Book Review - 'Miller's Valley'

BOOK REVIEW

“Miller’s Valley” - By Anna Quindlen  - 257 pages – Random House

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur 

In Anna Quindlen’s incisive depiction of a poor rural family as they deal with the hardscrabble condition of their lives, the novel’s narrator, Mimi Miller, begins her story as an 11-year-old girl. From the outset, the farmer’s daughter ushers her readers into the kitchens, barns, and bedrooms of the star-crossed Miller family, and then wrings every last ounce of compassion from us, as we become more and more absorbed by the book’s magnificently drawn and strangely familiar characters. Furthermore, Mimi doesn’t let go of our increasingly brittle heartstrings until she’s a grandmother reciting her sad but hopeful epilogue some 250 pathos-driven pages later.

And what a heart-rending tour that four-hour span becomes!

Miller’s Valley has been home to Mimi’s intrepid family for some 200 years, but soon the entire courageous farming community, constantly the scene of brutal seasonal flooding, is going to fall victim to the smothering ‘care’ of the Nanny State. You see, big government has the answer to the valley’s all-too-frequent woes: If flooding is all that Miller’s Valley is good for, then so be it … the whole 6000-acre area will be dammed-up and like it or not, Miller’s Valley will be transformed into a broad, 40-foot-deep reservoir. Even the town’s tallest flagpole will be buried beneath the water’s surface.

This program, of course, requires federal acquisition of property (including centuries-old homes) owned by The Millers and their neighbors. Some acquiesce to the Eminent Domain demands … others resist. But that’s not Quindlen’s real story at any rate. The proposed Reservoir is merely a literary device … a metaphor, actually … that moves us inexorably through the challenging lives of these determined people, and it happens to work quite well. But there never is any question that the author has much more in store for us than a depressing tale about soggy real estate.

Practically every abysmal turn of events that can befall a long-suffering family seems destined to smite The Millers. Virtually by the time Mimi, her stoic mother (a nurse), her two older polar-opposite brothers (one an engineer, the other a bum), and her ill-fated father (whom Mimi adores), have been introduced to us, only the elder brother has been spared a major catastrophe.

It’s a near literary miracle that somehow Quindlen (she of such immense compositional prowess) manages to avoid creating the impression of overkill rampaging throughout Miller’s Valley. The author pulls this temperance off despite employing detailed descriptions of unwanted pregnancies … abortions … a laundry list of diseases … infidelities … drug addiction … and death. Indeed the most sympathetic character in the book is the most bedeviled, and yet we, along with his long-suffering mother and sister, love him still.

Through all this novel’s clearly defined tribulations we are carried along on the broad shoulders of the two strong women who emerge from Miller’s Valley … Mimi and her stoic mother. They are as believable as are the flawed family members (and friends) the women are called upon to nurture, and we know for certain that they will never falter … or will they? For as we learn early on, Anna Quindlen is full of surprises … though it must be said that even if she were not, Miller’s Valley would still have been a mesmerizing page-turner. That’s how compellingly the gifted novelist recounts her story of ordinary people determined to go on living and loving … even if they are never laughing.

In that regard, make no mistake; this is not a feel-good novel. I can’t recall encountering one honest-to-God humorous incident in its entire length. Not a smile in 250 pages! Nor is Miller’s Valley the sort of spellbinder wherein we constantly brace ourselves for the Miller family’s next dramatic shift of fortune. Indeed, it seems to me Quindlen’s most impressive talent is for quietly revealing those twists conversationally … without ever giving us the slightest hint that they’re coming.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eleven novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. It maintains that each wrote the other’s most famous work. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com