title: Places in the World a Woman Could Go
author/editor: Dan Brown
reviewed by: Lynan

Not long ago, a friend gave me a book he'd picked up somewhere and said, "Here's a book I found for you."

I had to wonder about the book he handed me, Places in the World a Woman Could Go, by Janet Kauffman. So, I read it.

Anyone who has lived in a mid-western farming community will recognize bits and pieces of women who walk the lives there. This volume is a collection of stories about them, and made real and remarkable by the author. That she is also one of these women is made clear by the joyous familiarity with which she describes them.

These women know who they are and their lot in life very well, and never bow down to circumstance. Take Celia for instance. Looking like, "something refrigerated, sweetly doughy", she has fled from her husband to a shack in the woods. She advises readers the best way to get out of town. Another example is Lady Fretts who "reigned like a plunked-down legitimate deity," keeping the twin calves born on the day of her husband's funeral for twelve years, before she is finally able to dispatch these humongous souvenirs of him.

Then there's the hippie lady who named her chickens with ladies' names and the rogue farm rat, Ratzatratz. She tells how Colleen her "dullard" hen led the others in a call to arms, finally killing the intruder rat.

Joy is in the author's descriptions, both choice and "delicious", as one cover critic put it. Reading this book set my mind to remembering. In memory, I saw the people on the farms and in small towns of my past with a new eye -- an appreciation for their uniqueness.

Joan H says, "These ladies were like a handful of wild flowers, each strikingly unique, and together - a beautiful blend."

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