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highly recommended |
A psychological journey 
What captured my interest most in this novel was the psychological journey of the main character, Iris. At the beginning of the story, most of Iris' family is dead. However, all of her dead family members linger on in her internal world, continuing to cause varying degrees of harm.
Throughout the novel, the reader follows Iris as she struggles to continue to operate her family farm, but we also witness a process much more subtle, which is the rebuilding of the main character's mind. In my opinion, this is creatively expressed in the process of recasting the family sculptures, specifically those of herself, her mother and her father. A very interesting book, full of many levels of meaning.
Thoroughly compelling
I loved HEART OF THE BEAST so much, I had to own a first edition. If Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres could win the Pulitzer, BEAST certainly should have. While they're both rural family dramas, Weatherford's debut novel is considerably better in every category: first-class writing (almost every paragraph is startling somehow and cliché-free), gripping plot (with truly original turning points, rare depth), and convincing, intense characters like no one I've ever known (with dialogue to match). If Weatherford keeps writing like this, they'll have to create a new genre just for her: Triple Threat.
I've never read a more compelling or vivid exploration of the emotional heritage of hatred and the suffering (and ongoing hatred) it begets. There are paragraphs so divine I keep re-reading them to my friends and myself to try to figure out how Weatherford did it (and in her first novel!).
This novel is single-handedly responsible for raising my standards for literary fiction: Now that I know it's possible to produce a story as full as this, I want it this good all the time.
Eastern Oregon ranch life at it's best (which is HARD!)
This book was absolutely wonderful- a beautifully written gripping story. It has marvelous descriptions of that harsh and brutal land and the people who have to sometimes be harsh and brutal to survive it. Having been there, she described Eastern Oregon to a tee, although I have no first-hand knowledge of the ranch life (thank heavens!). I chose this for my book club, and everyone loved it. I knew the author when she was in college, got in touch with her after 20 years, and she agreed to participate in our club's meeting via phone. She was as interesting as her writing. I can't wait for her next book!
A Beautiful Landscape of Language and Characters
I could not put this novel down! When I finished, I sincerely missed Iris, Henry and the rest of the Steele clan. The author's love for her characters is not only evident, it is passed on to the reader. Weatherford breathes life into her characters by addressing their faults and allowing the reader to accept them. Each word is written honestly, intelligently, beautifully, and with tremendous passion. Never have words been more perfectly chosen and never has a story been more deserving to be told. The entire spectrum of emotions can be found on a single page, and the reader feels involved, rather than like an on-looker or outsider. "Heart of the Beast" is an amazing experiance, unique from any novel out there.
A Great Novel!
HEART OF THE BEAST by Joyce WeatherfordHEART OF THE BEAST is the debut novel by Joyce Weatherford, which tells the tale of a family that has farmed and ranched for many generations in eastern Oregon. Their history ties them to the Nez Perce Indians, who now claim that the land, known as Heart of the Beast, belongs to them, and they plan on fighting for it until they get their land back. Iris Steele, 28 years old, is the youngest survivor of this ill-fated family. She returns home to see to her dying mother, the beautiful Elise, and to help settle the estate. Iris's father Ike and older brother Jake have long ago passed on, and she is the only one remaining that will inherit the land that her parents farmed. Upon the death, Iris locates her crazy aunt, Hanna, Elise's sister, and she arrives promptly straight from the psychiatric hospital with her "heads", sculptures of several generations of Steeles and Winters. Hanna is obsessed with these heads, and now she needs to complete the very last one, that of Iris. Hanna cannot rest until this is done. Iris is informed about a law suit against her family, in which the Nez Perce Indians claim the land she's inherited, The Heart of the Beast, is theirs, and she now braces to deal with yet another problem. And as she readies herself for this trial, she remembers her past, her life growing up in Oregon, and the tumultuous story that was her family. This novel can only be described as tragic. Iris's family history is filled with men and women that farmed for a living, raising horses and cattle and growing crops, from the first generation that traveled the Lewis and Clarke trail as they made their way from the East Coast to Oregon, down to her own parents. But it was not out of love that they lived on the land. It was with a hatred and a violence that is graphically described quite succinctly and with much detail by Weatherford. Iris's father was a man filled with hate, showing only disdain for his children, anger towards his wife, and ruled the land and their home with a military arm. But as Iris relives her family's history, it is obvious why her father Ike Steele was as cruel and sadistic as she knew him to be. A family history of larger than life men and women fill the family tree, and it is this history that Iris remembers in detail, as well as her own childhood and memories of what living on the land meant to her. HEART OF THE BEAST will be one of my favorite books read in 2004. It's told on an epic scale, taken out of American history books, yet most of it takes place in contemporary times, which is hard to believe as the images one gets from reading this book reminds one of days of yesteryear, when the West was still being tamed. It is mention of songs by Prince and Ever Clear that brings the reader back to the present. However, the story of the Indians and the white men that helped build this part of the country makes one think HEART OF THE BEAST is a story that takes place in the past. This reviewer feels that anyone that loves to read a good novel is going to enjoy HEART OF THE BEAST. Highly recommended!
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Twenty-eight-year-old Iris Steele has inherited the family ranch and all the debt that goes with it -- a legacy, all in all, she is not certain she wants. In the end, Iris realizes she has inherited not just the land but its history as well -- a history from which she must break free in order to discover love, forgiveness, and who she really is.
heart of the, beast, heart
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