Prayers for Sale by Sandra DallasMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Prayers for Sale is a series of short stories linked together with a book length narrative about the relationship between two women living in the Colorado mountains during the gold rush years. One of the women is 86 and has lived in Middle Swan for many years. The other is a young woman who has just moved to the small mountain town with her husband. The younger is lonely and needs a friend, while the older needs someone who is interested in hearing the stories of her life. Both women have experienced similar tragedies and have a need to share the pain.
The book's strength is in Sandra Dallas' ability to capture life among the women of this small nineteenth century town: their language, their quilting, their gossiping, their society class levels, and the way they forget all these things to help each other during hard times. The plot that unifies the story is a little spotty, with elements that are introduced, then forgotten, then brought back in ways that could have been handled better. Also, the overall narrative doesn't come into its own until the end of the book.
Steve Lindahl – author of Under a Warped Cross, Hopatcong Vision Quest, White Horse Regressions, and Motherless Soul.
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