collected
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction
About 5 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 11 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Marget Haldmarne looks back on her family's struggle to live from a mortgaged Missouri farm during the Great Depression. Her father brought his wife and three daughters there after losing their former security, and now drought threatens the crops on which their livelihood rests. Marget feels attached to the countryside, while her older sister Kerrin longs to leave; the arrival of Grant, a hired hand working for room and board, unsettles the sisters' relationships.
Lyrical and introspective, the literary novel follows the family's hard work through Marget's first-person recollections. Close observations of the land run throughout, its beauty inseparable from the uncertainty of trying to earn a living from it.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Highly regarded
Somewhat. The lyrical, descriptive prose and slow pace ask for attention, but Marget’s first-person recollections follow a linear structure. The emphasis falls on atmosphere, family relationships, and close observation of the land.
The tone is bleak, intimate, and melancholic, with strong emotional intensity. The family’s livelihood depends on crops threatened by drought, while Marget’s attachment to the countryside sits alongside her sister Kerrin’s longing to leave.
Family relationships and farm life are closely connected. The struggle to survive on a mortgaged Missouri farm shapes the family’s daily work, while the arrival of Grant, a hired hand working for room and board, unsettles the sisters’ relationships.
275 pages in the Feminist Press at the City University of New York 1991 paperback edition.
Feminist Press at the City University of New York · 1991 · Paperback. ISBN 9781558610354.
About 5 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 275-page Feminist Press at the City University of New York edition. Dense books can take longer.
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.
