The reviews quoted on the back of this book describe it as a "coming-of-age novel," "the juncture of innocence and chance."
Indeed, Mary Frances "Frankie" Lombard does come of age, ranging from about age 5 through age 16. As she ages, she becomes painfully aware of the fissures within her idyllic life helping her father on their apple orchard in Wisconsin. (Jane Hamilton herself is married to a Wisconsin apple farmer.)
The real trouble with the Lombards is their inability to see and resolve conflicts. Frankie grows into a young woman who suffers from this same disorder internally. Her family avoids more than it addresses, from the beginning when her parents argue about the succession plan of the farm to what will happen when Frankie's father Jim dies.
Jim is the outsider and the city boy who came to help out his aunt and never left. He maintains an uneasy partnership with his cousin (and lifelong orchard resident), Sherwood Lombard. Frankie clings to blind faith that someday, she and her brother, William, will rule the orchard over their cousins, Amanda and Adam. But the tragedy of this faith is it isn't as secure as Frankie would like you to believe.
For so many farmers, the base is family. If all goes according to plan, you know who the farm will go to when you're gone.
Jim Lombard doesn't __have this figured out. We see this as he dismisses his wife's, Nellie's, protests to get it figured out.
We see insecurity in Frankie's competition with Amanda for the Geography Bee. We see it in her fear of Aunt May Hill, which she hides from the world. We see it in the way she withholds William's car keys to prevent him from visiting the college of his choice. She's sure things need to be a certain way and never lets go.
A life of unresolved conflicts is made apparent in the breakdown of her relationship with her mother, fear of William forgetting what they've come from and hatred of Phillip Lombard despite all the good he does. When her mother asks her if she'd consider seeing a therapist, the reader wants to scream, "Yes! Please do!" But as always, Mary Frances resists.
"I didn't want to grow up. I didn't want to someday __have the hopeless wish, trying to get back, taking pictures — and longing."
While this is a coming-of-age sentiment most of us can relate to, for Mary Frances Lombard, it is too real. Hamilton's seventh novel is about a farm, but even more so, it is about realizing dreams might not be in our control.
