Plain Language: A Novel

By Barbara Wright

Book Overview

Virginia Mendenhall, a Quaker from North Carolina, is thirty-three years old when she travels to the arid plains of eastern Colorado in the mid-1930s to marry Alfred Bowen, ten years her senior. They have met only twice and have come to love each other through letters. Now, on an isolated ranch in the Dust Bowl, they must adjust to the harsh ranching life and the dangers of an untamed landscape, as well as the differences between them.
With an extended drought worsening the impact of the Depression in the West, neighbors turn against neighbors, and secrets from Alfred and Virginia's pasts come back to haunt them. But it is the arrival of Virginia's troubled brother on the ranch that sets off a chain of events with life-and-death consequences for them all.
Plain Language is a beautifully told tale of a man and woman fighting against tremendous odds for their land -- and their love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743230205
• ISBN13: 9780743230209
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

finding love in a time of struggle

Set back in the doubtful times of our nations past depression,a story primarily about a woman (Virginia) who meets a man she will never forget but finds him again (unexpectedly) later in life. They - Virgina and Alfred- get to know eachother through a series of love letters until the day Virginia receives a letter with an engagement for marriage enclosed. So Virgina moves to Colorado to marry Alfred on his ranch. They get along well but Virgina has to learn how to live and work on a ranch and Alfred is struggling to keep the ranch going through such expiring economical times. I liked the story and the characters. A good read for anyone interested in westerns or the 1920's - 1930's.

Wonderful book

I read this book a few years ago and have just stared to read it again. A touching story about the west and the relationship between newlyweds that struggle to run a ranch during the dust bowl. The characters have difficult lives, but learn to find peace with their place in the world. Plain Language won an award from the Western Writer's of America in 2004. I gave the book to a few friends and they all loved it.

Beautiful Language

Barbara Wright's novel of life on the Colorado prairie during the Depression is a beautiful book, well-crafted and sensitive. The title, Plain Language, is a play on words: the heroine, Virginia, is a Quaker and so we have the idea of "plain speaking"; Virginia and her husband Alfred are simple people, hardworking and not given to flights of fancy, communicating indeed in plain language. Wright's skill is apparent in the fact that Virginia and Alfred meet one disaster after another and yet the reader feels sustained, not drained. Many readers may be startled at how "plain" and filled with drudgery life was in the still-living past -- and yet how spirit-sustaining. The themes of this book include: the importance of communicating in developing relationships; the love we deprive ourselves of by making judgments; the value of hard work in developing self-esteem. Toward the end of the novel, Alfred reflects to himself "... somewhere along the way you realize the achievement is not the goal itself -- the achievement is the person you've become in trying to reach the goal." I highly recommend this novel.

beautifully written

I couldn't wait to pass this book on to everyone I know--it's beautifully written and very moving. This author gives a very convincing story of 2 people who get to know each other thru hardship and hard work. Also very moving is the story between Viginia and her brother and also his relationship with another woman--portrayed very well and lovingly. The Quaker ideals are nicely woven throughout and add to the beauty of this story. Read this and feel peaceful.............

Where's the buzz?

Very good story. Made my wife homesick for her childhood in southeastern Utah. Husband and wife learn to work together as a team through many hardships. Well-written and worthwhile.