The Little Bride

July 11, 2011
Solomon's intensely scripted debut was inspired by the Am Olam movement of the late 19th century in which hundreds of Jews fleeing persecution were drawn to a utopian vision of communal agrarian life across the United States. Unfortunately, Solomon abandons the fertile promise of the novel's Tolstoy-worthy premise, and limits the story's scope to one eccentric family in self-imposed exile from an Am Olam community in South Dakota, and tells the tale from the narrow point of view of a disgruntled mail-order bride. Sixteen-year-old Minna travels from Odessa with dreams of marrying a young, ambitious husband and enjoying a life of freedom and leisure in a bustling American city. What she gets is Max, a 40-year-old Orthodox recluse in a sod hut in South Dakota and two teenage stepsons. Minna soon realizes that her husband is no farmer and to complicate an already desperate situation, Minna and her older stepson are attracted to each other. The prose is exquisite as are the descriptions of the landscape, especially of a harsh South Dakota winter, but Max is too vaguely rendered to offer readers insight into the world beyond his house of mud and his field of rocks, and Minna's passive-aggressive responses to disappointment make her a difficult protagonist to empathize with, let alone trust. Solomon does deliver plenty of atmosphere and crisis, if not a convincing story, and establishes herself as a writer to watch.

August 1, 2011

Late 1880s Russia offers few choices for 16-year-old Minna Losk. Her mother deserts the family, then her father dies in a mine accident. She wants to be a bookkeeper, but her aunts send her out as a servant to a marriage broker for Jewish men. Soon Minna leaves the hopelessness, the pogroms, and the poverty for a farm in South Dakota, where, as a mail-order bride, she receives an unfriendly welcome from her husband-to-be. Max is a rough man much older than she expected, with two sons her own age. The house is a primitive sod hut carved out of the hillside with no running water. Their cow wanders up on the grass roof, and the house collapses, forcing them to accept charity from their prosperous neighbors. In despair, Minna feels that Max doesn't want her, that she's not what he paid for, and now she's romantically involved with his oldest son. VERDICT Solomon writes unsparingly of the harsh realities that women like Minna faced on the American frontier. Although the concluding chapters seem rushed, most readers will feel compelled to stay with this page-turner to its solemn finish. A strong debut novel, highly recommended for those who appreciate exceptional historical fiction.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Minna Losk flees an unhappy life as a servant in Odessa to become the mail-order bride of a Jewish man in South Dakota in the late nineteenth century. Minna isn't sure what to hope for, but she's disappointed to discover that her intended, Max, is 40 years old and has two teenage sons, one of them older than Minna. It is this older son, Samuel, who captures Minna's attention and awakens desires in her that his father is incapable of stirring. An unfulfilling marriage is hardly the only challenge Minna faces. Frontier life is difficult and isolating, and Minna's inability to become pregnant weighs on her. A neighbor's carelessness costs Minna and her family their house, and as soon as the house is rebuilt, South Dakota is hit with a brutal winter that puts them in jeopardy again. Solomon vividly evokes the harsh realities and difficulties of survival on the frontier in the nineteenth century while showcasing Minna's surprising reserves of strength in the face of forbidding circumstances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)