My Darlin' Clementine (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: My Darlin' Clementine Elizabeth Bush Gregory, Kristiana . My Darlin' Clementine. Holiday House, 2009206 p. ISBN 978-0-8234-2198-5$16.95 Ad Gr. 5-8 Eleven-year-old Josie opens with the tale of her older sister's disappearance on the day of her wedding; the bridal flowers on the slippery footbridge over the treacherous river testify to likely tragedy. The voice of seventeen-year-old Clementine herself then picks up the narration starting in the previous year of 1866, telling of how her and Jess' father, too sick to continue gold mining, takes up with a band of vigilantes and gamblers, puts the family into debt, inadvertently causes his wife's death, forbids Clementine to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, and corners her into marrying the dastardly father of the young man who courts her. This nineteenth-century lye-soap opera is inspired by the sentimental ballad of the same name, whose five verses and refrain precede the narration and provide readers some clues about how Clementine's story may, or may not, play out. That teaser is an appealing and effective device, but the ensuing plot strains under the twists and turns Gregory metes out and the deliriously but improbably happy ending she concocts for all characters left alive. Still, Clementine leads a far more eventful life than your run-of-the-mill calico and braids heroine, and readers inured to the typhoid fever, prairie fires, and loneliness of Western tales will undoubtedly welcome this spicier melodrama. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois