The Shinnery
Teenaged Jessa Campbell is content on her family’s Texas homestead, the Shinnery, farming alongside her father and sharing secrets with her closest sister, Nellie. When Jessa’s father unexpectedly sends her to work for the Martin family, keeping house and caring for his children, she longs for the day she can return to her home, her family, and her planned future on the Shinnery. Chafing under unwelcome domestic tasks and bearing up under constant criticism from the Martins, Jessa finds comfort in the attentions of the children’s handsome piano teacher, Will, so unlike the staid and settled men of the town. But Will leaves her with broken promises, an unintended pregnancy, and traumatic secrets. Jessa finds refuge at the Shinnery, but, as her secrets come out, her whole family must grapple with the fallout.
Kate Anger writes vividly of small-town life on the Texas plains in the 1890s, capturing the unforgiving landscape and the unforgiving attitudes of those scraping out an existence on that land. She creates her characters with authenticity and with sympathy, allowing them to grow through Jessa’s eyes, from the simple and happy family she sees when she first leaves the Shinnery to the complex people she returns to, angry and grieving in different ways. Jessa is heartbreakingly naïve, following a path that the reader knows can only bring her unhappiness. Though difficult to read, her trauma is sensitively portrayed. A quiet and emotional novel.
