The Mineral Palace - Softcover

Julavits, Heidi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860497519 ISBN 13: 9781860497513

Publisher: Virago, 2001

Synopsis

Amidst clouds of dust and with a sense of purpose born of the Great Depression, Bena Jonsson -- young mother, physician's wife -- arrives in the desert town of Pueblo, Colorado, and immediately sets about creating a new life for her family. As the days unfold, however, she is quietly haunted by niggling doubts and an insidious loneliness, so she gratefully seizes the chance to explore her stalled career in journalism and accepts an unpaid position with the local paper. But bad omens begin stacking up like charms on a bracelet, and when Bena meets a prostitute accused of infanticide, her defence of the woman triggers a chain of events with unfathomable consequences.

Written with an impeccable sense of history and full of impending doom, The Mineral Palace is a stylish corruption of the Medea myth -- a tragic love story and an indictment of society's treatment of untameable, liberated women.

About this title

Review:

Like many first novelists Heidi Julavits attempts to pack a big punch in her debut, The Mineral Palace. The plot revolves round the fate of Bena Jonsson, a young mother who moves with her doctor-husband and infant son in 1934 to the depression hell-hole of Pueblo, Colorado, to begin what the couple hope will be a new life. But the signs are ominous. En route from Minnesota, Bena encounters Bonnie, the famous lover of gangster Clyde, who presses a medallion into the young mother's hand. There is little room for optimism when the couple reaches Pueblo, which seems full of corrupt townspeople hiding many secrets and indulging in much bad behaviour.

Unfortunately, there is simply far too much happening in this novel and what might have been a compelling tale spills over into melodrama. Bena befriends a cowboy named Red who is, in turn, involved with Maude, a pregnant prostitute who was also his childhood friend. He supplies Maude with laudanum and sympathy but cannot prevent her from perpetuating terrible, violent retribution against the townspeople who have abused and ridiculed her. Unfortunately Maude's character is so incredible and her crime painted in such garish strokes that it taints some of Julavits' stronger and more sympathetic characters. It is also hard to take Julavits' portrait of Pueblo in the 1930s as an accurate historical backdrop as the character's behaviour seems suspiciously contemporary. Bena, with her baby son only weeks old, heads off to become a journalist on the local newspaper with her breast pump in her bag and the blessing of her husband.

By the novel's end, there seems to be corpses littered everywhere as the seemingly innocent Bena and her husband, begin their own cycle of hiding horrors in their freshly constructed closet. Despite a few lovely touches, this is a debut that suffers from an overly ambitious plot and far too much gratuitous blood. --Julie Wheelwright

Review:

A magician with language (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)

A compelling debut by a strong new voice in fiction (ELLE)

A novel of daring imagination (VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT)

Like many first novelists Heidi Julavits attempts to pack a big punch in her debut, The Mineral Palace. The plot revolves round the fate of Bena Jonsson, a young mother who moves with her doctor-husband and infant son in 1934 to the depression hell-hole (Unfortunately, there is simply far too much happening in this novel and what might have been a compelling tale spills over into melodrama. Bena befriends a cowboy named Red who is, in turn, involved with Maude, a pregnant prostitute who was also his child)

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1860497519
• ISBN 13: 9781860497513
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336