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Title: little writer on the prairie
Review: Bruce Bair's characters rise no higher off the page than the print. Everyone he writes about, including himself, is less than 1/2 dimensional. Bair only manages a rare page or two of interesting writing as he describes some of the more grueling farm tasks, but these few pages are lost in the consistent undercurrent of rancor which evoked in the this reader a sad sense of embarrassment for the author and his unfortunate family.Growing up on a working farm and being expected to work long hard hours at thankless and repetive tasks is typical of many family businesses, especially in that time and place. And the same can be said of growing up under a strap wielding dysfunctional parent in that time and place. But if Bair thinks he should stop what he is doing to write a book about such an untypical life I ask that he at least go a writerly step further by giving us one or two characters with whom we can identify or care for.
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