.
Very moving, very deep, very powerful. If this subtle, imaginative novel that focuses on the eternal aspects of the human experience, female perseverance and determination wins the National Book Award, I'm not mad.
Laird Hunt illuminates how we become the accumulation of our experiences: Zorrie is born in the early 20th century in rural Indiana, where she spends most of her life, except her faithful time in Illinois as a "ghost girl" painting clock faces with glow-in-the-dark paint (see The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women). In moving, lyrical language, Hunt depicts how Zorrie grows up with her aunt after losing her parents to diphtheria, how she becomes homeless after the death of her aunt and how she falls in love with a man who will go on to fight in WW II - and many more episodes from Zorrie's life after she settles in a farming community and becomes strongly connected to the land and people around her, until her death in old age.
There is a quiet grace in Zorrie and in this story that draws its strength from connecting the past and the present and pondering how both always coexist, because everything that has happened is preserved in the people who lived through it. Time, grief and community are core themes throughout the book, and how time relentlessly marches on, whether we like it or not. The way Hunt plays with the metaphor of the radium-induced glow on the time pieces Zorrie and her friends have produced is just masterful, and the multi-faceted images leave hauting impressions on the reader.
Very moving, very deep, very powerful. If this subtle, imaginative novel that focuses on the eternal aspects of the human experience, female perseverance and determination wins the National Book Award, I'm not mad.
August 12, 2022
Published today in the UK 6-1-22
A simply stunningly written, understated novella which in less than 200 pages tells the story of not just a life but of the large part of the 20th Century in midwestern America – through the 1920s and the pre-vaccination Diphtheria outbreaks, the 1930s and the Great Depression as well as the tale of the so-called Radium Girls, the 1940s and the impact of World War II on those left behind and then through the post war years to more modern times.
A book I think for fans of Marilynne Robinson in particular, although with, as discussed below, a number of other literary precedents including Woolf and Flaubert.
The eponymous third party character was effectively orphaned twice over (her parents dying of illness when she was very young, and her distant, strict and reluctant Guardian Aunt of a stroke when Zorrie was 21). From there she drifted in search of jobs, often homeless, before finding something of a place at a factory where she paints luminous dials – before feeling a need to return to Indiana where to her surprise she settles into married life, a smallholding in a farming community and then later long years of widowhood.
Another key character is actually the main narrator (I believe) of the author’s earlier and hard to source (at least in the UK) novel “Indiana, Indiana” – Noah Summers, whose wife Opal has been, to his despair, institutionalised for arson and self-harm.
In the acknowledgements the author mentions four books he “kept close to him” as he wrote: “A Simple Heart” by Gustave Flaubert, “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf, “The Histories” of Herodotus, “The Essays” by Michel Montaigne and “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank.
The first of these provides the book’s official attributed epigraph, its Part structure and most importantly its concept – the idea (as suggested as an exercise by Georges Sand to Flaubert) of moving from a harsh and satirical style to a more compassionate one, and of using sophisticated writing to examine what superficially can be dismissed as a simple life and a standard narrative. Laird Hunt I believe has previously written a number of more experimental books and more transgressive ones so his range here is extremely impressive.
The second provides a series of unattributed epigraphs at the start of each Part, one of which is deliberately rearranged by one of the characters, and one I could not source, but which together set out some of the themes and ideas of each chapter as well as collectively effectively forming some prose poetry which might serve as a review of this novel – my collation below
The third and fourth are read by characters in the novel – a copy of the fourth and an inscription in it by its deeply philosophical owner “the fragile film of the present must be butressed against the past” forming almost an self-generated epigraph.
And the fifth deeply affects Zorrie after a late-life trip to Amsterdam and causes her to re-examine her attitude to her own struggles through life.
On a superficial reading the story of the Radium Girls can seem incidental but it is both crucial to Zorrie's life and thoughts and threaded through the imagery of the book.
As well as a beautifully written tale with strong literary precedents, this is also a book of imagery and themes. Recurring ideas include: dreams and the boundaries between sleep and waking; ghosts and haunting; grief, mourning and healing – remembering and forgetting; both the linear passing and the seasonal circularity of time; illumination and radiation.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to Quercus Books for an ARC via NetGalley
Her aunt had disparaged the concept of hope with such caustic efficiency that Zorrie had naturally learned to discount what had ever been an important part of her nature. If she had done her best to seal up the spring during those early years and then again after Harold’s death, hope had nonetheless often found a way to seep out and surprise her, bow graciously, extend its hand, and ask her to dance. It had done so when she had knocked on the door in Jefferson and found Mr. Thomas with his plums and iced tea and albums standing before her, and it had done so when Gus had decided he liked the way she whistled, and spoke to Bessie about their spare room. Hope had also, certainly, flapped its fair wings for her when a man with a sandwich to share had told her about jobs to be had in Ottawa.
A simply stunningly written, understated novella which in less than 200 pages tells the story of not just a life but of the large part of the 20th Century in midwestern America – through the 1920s and the pre-vaccination Diphtheria outbreaks, the 1930s and the Great Depression as well as the tale of the so-called Radium Girls, the 1940s and the impact of World War II on those left behind and then through the post war years to more modern times.
A book I think for fans of Marilynne Robinson in particular, although with, as discussed below, a number of other literary precedents including Woolf and Flaubert.
The eponymous third party character was effectively orphaned twice over (her parents dying of illness when she was very young, and her distant, strict and reluctant Guardian Aunt of a stroke when Zorrie was 21). From there she drifted in search of jobs, often homeless, before finding something of a place at a factory where she paints luminous dials – before feeling a need to return to Indiana where to her surprise she settles into married life, a smallholding in a farming community and then later long years of widowhood.
Another key character is actually the main narrator (I believe) of the author’s earlier and hard to source (at least in the UK) novel “Indiana, Indiana” – Noah Summers, whose wife Opal has been, to his despair, institutionalised for arson and self-harm.
In the acknowledgements the author mentions four books he “kept close to him” as he wrote: “A Simple Heart” by Gustave Flaubert, “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf, “The Histories” of Herodotus, “The Essays” by Michel Montaigne and “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank.
The first of these provides the book’s official attributed epigraph, its Part structure and most importantly its concept – the idea (as suggested as an exercise by Georges Sand to Flaubert) of moving from a harsh and satirical style to a more compassionate one, and of using sophisticated writing to examine what superficially can be dismissed as a simple life and a standard narrative. Laird Hunt I believe has previously written a number of more experimental books and more transgressive ones so his range here is extremely impressive.
The second provides a series of unattributed epigraphs at the start of each Part, one of which is deliberately rearranged by one of the characters, and one I could not source, but which together set out some of the themes and ideas of each chapter as well as collectively effectively forming some prose poetry which might serve as a review of this novel – my collation below
out of this shadow into this sun
running together, the day falls copiously
no shining roof or glittering window
this Palace seems light as a cloud set for a moment in the sky
Our hands touch our bodies burst into fire
And soft green passages and blurry lemon highlights
The third and fourth are read by characters in the novel – a copy of the fourth and an inscription in it by its deeply philosophical owner “the fragile film of the present must be butressed against the past” forming almost an self-generated epigraph.
And the fifth deeply affects Zorrie after a late-life trip to Amsterdam and causes her to re-examine her attitude to her own struggles through life.
On a superficial reading the story of the Radium Girls can seem incidental but it is both crucial to Zorrie's life and thoughts and threaded through the imagery of the book.
As well as a beautifully written tale with strong literary precedents, this is also a book of imagery and themes. Recurring ideas include: dreams and the boundaries between sleep and waking; ghosts and haunting; grief, mourning and healing – remembering and forgetting; both the linear passing and the seasonal circularity of time; illumination and radiation.
Highly recommended.
The crisply chiseled tale of time told by the clocks and watches she had once helped paint faces for came to seem complicit in the agonized unfolding of her grief, so that soon the farm and the surrounding fields and the endless ark of change that enclosed them were the only timepiece whose hour strokes she could abide. Small but sure of purpose within the great mechanism of the seasons, she became a pin on a barrel of wind, a screw in a dial of sunlight, a tooth on an escape wheel of rain. The crops went in, the crops were cared for, the crops came out. The earth rested in its right season, and she with it. If the ache of Harold’s absence descended on her during the quiet months, she would take a rag to it with her mind and rub.
My thanks to Quercus Books for an ARC via NetGalley
July 17, 2021
When the birds slowed their singing......
Zorrie by Laird Hunt is a gradual, multi-stepped venture into the life of an ordinary girl approached by an unordinary set of life circumstances. Know this going in. Zorrie is not filled with mystery and mayhem, but rather with the jaggedness that maps out our lives in the scheme of surviving.
Laird Hunt begins his telling with an aging Zorrie. She reflects on the now limitations of her once resilient life. Zorrie pauses and takes life in slower increments so different from her younger days. Hunt describes in beautiful detail a generation peopled by individuals who asked for nothing but received the neighborly kindness and compassion honed sharply during the Great Depression. You gave willingly from near-empty pockets.
Zorrie begins life with both her parents dying from diptheria, a disease so foreign to us now. She has no choice but to live with an elderly aunt embittered by a failed marriage and failed attempts at moving on. We follow Zorrie in the following years when doors slam shut. But when you lean against the hardness of that door, you have only one option of keeping your feet moving. Sleeping in abandoned barns, Zorrie finds her way to Illinois where she works at painting the glowing numbers on clocks with radium. Being destitute means being grateful for even questionable opportunities.
Eventually, Zorrie marries Harold Underwood, a hardworking farmer in Indiana. They make an exceptional team working the land that provides a livelihood for them and food for others. Like people of the day, they formed a supportive community that loaned a team of horses or a basket of vegetables when the need arose. You never had to ask. Giving was a blessing as well as in the receiving.
Laird Hunt sits with you a while with descriptors of a time past and the individuals who raised themselves up from the Great Depression and the oncoming of World War II and its aftermath. There's a stillness here. Be accepting of that. It is the mundane acts and motions of living that kept these people going during brutal times. Appreciate the plainness of thought, but appreciate the dynamo energy that propelled these individuals into better times......times that we often take for granted. Times that are now available to us through the sacrifices of those who came before us.
Zorrie by Laird Hunt is a gradual, multi-stepped venture into the life of an ordinary girl approached by an unordinary set of life circumstances. Know this going in. Zorrie is not filled with mystery and mayhem, but rather with the jaggedness that maps out our lives in the scheme of surviving.
Laird Hunt begins his telling with an aging Zorrie. She reflects on the now limitations of her once resilient life. Zorrie pauses and takes life in slower increments so different from her younger days. Hunt describes in beautiful detail a generation peopled by individuals who asked for nothing but received the neighborly kindness and compassion honed sharply during the Great Depression. You gave willingly from near-empty pockets.
Zorrie begins life with both her parents dying from diptheria, a disease so foreign to us now. She has no choice but to live with an elderly aunt embittered by a failed marriage and failed attempts at moving on. We follow Zorrie in the following years when doors slam shut. But when you lean against the hardness of that door, you have only one option of keeping your feet moving. Sleeping in abandoned barns, Zorrie finds her way to Illinois where she works at painting the glowing numbers on clocks with radium. Being destitute means being grateful for even questionable opportunities.
Eventually, Zorrie marries Harold Underwood, a hardworking farmer in Indiana. They make an exceptional team working the land that provides a livelihood for them and food for others. Like people of the day, they formed a supportive community that loaned a team of horses or a basket of vegetables when the need arose. You never had to ask. Giving was a blessing as well as in the receiving.
Laird Hunt sits with you a while with descriptors of a time past and the individuals who raised themselves up from the Great Depression and the oncoming of World War II and its aftermath. There's a stillness here. Be accepting of that. It is the mundane acts and motions of living that kept these people going during brutal times. Appreciate the plainness of thought, but appreciate the dynamo energy that propelled these individuals into better times......times that we often take for granted. Times that are now available to us through the sacrifices of those who came before us.
May 10, 2021
This is a quietly beautiful novel of one woman's ordinary life. Isn't that how history is made though? Each of us going about our days, with our own personal dramas of joy and disappointment and minor tragedy, until we look back and realize we were part of something much larger? I loved the understated writing here, it reminded me a bit of Willa Cather. A very short book of under 200 pages that told me about Zorrie, the people in her world, and much of the 20th century in America.
Laird Hunt is a new favorite author.
Laird Hunt is a new favorite author.
February 9, 2021
The story of a life, a time, a place, a woman. Dreams imagined, dreams left behind. A woman who for a brief moment in time dreamed of more.
Zorrie Underwood was born in the early years of the 20th century, her first taste of loss came when she was still a child and first her mother, and then her father lost their lives to diptheria. She was left in the care of an aunt, despite her father’s reluctance to do so for she had drunk too deeply from the cup of bitterness and responded to Zorrie’s visible signs of grief with physical punishment.
There are moments in her early adult years of brief, if somewhat fleeting almost-happiness when she is on her own, after her aunt dies and she is working as one of the girls painting radium on clocks. She still seems somewhat reserved, and set apart from their tendency to frivolity, remaining a bit on the periphery of their lightheartedness. She meets a man, Harold, and they eventually marry, after a time she suffers a miscarriage which is followed by another loss that follows when Harold goes off to war. With Harold gone, she works their farm, alternating her thoughts of her loss with thoughts of another man.
In 176 pages, it offers us a glimpse at a life of a woman, as well as a time and place which on the surface bears so little resemblance to our time in some ways, yet the feeling of isolation is at times palpable, which most can relate to these days. Like us, Zorrie reflects on the past, the good days along with questioning choices made, the wishes and desires for when things return to a life perceived as normal, a hope for happier times, and drawing comfort from happier moments remembered.
This is a lovely, quiet story that shares Zorrie’s thoughts and dreams, her reflections on losses and a peaceful sense of joy and appreciation for her quietly lived life.
Published: 09 Feb 2021
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA / Bloomsbury Publishing
#Zorrie #NetGalley
December 26, 2021
A story of a life told skilfully. Mental health, radium, Alzheimer, death and struggle form the interpunction to everyday farm work in rural America.
She said whoever invented tears had taken out a patent, because there was big money in them.
I thought the author was female, but the reading by Laird on the National Book Award website proved me wrong: https://www.nationalbook.org/books/zo...
Zorrie in a sense feels comparable to Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: short and with the feeling of being artisanal in linear storytelling. Laird Hunt starts of the story with elder Zorrie Underwood looking back on her life, the beginning is like a fairytale, with an orphan and an evil/bitter aunt. The importance of teachers is also illustrated. Soon she moves from the Depression struck countryside of Indiana to Ottowa, where we have a brief passage that brings The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women and the dreadful history of radioactivity on brushes, which the girl bring to their mouths to paint watch faces, to the story.
First this "Luna powder" is seen as a health supplement and is liberally mixed into food or in the water when one is pregnant.
There is love, there is Alzheimer, war and death, struggle and mourning. Much is left unspoken or without words from the characters to express.
Solace is found both in loneliness, pets and the healing power of music
We visit psychiatric wards and marriages that aren't what they seem.
Longing, rejection, things better left unspoken.
In the end I feel this book captures very well the sensation of ageing and life, in a quiet manner.
I enjoyed being in the company of Zorrie, seeing some glimpses of my home country The Netherlands, and in general following her life in the precise language of Hunt:
Zorrie squinted up as she walked home and thought that this sky and clear light must mean something, or ought to if it didn’t.
She said whoever invented tears had taken out a patent, because there was big money in them.
I thought the author was female, but the reading by Laird on the National Book Award website proved me wrong: https://www.nationalbook.org/books/zo...
Zorrie in a sense feels comparable to Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: short and with the feeling of being artisanal in linear storytelling. Laird Hunt starts of the story with elder Zorrie Underwood looking back on her life, the beginning is like a fairytale, with an orphan and an evil/bitter aunt. The importance of teachers is also illustrated. Soon she moves from the Depression struck countryside of Indiana to Ottowa, where we have a brief passage that brings The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women and the dreadful history of radioactivity on brushes, which the girl bring to their mouths to paint watch faces, to the story.
First this "Luna powder" is seen as a health supplement and is liberally mixed into food or in the water when one is pregnant.
There is love, there is Alzheimer, war and death, struggle and mourning. Much is left unspoken or without words from the characters to express.
Solace is found both in loneliness, pets and the healing power of music
We visit psychiatric wards and marriages that aren't what they seem.
Longing, rejection, things better left unspoken.
In the end I feel this book captures very well the sensation of ageing and life, in a quiet manner.
I enjoyed being in the company of Zorrie, seeing some glimpses of my home country The Netherlands, and in general following her life in the precise language of Hunt:
Zorrie squinted up as she walked home and thought that this sky and clear light must mean something, or ought to if it didn’t.
January 24, 2021
Wow! I so enjoyed Zorrie. And it's hard to describe why because there's not much to the plot and the writing and pacing are so understated. This short novel focuses on Zorrie's life, from beginning to end. It starts just after the depression in Indiana, where Zorrie has lived with a harsh aunt and must quickly figure out how to make her own way in the world. She works briefly in a factory in Illinois, where they use radium to paint clock faces. She then moves back to a farming community in Indiana where she spends the rest of her life living and working on a farm. She has her share of hardship and heartbreak, but also some good relationships and the satisfaction of working hard and making order in her life. There really isn't much to say about the story. Zorrie's strength is the writing. Hunt conveys Zorrie's emotions perfectly with deceptively simple language and without melodrama. By the end, Zorrie felt like a real person -- a distant relative who lived a good but melancholy life. It was hard not to mourn the end of her life as I finished the novel. This was a buddy read with Diane and Angela and we all loved it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read an advance copy.
January 28, 2024
Zorrie came highly recommended by various GR friends, including in the Mookse & Gripes 2021 'Best Of' Poll, and as a finalist in the US National Book Awards, but I am afraid left me rather bored.
There is some great writing at the sentence level:
Later it seemed like a mist had fallen in front of her eyes, and when it cleared, whole herds of years had again gone galloping by. This troubled her more than it had in the past, this coming wide awake to the evidence of time’s ruthless determination: this figure thrown back to her from the mirror, with its splotches and thick ankles and twisted fingers and thin gray hair.
But in a relatively short novel there was (still) rather too much repetition for my taste. At frequent intervals Zorrie essentially recaps in her thoughts on the, rather slight, plot:
She thought of Noah standing at the edge of the field years before, holding a letter in his hand and talking about whirlwinds in his head. She thought of him standing with a saw in his hand, talking about falling and falling, and she thought about Virgil lying somewhere in Frankfort, waiting to be lowered into the ground. She thought about Harold falling through the sky and Opal sitting in an ice bath and Mrs. Thomas eating carrot stubs out of her hand. She thought of Noah standing over the fire at the Fourth of July picnic, thought of his long arms in the red light, thought of Oats and her red carpet, thought of Noah, crying no more than two feet away from her, thought of her arms going out like they had for Ruby, thought, I am thinking more than I need to, and I ought to get home.
And it was all just so dull. There is a story of sorts about the Radium Girls but it gets little airtime versus the excitement of sit-on lawnmowers and other riveting topics:
For some years she had looked with more than moderate disdain upon her neighbors who sat crook-backed and flop-armed astride the extra-padded yellow plastic seats a John Deere came equipped with and droned back and forth and around for hours, just so at church or at the bank or anywhere they saw each other they could have the upper hand in conversations about their lawns. Many times Zorrie, who for years had thought lawn work should always stand about tenth on the list, had been treated to commentary and insinuations about the objectionable state of her yard, which had resulted in her getting out her old push mower even less frequently. Now, though, as she rode around on her new machine, with its easily adjustable mechanisms, its various well-thought-out safety features, and, yes, its more than comfortable seat, she had to admit that she had, as Candy Wilson gleefully observed, “caught the bug.”
This is fishing in similarly territory to the (re-issued) Stoner and Marilynne Robinson's novels, of purposeful lives lived quietly, but doesn't really live up to the comparison. And I was left a little bemused at the critical success it enjoyed in 2021 when there is so much more interesting, and diverse, writing to choose from and so many more interesting and timely topics to discuss.
To be blunter, in 2021, I find it almost unfathomable (being polite) that a book can be promoted as being about an “ordinary” life when that life is white, English-speaking, heterosexual, Christian, cis-gender, mid-west American, albeit that is largely the fault of the publisher and not the author.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC but one I would recommend avoiding.
There is some great writing at the sentence level:
Later it seemed like a mist had fallen in front of her eyes, and when it cleared, whole herds of years had again gone galloping by. This troubled her more than it had in the past, this coming wide awake to the evidence of time’s ruthless determination: this figure thrown back to her from the mirror, with its splotches and thick ankles and twisted fingers and thin gray hair.
But in a relatively short novel there was (still) rather too much repetition for my taste. At frequent intervals Zorrie essentially recaps in her thoughts on the, rather slight, plot:
She thought of Noah standing at the edge of the field years before, holding a letter in his hand and talking about whirlwinds in his head. She thought of him standing with a saw in his hand, talking about falling and falling, and she thought about Virgil lying somewhere in Frankfort, waiting to be lowered into the ground. She thought about Harold falling through the sky and Opal sitting in an ice bath and Mrs. Thomas eating carrot stubs out of her hand. She thought of Noah standing over the fire at the Fourth of July picnic, thought of his long arms in the red light, thought of Oats and her red carpet, thought of Noah, crying no more than two feet away from her, thought of her arms going out like they had for Ruby, thought, I am thinking more than I need to, and I ought to get home.
And it was all just so dull. There is a story of sorts about the Radium Girls but it gets little airtime versus the excitement of sit-on lawnmowers and other riveting topics:
For some years she had looked with more than moderate disdain upon her neighbors who sat crook-backed and flop-armed astride the extra-padded yellow plastic seats a John Deere came equipped with and droned back and forth and around for hours, just so at church or at the bank or anywhere they saw each other they could have the upper hand in conversations about their lawns. Many times Zorrie, who for years had thought lawn work should always stand about tenth on the list, had been treated to commentary and insinuations about the objectionable state of her yard, which had resulted in her getting out her old push mower even less frequently. Now, though, as she rode around on her new machine, with its easily adjustable mechanisms, its various well-thought-out safety features, and, yes, its more than comfortable seat, she had to admit that she had, as Candy Wilson gleefully observed, “caught the bug.”
This is fishing in similarly territory to the (re-issued) Stoner and Marilynne Robinson's novels, of purposeful lives lived quietly, but doesn't really live up to the comparison. And I was left a little bemused at the critical success it enjoyed in 2021 when there is so much more interesting, and diverse, writing to choose from and so many more interesting and timely topics to discuss.
To be blunter, in 2021, I find it almost unfathomable (being polite) that a book can be promoted as being about an “ordinary” life when that life is white, English-speaking, heterosexual, Christian, cis-gender, mid-west American, albeit that is largely the fault of the publisher and not the author.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC but one I would recommend avoiding.
December 29, 2022
"The fragile film of the present must be buttressed against the past."
Finalist 2021 National Book Award
Laird Hunt's slim, finely crafted novel chronicles the life of Zorrie Underwood of rural Indiana. Born in the early 20th century, Zorrie lost her parents to Diptheria, and the stern aunt who raised her died when she was 21, leaving her homeless during the Depression.
Zorrie wandered, picking up odd jobs until she landed a job at a Radium Dial Factory in Illinois, painting glow-in-the-dark numbers on clock faces. Returning to Indiana, she married Harold Underwood and became a part of the tight rural farm community he inhabited. However, " happily ever after" was not in the cards.
Hunt paints a realistic portrait of an ordinary woman who faced harsh realities with stoic resilience. His prose is lean, his characters nuanced, and the storyline is stark and lacks sentimentality. Highly recommend.
Finalist 2021 National Book Award
Laird Hunt's slim, finely crafted novel chronicles the life of Zorrie Underwood of rural Indiana. Born in the early 20th century, Zorrie lost her parents to Diptheria, and the stern aunt who raised her died when she was 21, leaving her homeless during the Depression.
Zorrie wandered, picking up odd jobs until she landed a job at a Radium Dial Factory in Illinois, painting glow-in-the-dark numbers on clock faces. Returning to Indiana, she married Harold Underwood and became a part of the tight rural farm community he inhabited. However, " happily ever after" was not in the cards.
Hunt paints a realistic portrait of an ordinary woman who faced harsh realities with stoic resilience. His prose is lean, his characters nuanced, and the storyline is stark and lacks sentimentality. Highly recommend.
June 13, 2021
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed the author's "panoramic" and lyrical writing. Entire days and weeks are often rolled into a sentence - years, into a few paragraphs.
Zorrie's life was never easy. She was very young when her parents died. She was then sent to live with her bitter aunt, who died when Zorrie was twenty-one. Penniless, Zorrie roamed the countryside for work, refusing to take charity. On her quest for work, Zorrie meets wild Janie and works alongside her for a while, but then eventually gets homesick and returns to Indiana. Back home, she finds work, settles into life and meets Harold Underwood, and they marry. They are happy together on his small farm, but life is not without its trials: she miscarries their first child and is unable to bear other children. When her beloved husband, Harold, is killed during the second world war, Zorrie continues to work their farm and live out her days, until she begins to tire easily and senses that her own end is near. Zorrie seemed to be so accepting and fatalistic about life and its many disappointments and hardships.
This was a very well written "slice of life" novel, but I felt distanced from these characters, as if they were the ghosts that Janie kept referring to. Zorrie and the rest of the characters seemed to be flashing before my eyes as if they were on a movie screen. I couldn't really sense them as real-life people: they were shadow figures. They felt like the figment of someone's hazy memory, conjured while they were reading a deceased relative's journal, a journal that recounted the life of a dear, departed friend. This book "mellowed me out" as I like to say. The quiet writing style reminded me a bit of Kent Haruf: life's many melodramas told in a stoic monotone. I rate this a 3.7 out of 5.
I enjoyed the author's "panoramic" and lyrical writing. Entire days and weeks are often rolled into a sentence - years, into a few paragraphs.
Zorrie's life was never easy. She was very young when her parents died. She was then sent to live with her bitter aunt, who died when Zorrie was twenty-one. Penniless, Zorrie roamed the countryside for work, refusing to take charity. On her quest for work, Zorrie meets wild Janie and works alongside her for a while, but then eventually gets homesick and returns to Indiana. Back home, she finds work, settles into life and meets Harold Underwood, and they marry. They are happy together on his small farm, but life is not without its trials: she miscarries their first child and is unable to bear other children. When her beloved husband, Harold, is killed during the second world war, Zorrie continues to work their farm and live out her days, until she begins to tire easily and senses that her own end is near. Zorrie seemed to be so accepting and fatalistic about life and its many disappointments and hardships.
This was a very well written "slice of life" novel, but I felt distanced from these characters, as if they were the ghosts that Janie kept referring to. Zorrie and the rest of the characters seemed to be flashing before my eyes as if they were on a movie screen. I couldn't really sense them as real-life people: they were shadow figures. They felt like the figment of someone's hazy memory, conjured while they were reading a deceased relative's journal, a journal that recounted the life of a dear, departed friend. This book "mellowed me out" as I like to say. The quiet writing style reminded me a bit of Kent Haruf: life's many melodramas told in a stoic monotone. I rate this a 3.7 out of 5.
October 24, 2021
This is a quiet novel about the life of protagonist Zorrie Underwood. Orphaned as a young girl, she was reared by an aunt. She makes a fateful journey to Ottawa, then returns to Indiana. It touches on significant events of the 20th century, such as the Great Depression and the two World Wars.
It portrays how an ordinary woman living in a remote community can live a multifaceted and meaningful life touched by dramatic events. The tone is melancholy. Zorrie is a wonderfully drawn character, and the writing is elegant. It says a great deal about one woman’s life in a book of under 200 pages. Pick this one up if you are in the mood for reflection.
“The body was a beautiful mechanism, and part of that beauty lay in its precariousness, its finitude. Mortality was a good thing, as it kept the earth and its wheel of wonders in true.”
It portrays how an ordinary woman living in a remote community can live a multifaceted and meaningful life touched by dramatic events. The tone is melancholy. Zorrie is a wonderfully drawn character, and the writing is elegant. It says a great deal about one woman’s life in a book of under 200 pages. Pick this one up if you are in the mood for reflection.
“The body was a beautiful mechanism, and part of that beauty lay in its precariousness, its finitude. Mortality was a good thing, as it kept the earth and its wheel of wonders in true.”
June 2, 2021
Zorrie lived a full, purposeful life in spite of having to deal with tragedy, the Great Depression, and the loss of family and friends. Zorrie's happy life as an Indiana farmer's wife in a rural community was interrupted when her husband enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. She had also worked for a few years painting radium clock faces before her marriage, and felt the threat of her exposure to that radioactive material hanging over her as she watched her friends succumb to cancer.
"Zorrie" is a lyrical look at the hopes and disappointments of a strong woman and her Midwest farming community. It's a short book of only six chapters that's a lovely meditation about life's journey.
"Zorrie" is a lyrical look at the hopes and disappointments of a strong woman and her Midwest farming community. It's a short book of only six chapters that's a lovely meditation about life's journey.
February 25, 2021
This is a novel that speaks softly about Zorrie. It whispers about her luck, love, loss and grief. A spare novel that nonetheless poetically reveals a quotidian life. Zorrie survives a less than idyllic childhood, glows from working with radium, and ultimately finds her place via the kindness of strangers. Juxtaposing the resplendent with the severe, this is Midwestern America during the twentieth century.
April 25, 2021
If I were to discuss some of the every day events taking place in this book, with no mention of Zorrie's past or strength of character, you would probably think it all sounds so boring and mundane. But truly, it's anything but.
It's just lovely and I'm so glad that many GR friends recommended it.
It's just lovely and I'm so glad that many GR friends recommended it.
April 13, 2021
A quick read that covers a lot of ground in the life and times of Zorrie.
A book that's been compared to Haruf in style, where the focus is not on big and bold, but on quiet and relentless. After all, the measure of our lives is often found in how we live day to day, rather than how we navigate the bigger moments that might alter our direction. It's all the days surrounding those bigger events that show our character, layer our memories, build our resolve, give us purpose.
Zorrie's story reminded me of the Jenga game; blocks pulled from her core as she endured multiple losses. Though she might tilt temporarily, she creates a home, a family, a neighborhood, a place to belong, never toppling over. Despite not always being treated well, she kept her determination, creating her own blueprint for a good life. She gleaned what she could from circumstances, and blew away the chaff.
This was a quiet, peaceful read, offered almost dispassionately despite some of the darker moments in the story. Almost like it had been scented with love instead of perfume.
A book that's been compared to Haruf in style, where the focus is not on big and bold, but on quiet and relentless. After all, the measure of our lives is often found in how we live day to day, rather than how we navigate the bigger moments that might alter our direction. It's all the days surrounding those bigger events that show our character, layer our memories, build our resolve, give us purpose.
Zorrie's story reminded me of the Jenga game; blocks pulled from her core as she endured multiple losses. Though she might tilt temporarily, she creates a home, a family, a neighborhood, a place to belong, never toppling over. Despite not always being treated well, she kept her determination, creating her own blueprint for a good life. She gleaned what she could from circumstances, and blew away the chaff.
This was a quiet, peaceful read, offered almost dispassionately despite some of the darker moments in the story. Almost like it had been scented with love instead of perfume.
January 20, 2022
Probably my favorite 2021 Pulitzer hopeful so far, the story of Zorrie in Indiana in the 30s-50s was beautifully written. Her life doesn't really have any particular "wow" factor, but the way her various life events are described and the humanity of each of the characters really draw me into the narrative. It is a short book, but a keeper.
October 31, 2021
In Laird Hunt's skillful hands, we follow Zorrie Underhill's busy life from early childhood through her senescence. I believe the author was successful in accomplishing exactly what he'd set out to do, and it's hardly his fault that I prefer a different tenor in my reading.
Listen to me: "A different tenor". Sheesh. What I am coming to understand is that I'm a big old drama queen, at least where my literary tastes are concerned. Laird approached his project with restraint, and the tone was in keeping with the behavior of its principal characters: These are midwestern farmers who keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, who agonize over each sentence they utter, and whose beans, corn and livestock keep them distracted from the loneliness in their lives.
There are different ways to tell this story. When I meet a true introvert, I generally assume there is a rich and active imagination churning away behind the quiet eyes, greater depths than I will ever be allowed to see. Laird chooses to reflect their opacity in his writing. Here's Zorrie during a long, sleepless night of the soul:
Fair enough, but nosy readers like me want to take some of that journey with her.
I'm going to remember Zorrie for a good long time. But I can't really say I got to know her.
Listen to me: "A different tenor". Sheesh. What I am coming to understand is that I'm a big old drama queen, at least where my literary tastes are concerned. Laird approached his project with restraint, and the tone was in keeping with the behavior of its principal characters: These are midwestern farmers who keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, who agonize over each sentence they utter, and whose beans, corn and livestock keep them distracted from the loneliness in their lives.
There are different ways to tell this story. When I meet a true introvert, I generally assume there is a rich and active imagination churning away behind the quiet eyes, greater depths than I will ever be allowed to see. Laird chooses to reflect their opacity in his writing. Here's Zorrie during a long, sleepless night of the soul:
She thought about it all too much to too little purpose for far too much of the night, and the next morning she got up early and made a pie.
Fair enough, but nosy readers like me want to take some of that journey with her.
I'm going to remember Zorrie for a good long time. But I can't really say I got to know her.
December 23, 2021
Zorrie Underwood is born early in the 20th century, losing both her parents at an early age. Raised by a somewhat heartless aunt, she grows up in poverty and ends up taking any work she can get, including a job painting radium on clocks. She eventually meets a kind, elderly couple named Gus and Bess, who take a shine to her after she stacks some wood for them. Their son Harold is even more enamoured with Zorrie and they end up getting married, spending their days working on a hundred-acre farm. Zorrie also takes notice of Noah, a handsome neighbour with troubles on his mind. But Harold and herself will have their own misfortunes to deal with in the years that follow.
This is the tale of an ordinary life. It's less than 200 pages long, yet it manages to capture all of one person's happiness and heartbreak within. I felt sympathy for Zorrie, who had to deal with more than her fair share of loneliness and hardship throughout her existence. The story also does a good job of portraying the rhythms of smalltown American life. But even though I admired the book, I had no strong feelings towards it - it didn't really excite or move me in any significant way. So it's a three-star rating for me - a decent, likeable read, but not one I would describe as essential.
This is the tale of an ordinary life. It's less than 200 pages long, yet it manages to capture all of one person's happiness and heartbreak within. I felt sympathy for Zorrie, who had to deal with more than her fair share of loneliness and hardship throughout her existence. The story also does a good job of portraying the rhythms of smalltown American life. But even though I admired the book, I had no strong feelings towards it - it didn't really excite or move me in any significant way. So it's a three-star rating for me - a decent, likeable read, but not one I would describe as essential.
August 25, 2022
Elegiac, understated writing about one woman’s life from start to end. Beautifully done.
June 27, 2022
I was going to give this a four star, simply because I don’t think it comes near being truly novel. But from the expectations it sets at the start: Zorrie as a young girl in 1930s but actually an old woman remembering a whole life, there really isn’t any slip of craft to be had. I wasn’t even that keen on the premise or setting, and yet recognize it as an absolute command performance from a writer. There is near as can be said perfect prose work, pacing, and character work. Sentence-by-sentence, paragraph formulation, and setting.
It’s idyllic, bucolic, and indicative of the kind of life your grandmother would actually tell you. Complicated and naturally heartbreaking in the ways a simple life without systemic renderings whatsoever. The police man is a kind sheriff from town, who genuinely cares. The neighbour is literally your best friend. You reap and sow. Literally, all day long.
Life was complicated enough, it seems to say. And I can respect that. Nothing wrong with this kind of well-rendered myopic escapism. It knows exactly what it’s doing and executes it superlatively.
It’s idyllic, bucolic, and indicative of the kind of life your grandmother would actually tell you. Complicated and naturally heartbreaking in the ways a simple life without systemic renderings whatsoever. The police man is a kind sheriff from town, who genuinely cares. The neighbour is literally your best friend. You reap and sow. Literally, all day long.
Life was complicated enough, it seems to say. And I can respect that. Nothing wrong with this kind of well-rendered myopic escapism. It knows exactly what it’s doing and executes it superlatively.
October 23, 2021
National Book Award for Fiction Finalist 2021. Zorrie is the story of a simple life of a hard-working woman whose quiet strength in the face of daunting challenges prevails. She is orphaned at an early age. She sleeps in barns and accepts handouts for meals until she is hired by the Radium Dial Company to paint glow-in-the dark numbers on clock faces. The girls were taught to sharpen their brushes by swirling the tips in their mouths—a practice that causes devastating consequences in later life for each of them.
Although Zorrie makes life-long friends with two of her workmates, she returns to rural Indiana, where she finds true love. Sadly, Howard is snatched from her when he is shot-down into the ocean during WWII. For the rest of her life, she focuses on being an excellent farmer, neighbor, and member of her small community. She finds beauty and contentment in the land!
Hunt’s writing is spare and poetic as he writes about Zorries' life and resilient strength despite setbacks.
Although Zorrie makes life-long friends with two of her workmates, she returns to rural Indiana, where she finds true love. Sadly, Howard is snatched from her when he is shot-down into the ocean during WWII. For the rest of her life, she focuses on being an excellent farmer, neighbor, and member of her small community. She finds beauty and contentment in the land!
Hunt’s writing is spare and poetic as he writes about Zorries' life and resilient strength despite setbacks.
September 30, 2021
She stood up and pressed her face against the screen and looked as well as she could into the eyes of a carpenter moth who’d set up shop for the night there. She stood and stared at it, wondering what went on over the long nights in its mind, which was small to her but large to it, until she tapped the screen and realized it was dead.
Written with an understated lyrical beauty, Zorrie is a quiet story of one woman’s life and the lives of her Indiana farming community. It is a deceptively simple novel but one of great depth. An emotionally moving portrait of one woman, of lives filled with love, grief, longing and despair, all rendered in exquisite prose. I loved this novel.
Written with an understated lyrical beauty, Zorrie is a quiet story of one woman’s life and the lives of her Indiana farming community. It is a deceptively simple novel but one of great depth. An emotionally moving portrait of one woman, of lives filled with love, grief, longing and despair, all rendered in exquisite prose. I loved this novel.
December 27, 2021
Zorrie is the story of one woman’s life, a life of hard work, kindness, loss, resilience and acceptance. It’s simply and beautifully told, so much so that I didn’t expect how sad and emotional I was at the end. It got under my skin without me knowing it. Zorrie never seems angry, (which I guess is where there are parallels with Flaubert’s A Simple Heart which is quoted at the beginning of the book.) although there were many occasions I was angry for her. A quiet little book with hidden strength.
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