Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Glovemaker
Ann Weisgarber
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Glovemaker
Ann Weisgarber
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber is the dramatic story of people who have faith, compassion, and fear.
Samuel is late coming home and Nels, his stepbrother, goes to find him. He takes Carson, a younger man with better eyesight with him, and his horse Bob. There is snow and a rock slide into a deep ravine. The big rocks would have killed Samuel. Nels goes to Samuel’s house where Deborah waits for him. He’ll tell her Samuel will be late as he has to go around the slide.
A man pounds on Deborah’s door in January. This is odd, she thinks as she picks up a knife in the kitchen. She opens the door a crack and the man mentions his brother, letting her know he is a Latter-Day Saint. It’s a code. The man wears a long coat and has a beard. These polygamists hide in Utah’s canyon country. She feeds him the stew and doesn’t look at his face or ask his name. She sends him to the barn to sleep, then in the morning she’ll send him down the road to the guide Nels. The deputies won’t come at night as there are too many ravines. But his boot prints will show in the snow.
On her calendar she sees Samuel has been gone one hundred thirty three -days, without a letter. This is not like him. Margaret is Deborah’s mother. Her father always said “God’s plan” when a new child was born. Deborah yearns for a baby. She looks at the map Nels made to show her Samuel’s route home. He misses her and has much work fixing broken wheels. In the morning she finds the man in the barn and feeds him. He’d cleaned the horse stall and folded the blankets. She empties the wheelbarrow of horse droppings and tells herself to hurry. Her father would say rushing makes mistakes. She milks Buttercup , the cow, and thinks clearly making plans and disguises the prints in the snow. Deputies would burn her orchard if they knew she was helping a felon. Gentiles believed the worst thing was plural marriages. She didn’t like it either but why harm families? She worries about her sister Grace and her little boys. Author Weisgarber describes the simple room Nels lives in alone. When she met Samuel he said he liked the grain of the wood when he shaped it into spokes and she liked the leather as if it had another life.
At home, Deborah does what she usually does, perhaps baking. Nels would have delivered the man to the Floral Ranch where they take run-aways. She walks to her sister’s cabin and hugs her. Then Deborah takes care of the dirty dishes and little Hyrum. Grace and Michael live according to the church teachings and she’d had her fourth child in seven years. Grace and Michael are going to leave the town of Junction and Deborah is down-hearted. They want to have a Bishop educate their children.
Marshal Thomas Fletcher of the U.S. government shows up at Deborah’s house looking for a Lewis Braden. He searches the barn then comes in the house. He asks about the Floral Ranch and she claims innocence. He mentions the massacre at Mountain Meadows years ago where a wagon party was killed. Some said they were killed by Saints dressed as Indians.
The Marshal goes outside and soon Nels pounds on her door, saying there’s been an accident, a law man has cracked his head. She should come quick. She gets on Nel’s horse and they hurry off. At Nel’s cabin the Marshal is in the bed, still dressed. Nels tells Deborah she must tell anyone the Marshal fell from his horse and was hurt. She thinks what would happen if the Marshal should die. Or he could live and talk. She could be forced to testify against Nels and they could both be shot or hanged. If the Marshal talks they could lose everything. She leaves Nel’s place and the Marshal. Author builds the tension. Deborah is angry at Samuel for leaving her on her own, but thinks if she takes care of the Marshal someone will care for Samuel if he’s hurt somewhere. The Marshal must have a family too, people who care about him.
Nels recalls the events of how Braden was supposed to have tricked a sixteen year old girl into coming with him though Braden says the girl begged them to take her with them.
Nels wears gloves that Deborah has made for him in exchange for a drawing he did of her. They are attracted to each other but are careful to stay apart. She tells him the Marshal’s badge is gone. It won’t ever be found Nels says. They know the Marshal is from Tennessee. Why is he in Utah? That night the Marshal dies. At a meeting at the school house the men discuss what to do with his body. Deborah says he has a family, and the men say they do too. They fear for their lives if the government comes for them as Saints. Deborah insists they bury him at her barn and if they won’t she will do it herself. She’s a brave woman and the men agree to help her. The Marshal’s son arrives looking for his father. In the morning two Saints will go with the dead man and his son.
Carson tells Nels about the metal he saw in a ravine and thought might have been a wheel. Why hasn’t Carson told Nels sooner? Deborah hears this and wants to go see the ravine for herself. Is it Samuel who was on his way home? Does the government come to find the Marshal? Do the Saints stay in the town of Junction, Utah? Find this fabulous historic novel on the new fiction shelf of your local library.
Samuel is late coming home and Nels, his stepbrother, goes to find him. He takes Carson, a younger man with better eyesight with him, and his horse Bob. There is snow and a rock slide into a deep ravine. The big rocks would have killed Samuel. Nels goes to Samuel’s house where Deborah waits for him. He’ll tell her Samuel will be late as he has to go around the slide.
A man pounds on Deborah’s door in January. This is odd, she thinks as she picks up a knife in the kitchen. She opens the door a crack and the man mentions his brother, letting her know he is a Latter-Day Saint. It’s a code. The man wears a long coat and has a beard. These polygamists hide in Utah’s canyon country. She feeds him the stew and doesn’t look at his face or ask his name. She sends him to the barn to sleep, then in the morning she’ll send him down the road to the guide Nels. The deputies won’t come at night as there are too many ravines. But his boot prints will show in the snow.
On her calendar she sees Samuel has been gone one hundred thirty three -days, without a letter. This is not like him. Margaret is Deborah’s mother. Her father always said “God’s plan” when a new child was born. Deborah yearns for a baby. She looks at the map Nels made to show her Samuel’s route home. He misses her and has much work fixing broken wheels. In the morning she finds the man in the barn and feeds him. He’d cleaned the horse stall and folded the blankets. She empties the wheelbarrow of horse droppings and tells herself to hurry. Her father would say rushing makes mistakes. She milks Buttercup , the cow, and thinks clearly making plans and disguises the prints in the snow. Deputies would burn her orchard if they knew she was helping a felon. Gentiles believed the worst thing was plural marriages. She didn’t like it either but why harm families? She worries about her sister Grace and her little boys. Author Weisgarber describes the simple room Nels lives in alone. When she met Samuel he said he liked the grain of the wood when he shaped it into spokes and she liked the leather as if it had another life.
At home, Deborah does what she usually does, perhaps baking. Nels would have delivered the man to the Floral Ranch where they take run-aways. She walks to her sister’s cabin and hugs her. Then Deborah takes care of the dirty dishes and little Hyrum. Grace and Michael live according to the church teachings and she’d had her fourth child in seven years. Grace and Michael are going to leave the town of Junction and Deborah is down-hearted. They want to have a Bishop educate their children.
Marshal Thomas Fletcher of the U.S. government shows up at Deborah’s house looking for a Lewis Braden. He searches the barn then comes in the house. He asks about the Floral Ranch and she claims innocence. He mentions the massacre at Mountain Meadows years ago where a wagon party was killed. Some said they were killed by Saints dressed as Indians.
The Marshal goes outside and soon Nels pounds on her door, saying there’s been an accident, a law man has cracked his head. She should come quick. She gets on Nel’s horse and they hurry off. At Nel’s cabin the Marshal is in the bed, still dressed. Nels tells Deborah she must tell anyone the Marshal fell from his horse and was hurt. She thinks what would happen if the Marshal should die. Or he could live and talk. She could be forced to testify against Nels and they could both be shot or hanged. If the Marshal talks they could lose everything. She leaves Nel’s place and the Marshal. Author builds the tension. Deborah is angry at Samuel for leaving her on her own, but thinks if she takes care of the Marshal someone will care for Samuel if he’s hurt somewhere. The Marshal must have a family too, people who care about him.
Nels recalls the events of how Braden was supposed to have tricked a sixteen year old girl into coming with him though Braden says the girl begged them to take her with them.
Nels wears gloves that Deborah has made for him in exchange for a drawing he did of her. They are attracted to each other but are careful to stay apart. She tells him the Marshal’s badge is gone. It won’t ever be found Nels says. They know the Marshal is from Tennessee. Why is he in Utah? That night the Marshal dies. At a meeting at the school house the men discuss what to do with his body. Deborah says he has a family, and the men say they do too. They fear for their lives if the government comes for them as Saints. Deborah insists they bury him at her barn and if they won’t she will do it herself. She’s a brave woman and the men agree to help her. The Marshal’s son arrives looking for his father. In the morning two Saints will go with the dead man and his son.
Carson tells Nels about the metal he saw in a ravine and thought might have been a wheel. Why hasn’t Carson told Nels sooner? Deborah hears this and wants to go see the ravine for herself. Is it Samuel who was on his way home? Does the government come to find the Marshal? Do the Saints stay in the town of Junction, Utah? Find this fabulous historic novel on the new fiction shelf of your local library.