Blue Rodeo: a Novel

The past catches up with Margaret Yearwood after she abandons her orderly life in California for rural New Mexico, falls in love with her neighbor, and begins a tentative communication with her newly deaf son

A bittersweet story of middle-aged romance and family relationships, Mapson's second novel (after the praised Hank & Chloe ) is an engrossing, affecting story that should have solid popular appeal. Set in the Tony Hillerman and Barbara Kingsolver country of Southwestern small towns and Indian reservations, it chronicles the unlikely love affair of recent divorcee Margaret Yearwood, who has fled her chic California life and hopes to begin painting again, and former alcoholic Owen Garrett, now a sheepherder and hardware store clerk. Both Maggie and Owen are hiding troubled pasts and think themselves failures. Ditched by her husband for a younger woman and heartsick over the fact that meningitis has left her teenaged son Peter totally deaf, Maggie has come to the little town of Blue Dog, New Mexico, to be near Peter's boarding school, but he refuses to see her. Owen once accidentally killed a man and has been on the run ever since; he is the Marlboro man with a tender and sensitive streak. These two lonely, displaced people heal each other with passionate love (Mapson doesn't stint on the sex scenes), but circumstances preclude immediate happiness. Meanwhile, both Maggie and her son move toward maturity, learn to cope with loss and acquire the wisdom to understand "the necessity of grief, and its partner, joy." Maggie's reckless, charismatic sister Nori and Owen's best friend, Navajo Joe Yazzi, are supporting players, each emotionally scarred and searching for soul's peace. Mapson's affection for the Southwestern landscape and for the Native American culture is palpable. She has a particularly acute ear for the attitudes and lingo of teenagers, but her writing sometimes veers toward the saccharine. On the whole, however, she has proved herself wise in the ways of the human heart. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mapson's second novel set in the contemporary West is as lyrical and romantic as her first (Hank & Chloe, 1993), but its stock California-yuppie characters fail to inspire much interest and the predictability of the love story disappoints. Margaret Yearwood is in her 40s, and recently her world has fallen apart. Her husband, an LA television writer with a penchant for ambitious actresses, has divorced her to marry his pregnant young lover. Her teenaged son, Peter, acting out over the divorce, skipped school to go swimming in Tijuana, caught meningitis, and has become completely deaf. Traumatized by her son's suffering, Margaret has turned for comfort to a solicitous male friend, only to have her prettier younger sister slip into bed with him first. Understandably fed up with California, Margaret has fled to New Mexico, partly to be near her still-angry son, who has demanded to attend a school for the deaf outside of Santa Fe and wants to make his home with a deaf foster family, and partly to recover from the chaos of her own life. Renting an isolated farmhouse just outside the town of Blue Dog, she encounters Owen Garret, a middle-aged cowboy living on the grounds. Owen has his own past to escape- -alcoholism and an accidental murder committed in his younger years. As Margaret and Owen try to face their demons through isolation (in his case) and painting pictures (in hers), a very foreseeable romance develops against a background of wildflowers, cozy fires, and meaningful conversations over cups of tea. Hank & Chloe startled the reader with its original, eccentric characters. This follow-up is likely to lull them to sleep with its easygoing, unsurprising, country-western charm. (Literary Guild selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

To establish residency so that her newly deaf son can attend a special school, Margaret Yearwood moves to Blue Dog, New Mexico, leaving behind her life as a suburban housewife and her 18-year marriage to a Hollywood film producer. Her new neighbor, sheepherder Owen Garrett, a former alcoholic hell-raiser, has kept his life low-key and safe, until he catches sight of Margaret. He squires her to the local festival and rodeo, introduces her to the local cuisine (sopaipillas and tortilla soup), and takes her to meet master rug weaver Verbena Youngblood. These two unlikely, middle-aged people fall passionately in love and see their romance as that rare, lucky second chance in life; this time, they intend to do it right. However, Owen's past difficulties with the law and Margaret's fractious son test their bond. Mapson's sweet love story is an apt follow-up to Hank & Chloe ; although her cowboys sometimes talk as if they'd taken one too many courses in existentialism, the seasoned characters and the rugged southwestern setting are enormously appealing. Sure to be popular. Joanne Wilkinson

Love and loss after the age of 40 is the subject of this satisfying novel by the author of Hank and Chloe (LJ 2/1/93). Recently divorced Margaret Yearwood moves to a small New Mexico town so that Peter, her newly deaf teenage son, can attend a private school in Santa Fe. After killing a man in a bar, recovering alcoholic Owen Garrett has come to Blue Dog to hide. Owen and Maggie fall in love, despite their best intentions to keep themselves separate and their pasts a secret. One of this novel's strengths is the portrayal of Peter, whose anger and sadness at losing both his family and his hearing is sensitively and realistically described. Sympathetic characters, an interesting setting, and good writing combine to make this an appropriate purchase for public libraries.
Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.