Reap the South Wind: Women of Paragon Springs, Book Four
Ms. Brown does the state of Kansas a good turn by documenting its past in a readable and interesting way. Her stories move quickly from highlight to highlight. The series uses the imaginary town of Paragon Springs as the main setting, but both selections I have read (No Other Place—see Review 22) also included scenes in Topeka, the state capitol, as well as other locales around the region.
As Reap the South Wind opens, Lucy Ann has been brought somewhat reluctantly to the Cherokee Strip Run of 1893. Her misgivings are well founded, and she returns to Paragon Springs without her husband. The story skips lightly to years later when she is established on her own farm. Her neighbor spends all his time fooling around with a crazy flying contraption. She eventually helps to found the aviation industry, is active in women’s suffrage (gained by Kansas women before the national amendment) and public health issues. Lucy Ann’s secret emerges when her brother competes for state office. She was raped as a girl by Sioux raiders. While I cringed a little at the Sioux being characterized repeatedly as “savages,” that was indeed the common view at the time. Otherwise, the subject is handled deftly, and when she confronts the public ridicule, the reader rejoices. A good study of the turn of the century from a female perspective, and a gentle, easy read.
