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When You Live by a River

In Dark Water

Same Blood

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Same Blood

“Blakeslee's world, lyrical and mythic, is filled with magic, visions and dreams. Her characters are rooted in the land and connection to the animals with whom they share it…
Blakeslee is a writer of talent and vision.”

“This unusual first novel takes the lives of poor Catskill dirt farmers and infuses them with a strange mysticism that transcends time and place…With extraordinary deftness, Mermer Blakeslee presents her character's weird visions and perceptions as casually as she expounds on the right method for killing unwanted porcupines or bundling dahlia bulbs…Ms. Blakeslee has a unique vision of the world, and her voice is strong and memorable. With her first novel, she has broken literary ground and struck out in an exciting new direction.”

“Mermer Blakeslee’s stark depiction of life among the common folk in the Catskill Mountains reminds me of going to Appalachia late in the 1960s and seeing firsthand the astonishing poverty…
      So it is with Blakeslee’s characters. Their lives are interwoven with troubles: unwed pregnancy, sexual abuse of a child, borderline jobs, lesbian feelings, resolving a child’s death, accepting deaths of loved ones. But their dignity buffets these difficulties as surely as a plane will buck the turbulence and go on.
       These situations are all addressed by Blakeslee in a first novel that packs an emotional impact. There are scenes that leap from the page and either wrench your heart or twist your guts. ”

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