This book is set mostly in Wyoming, and part of it actually happens around Sheridan, where we were on vacation. Inta recommended it and I am assuming my cousin recommended it to her. The book is mostly about relationships - focused on watching one family fall apart, while some relationships blossom. I thought the inner dialogs while Sarah and Ben were drifting apart were very realistic. A large part of the book is about the country. The book starts with an exhilarating climb by a father and son into the Wyoming mountains in early spring, to ski down undisturbed snow. A Wyoming dude ranch is another important place, where the family vacations for a number of years, the kids grow up and find first loves. Abbie, the daughter, decides to go to college in Montana and becomes an environmentalist. We see some of the issues around the environmentalist movement and their protest of the WTO in Seattle. I think this is the first novel where I've seen 9-11 as an event affecting the lives of the characters. Though we are exposed to some very awful human situations, the thing that horrified me the most was the description of the land that was destroyed while drilling for coalbed methane gas. This is happening in the area right now - a new cheap way has been discovered for getting at this gas, and since most landowners don't have the mineral rights to their properties, gas companies can come in and destroy the surface while getting at what is "theirs." The rancher in the book tries to protest, but his horse ranch is overrun with equipment, the fields and streams demolished, and he ends up having a stroke. Because of this new "gold-rush" there is a lot of money in the area for some, and large houses are going up in Big Horn, but my relatives assure me after each boom, there is always a bust in Wyoming. Plus, there is a nasty haze in the valley from all this activity, at times wells will catch fire and spew smoke into the air.
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