Dorris's first solo novel in almost a decade is a partial prequel
to his successful A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987), and a
generational saga that celebrates the enduring power of family
ties. It begins in western Ireland in the mid-19th century, with
Rose Mannion's struggle to choose between the charismatic lover who
has betrayed "the Cause" (of Irish independence) and the decent man
her family and townspeople urge her to prefer. A half-century
later, Rose's sons Andrew (a priest) and Robert are the two halves
of a dilemma that frustrates Robert's dissatisfied wife Bridie (a
terrific character: hard as nails, yet helplessly in thrall to the
one man she cannot have). The story moves ahead with scarcely
credible speed (a major flaw in Dorris's otherwise efficiently
constructed narrative) to the 1930s when Robert, recovering from
illness and amnesia, makes the reacquaintance of Bridle and their
daughters Edna and Marcella, in the American Midwest, to which the
family has been rather summarily transplanted. The novel finds its
footing in a beautifully detailed and extended contrast between
Edna's stoical common sense and Marcella's somewhat flighty
romantic nature - expressed in the ailing Marcella's impulsive
marriage to a handsome young black man she meets while recuperating
in the sanitarium where Edna works as a nurse's aid. The focus then
shifts to Marcella's son Elgin, his Army experiences in Germany in
the 1960s (during which he learns some disturbing truths about his
father's reported death in wartime), and thereafter to Elgin's
daughter Rayona (a major character in Yellow Raft). Though it's all
a teensy bit contrived and too hurried to be fully convincing, the
tale is gripping, thanks to Dorris's empathy for the ethnic
diversity and solidarity that give his characters their strength,
and to a skillfully varied succession of voices, all quite
distinctive. A little of John O'Hara, and rather more of A.J.
Cronin, here, but the story's details will draw you in and keep you
reading. (Kirkus Reviews)
Ten years after his "dazzling" (San Francisco Chronicle), "unforgettable" (Newsday) bestselling debut novel,
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris returns to the family at the core of that work to write the rich score of the "full-blown, complex opera of his new novel,
Cloud Chamber" (Robb Forman Dew).
Opening in late-nineteenth-century Ireland and moving to Kentucky and finally to the high plains of Montana, Cloud Chamber tells the extraordinary tale of Rose Mannion and her descendants. Over a period of more than one hundred years, Rose's legacy of love and betrayal is passed down from generation to generation until it meets the promise of reconciliation in Rayona, the indomitable part-black, part Native American teenage girl at the center of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water.
Cloud Chamber is truly a tour de force, a powerful, rich tale about the energy and persistence of love.
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