A Season of Fire and Ice

From the heartlands of the 1880s Upper Midwest comes a morality tale of survival and destiny told in the convincing language of a patriarchs journal, evoking a real sense of the time and place. Gerhardt Praeger, a farmer of some education and plenty experience, understands the mixture of hard work, ingenuity, ethic, grace and steadiness of spirit needed to hold his settler family and neighboring community together while homesteading the hard territory of the Dakotas. He, along with his wife and seven sons, must constantly contend with natural disasters and manmade challenges to carve out their holdings in an unforgiving environment that has defeated so many of their neighbors, sending them home to their families back east. Praeger believes that God will provide sufficiently if not in abundance to those who can resist over-reaching. But a new neighbor, the bold Beidermann, who seems at times almost larger than life, stirs both his curiosity and envy, and tests Praegers moral beliefs. Between his remarkable journal entries that observe the increasingly tense events between them, is also a narrative that moves the everyone toward calamity. What results is an almost biblical story of moral imperatives and self-revelation, of man striving to civilize.

The patriarch Gerhardt Praeger, a farmer of some education and experience, understands the mixture of hard work, ingenuity, ethic, grace, and sturdiness of spirit required to settle the hard territory of the Dakotas. He, along with his wife and seven sons, must constantly face natural disasters and manmade challenges to carve out their holdings in an unforgiving land that has defeated so many of their neighbors, sending them home to their families back East. Praeger believes God will provide sufficiently, if not in abundance, to those who can resist the twin challenges of pride and greedy over-reaching. But his exasperating new neighbor, the bold Beidermann, stirs both his envy and curiosity to test Praeger's moral imperatives. His remarkable journal entries chronicle the increasingly tense events between them and are bridged by a compelling narrative that moves their entire universe toward calamity. The result is an almost biblical story of self-revelation, of a man striving to guide his family and to civilize his own impulses as they contend with the wild land.

Library Journal

With his second novel, essayist and short story writer Zimpel (Meeting the Bear; Journal of the Black Wars) has written a memorable work of historical fiction in the vernacular of 1880s upper Midwest settlers. Much of the action unfolds via the journal entries of Gerhardt Praeger, an older, fairly literate farmer/rancher who shares his home with his earthy wife, Ma, and a brood of seven sons. Capturing Praeger's attention is a new bachelor neighbor, Leo Beiderman, whose knack for self-sufficiency and strokes of good fortune become a source of envy. Beiderman, a grateful yet at times swaggering man, is careful not to seem too greedy as he builds his barn and brings in successful harvests. Still, he often provokes animosity, and even his befriending of the two youngest Praegers, twins who openly admire him, doesn't ease the tensions. Zimpel keenly depicts the hard existence of these settlers, who are often put under by floods, blizzards, pestilence, and drought. With their strong family loyalty, sense of fairness, deep respect for animals, and willingness to help friends and neighbors when catastrophe strikes, the people who inhabit this story are fundamentally commendable folks. And in their world it is fitting that when malice occurs, a sense of justice ultimately prevails. A worthwhile addition to all historical fiction collections and larger library fiction collections.-Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

From The Heartlands Of The 1880s Upper Midwest Comes A Morality Tale Of Survival And Destiny. Lloyd Zimpel.