The Bones of Paradise
This book isn’t sure what it wants to be: gritty western, family saga, murder mystery, coy romance, historical recounting of the massacre at Wounded Knee. The bits and pieces are all there, but the lack of a central focus or believable characters means that those pieces never gel into a coherent whole.
It’s 1900 in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. When J.B. Bennett is murdered at the border between his and his father’s ranches, he leaves behind his estranged wife, Dulcinea, two sons who barely speak to him, and a father, Drum, who is twelve kinds of mean wrapped tight in hatefulness and tied with spite. J.B. is shot just as he discovers the body of a Native American girl named Star; the busted homesteader who stumbles upon them both gets shot, too, but he survives to end up as a hand on J.B.’s ranch.
The point of view bounces among the principal and supporting characters such that there is no central protagonist. The most sympathetic character is Rose, Star’s older sister, but she’s left underdeveloped as Agee spends more time with Dulcinea.
Plot points start up and then fizzle out, like Dulcinea’s half-hearted search for the killer, or the issue over who owns mineral rights. Most frustrating is the manufactured mystery surrounding the deals that J.B. and Dulcinea separately struck with Drum. Particularly given the extended tease over what Drum is holding over her that could force her to leave her husband and children for ten years and never mention it to J.B. during the many times they meet up, the big reveal is so thoroughly unconvincing that the character loses all credibility.
At times, Agee’s writing is lovely and engaging; unfortunately, that’s not enough to carry the entire book.
