And She Was (33 page)

“Dyson deftly peels back the layers of Brandy’s persona to reveal the woman behind the blonde hair and high-heeled boots while revealing the layers of tradition, suppression, and mystery shrouding Dutch Harbor. As the story shifts back and forth from the present day through 250 years of Aleutian history, the reader becomes immersed in Aleutian culture and the loss of that culture at the hands of Russian traders, early missionaries, social workers, and World War II relocators…. Combining her personal memories of slinging drinks in the ‘birthplace of the winds’ and meticulous research into Aleutian anthropology, she has created an unforgettable first novel. Highly recommended.”

—Library Journal
(starred review)

“Dyson expertly interlaces Brandy’s story, set in 1986, with the vibrant history of the Aleuts, hundreds of years earlier. While relishing the smart prose, bawdy humor, and 1980s references, readers will find themselves rooting for the hard-as-nails blonde as she wrestles her demons and begins to redirect her fate. Dyson delivers an original and provocative first novel.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Brandy—a natural blonde who likes to believe she was named after liquor—is an emotional cowboy. As the offspring of the ill-fated match between a failed scholar father and a roving femme fatale mother, she’s used to being a wanderer. After years of following men from town to town, she knows that she is a drifter, but when she follows her latest fling to a fishing village in the Aleutian Islands, she’s reached a whole new level of rootlessness…. It might all be too clichéd if Brandy weren’t so likable and wild and her surroundings so oddly compelling.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“An impressive first novel that echoes Kingston’s
Woman Warrior
and Proulx’s
Shipping News
…. Dyson’s talent is overwhelmingly evident in her nimble balancing of tribal perspectives and those of her canny, questing protagonist.”

—
Booklist

“Dyson packages thought-provoking content in a wonderfully readable form. She evokes the island’s harsh beauty and unceasing winds. It would be easy, and less effective, to allow her central characters to become brave and unfortunate stereotypes; hers are real people facing hard dilemmas. Dyson also effectively shares the aboriginal history, neither sidestepping the horrific actions of the island’s conquerors or the behavior of the Aleuts, which at times conspires to keep them victims. The resulting novel is far more complex than it first appears, and its impact sneaks up on the reader. What starts out feeling like a light story ends up packing a walloping punch.”

—
Denver Post

“Rodeo Song” by Gaye Delorme. Copyright © 1980. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Gaye Delorme, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, v311m.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

AND SHE WAS
. Copyright © 2006 by Cindy Dyson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition July 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-191457-7

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