chickadee21 's review for:

The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell

3.0

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I thought "The Maid's Version" was pretty good. I especially liked the sections about Alma's son, John Paul, and the kindness of people who took him in. Woodrell does a good job balancing both the bad stories with the good. There are some very kind and caring characters, and there are some characters who are just bad people. I liked the short chapters with information about other victims of the fire and how their families carried on afterward (though, like many people, I did get confused by the many characters and changes in time). I thought the length of the book was perfect: it didn't need to be any longer than a novella, so good on Woodrell for making the decision to keep the story short. Woodrell is really masterful at painting rural life and the downtrodden.

My major problem with the book was the resolution.

Spoiler

So it may be that Alma's story is meant to be a little ambiguous about whether it's what really happened, but it does make sense given the facts we know. But I just didn't find Glencross' role in it believable at all. Even drunk, I don't see him trying to light a fire to smoke out the dancers. I found his behavior after the fire to be even more unbelievable. I don't think he would be able to live with the guilt, and I don't think he'd focus so much on Ruby as on the deaths of the dozens of people he had caused. Given the character and personality Woodrell gave him, I just couldn't see him setting the fire or acting somewhat normally [besides crying at home] afterwards.

Also, I found the writing a little overdone and wordy in parts. Not bad writing, just not the style I like best.

In short, a good book, just not great.