Zorrie

Laird Hunt's novel is an account of the life of a woman most would overlook. Zorrie is born and raised on an Indiana farm until her parents die when she is young and she is sent to live with an aunt who provides her with a place to stay and plenty of work, but little in the way of nurturing. When her aunt dies, Zorrie is a teenager left homeless and penniless in the middle of the Great Depression. But while Zorrie may have had to prove her resilience time and time again, this isn't a tragic tale because Zorrie is no one's tragic heroine. She's a tough and yet loving woman who loves the Indiana soil and the people in her life.

I loved this quiet story about an ordinary and remarkable woman. Hunt writes about her with such love and show more understanding that she feels like a beloved older relative. Zorrie lived through a tumultuous time in history, working as a "radium girl" painting clock faces and dials with glowing paint, seeing her husband leave for the war and not return and to have a transformative experience of her own, late in life. I'm glad this book was shortlisted for the National Book Award and so brought to my notice. It's a worthwhile read. show less

If you love quiet introspection (and I do, I really do) then have I got a book for you. How this author, with whom I have no acquaintance, wrote such a beautiful book, depicting one woman's life from about the 1930s on, in under 200 pages is quite remarkable. But by the end of the book, I knew Zorrie like I'd known her all my life.

Although she often led a life of disappointment, Zorrie was a bigger than life character. Her parents died when she was a young child and the aunt who took over her care was a bit of a wicked stepmother. When her aunt died and Zorrie was a teenager, she had to fend for herself as her aunt left her with nothing. Set in rural Indiana for the most part, Zorrie gets her first real job, working in the radium show more factory in Ottawa, Illinois where she bonds with two other women who become lifelong friends. But Zorrie wasn't one to stay in one place long. She eventually settles on a farm in Indiana and stays there for the rest of her life. Her years on the farm go a long way to developing her character. If that all sounds boring to you, well, this quiet little book may not be for you. For me it was bliss. And above all, a book about hope, and how we have to fight sometimes to hang onto it.

"Her aunt had disparaged the concept of hope with such caustic efficiency that Zorrie had naturally learned to discount what had ever been an important part of her nature. If she had done her best to seal up the spring during those early years....hope had nonetheless often found a way to seep out and surprise her, bow graciously, extend its hand, and ask her to dance." (Page 58)

I will not soon forget you Zorrie Underwood. show less

In a short 176 pages this book lays out the life of Zorrie, a woman who lived her life in Indiana during the middle of the 20th century. Orphaned at an early age, she is raised by her grass widow of an aunt whose bitterness is palpable. As Zorrie reaches her late teens during the depression, the aunt dies leaving Zorrie homeless. She wanders, visiting a former teacher whom she admired, hoping to find some employment. She ultimately ends up as a radium girl, painting luminescent watch faces in Illlinois, where she meets two young women who become her first meaningful friends.

After a month, she heads back to her roots in Indiana because she is homesick. A retired farming couple take her in and she meets and marries their son, who has show more taken over the family farm. And the rest of the mid-century unfolds.

This is largely the story of a strong woman whose strength is emotional as well as physical. But she is also a lonely woman and that loneliness seeps through every page. The writing is lovely prose and is very elegiac in nature.

This book has been nominated for several awards. In some ways I can see the reason for that. At the same time, I wonder about the appeal of this bleak book set in what so many like to call "fly over" country. For many, it just might give them more reason to permanently relegate the midwest to that status. show less

What a beauty of a book! Skeptics will say "nothing happens" which is true on the macro scale, but on the micro scale, a life is lived in all its joys, heartaches, discoveries, challenges, and understanding. Zorrie, the title character, is the woman whose life we follow from childhood through her whole life. The Midwestern setting and the earlier time period (1930s to 1960s) allows for simplicity and groundedness - these are 'salt-of-the-earth" folks with gritty wisdom from living off the land and working hard and being part of small communities, warts and all. Even when big events occur, they are not more than a blip on the progression of a person's life: Zorrie is raised in small town IN by a miserly aunt when her parents die. When show more the aunt dies, she is utterly alone and makes her way to Ottawa, IL where she is briefly a "ghost girl" working at the Radium Dial Company. After she returns to IN, WWII impacts her marriage, and she outlives many of the people in her farming community. So what is the point? Learning from, rejoicing in the moments that tally a long life: a perfect Fall leaf, a new puppy, blueberries, peach pie, Midwest thunderstorms, and making connections with others and honoring their memories on the shared journey of life - from other girls in Ottawa, to a beloved teacher, to her elderly neighbors, to a woman in an asylum, to a seatmate on an airplane. Lyrical writing and reflection in this short novel make it a joy, the setting can double as a character, and the author captures the best of human nature on an (un) heroic scale. Lucky timing of reading this with Ecclesiastes, deepens the scope. show less

This is the story of a life well-lived told in plain and simple prose. It reminded me to the Kent Haruf trilogy I've been reading this year, but rather than the high plains, it is a tale of the farming lives of Indiana, with a touch of radium girls thrown in.

One anachronism really bothered me. Zorrie first noticed her neighbor Noah fretting over his wife Opal (who has been institutionalized) before WW II. Later in the book, in the late 1950's when Zorrie is hanging clothes with Noah's mother she is whistling "That'll Be the Day," a Buddy Holly song from the 50's--I remember it--and Noah's mom says that Opal used to hum that song while hanging clothes. However, Opal hadn't been around to hang clothes since at least before WW II. Seems show more like a big mistake, unless I'm misconstruing it.

This is the eighth novel by a writer I'd never heard of. With the exception above, I liked this story of an ordinary life of hard work and simple pleasures.

First line: "Zorrie Underwood had been known through-out the county as a hard worker for more than fifty years, so it troubled her when finally the hoe started slipping from her hands, the paring knife from her fingers, the breath in shallow bursts from her lungs, and smack dab in the middle of the day, she had to lie down."

Last line: "But mostly she would just lie there, very still, turning it all over in her head."

3 stars show less

Laird Hunt's Zorrie is one of those books I'll be purchasing multiple copies of to give as gifts. It's an everyone-should-read-this title. On the surface, Zorrie is a brief, even simple, novel. We meet Zorrie when she's young, but the book focuses on her adult life, spent almost exclusively in small towns in Indiana. There's no huge crisis in this novel: it just recounts the story of Zorrie's life, her different jobs, her friendships. And that life—no more eventful than most—is utterly beautiful and hope-bestowing without being at all treacly. Every moment of reading it, even the more difficult moments, is a kind of gentle benediction, reminding us of the immense value of individual lives.
Seriously, no matter what kind of fiction show more you gravitate toward (I usually read dark literary fiction or historical mysteries) Zorrie will leave you feeling restored and hopeful. Don't miss that opportunity.

I received a free electronic review copy from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. show less

Zorrie was orphaned in childhood, and raised by an emotionally distant aunt. After the aunt dies and Zorrie has to make her way on her own, she finds work as a “radium girl” painting watch dials in an Illinois factory. Told the paint was harmless, the workers ingested large quantities of radium during the course of their work. While Zorrie has close friendships with her fellow workers, she is eventually drawn back to the northern Indiana farmland where she grew up. Years pass, with all the ups and downs expected of farming life and, indeed, of life in general. Zorrie’s common sense and work ethic serve her well on the farm, and her empathy and caring lead to close bonds with many in the community.

The setting and overall tone of show more this short novel is reminiscent of Kent Haruf’s Plainsong trilogy. Zorrie’s life story is told in exquisite prose, with just as much meaning in what goes unsaid. At just 160 pages, this could be a quick read but I found myself periodically setting it aside to savor what I’d just read. I loved this book. show less