Chalk's Woman
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
David Ballantine's debut novel Chalk's Woman, is a story about freedom, liberation, and love. Set in the violent backdrop of the waning months of the Civil War, Chalk's Woman addresses violence and redemption as seen through the eyes of a girl maturing into a woman.
Ann, a fourteen-year-old girl, wakes up after a terrible explosion in a make-shift hospital during the waning months of the Civil War--her house no longer stands and her mother is dead, and a young Dr. Frazier amputated her arm in order to to prevent infection. . Homeless and an orphaned, Ann feels her only option is to travel west.
She leaves Vicksburg on the Santa Fe Trail and meets a troupe of orphaned children like herself and joins up with them. Together they fight against the hardships of the wild frontier: abominable weather, savage Indians, and starvation all the way to Kansas where they meet and, much to his chagrin, fall in love with Chalk.
Chalk's not the nicest of men, and he sure does have a drinking problem, but from the moment Chalk and Ann see each other, they know their lives will forever be entwined.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A first-time author in his 70s, Ballantine draws on his 15 years of experience as editor of military titles for Bantam, and also on his experience as an antique firearms expert, to deliver this rugged survival tale set just after the Civil War. Protagonist Ann is 13 when she loses both parents and one of her arms in the war. Five years later, heading west on the Santa Fe trail to Oregon with her exploitative adoptive parents, Ann escapes to help four children who've been orphaned by cholera. After they winter with Sioux Indians, who save their lives, Ann and the children settle in Kansas, where Ann falls in love with Chalk, a cheerful, hard-drinking cowboy. Ann gives birth to his child the same day he is arrested for killing gunslinger Kay Cee Smith. He's not only acquitted, he wins a reward for gunning down the wanted man. Fortified by the reward money, Chalk, Ann and all of the children set out to pan for gold. A final showdown with more gunslingers brings the novel to a close. Choppy prose and static characters who talk in platitudes make what could have been an inspiring tale of pioneer survival just a series of disjointed events strung together. Oddly absent is an account of most of the passage along the Santa Fe trail (the children's winter with the Indians is summed up in two paragraphs), which could have served as the centerpiece of the narrative, yet instead is just one of many devices engineered to move the plot along. FYI: The author's brother, Ian, is well known in the industry, having developed three major American paperback imprints, including Ballantine Books.
