In this book, Betty is looking back at her marriage to Mitch Lanier who was a World War II vet who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the war as a result of his wartime experience. We get a look at how mental illness was treated back in the fifties and sixties and how their families coped with the illness. Mitch had grown up in a Catholic orphanage abandoned by his own mentally ill mother though the genetic cause of mental illness wasn’t known at that time. They have two children who react to their father’s mental illness in different ways, Torie rebels and is ashamed of her father’s illness, wanted her dad to be normal. She protests the Vietnam War in the sixties while her brother Michael joins the military and becomes a combat infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. Suprisingly, neither sibling blames World War II for their father’s illness. Because of Mitch’s illness and his inability to work Betty takes a job outside the home which was unusual in that time period where wives were expected to stay home and take care of their family. Her own mother doesn’t support her in her decision to work even though she is supporting her family when her husband is unable to do so though he does receive disability payments later on. Betty finds that work is a way for her to escape from her life with Mitch. ( )

Having recently moved to northern Idaho (near Washington State) from the East Coast, I wanted to get a feel for my new state. I wondered what rural living would be like, and so I searched for books with keywords for rural Idaho. I came across A Devil Singing Small and decided to give it a try, understanding that the story takes place from six to four decades ago. The physical description of the land is remarkably consistent with the areas in which I live and have visited, and the relationships with neighbors in this rural state are as warm as I've experienced (and was told to expect). But what I most took away from this book was the resilience and determination of rural folk to make the most of their lives regardless of their circumstances. The courage demonstrated by the Lanier family is what politicians today talk about from South Jersey, to Louisiana, to the Central Valley of California. The "real Americans" who struggle every day to manage on the land, in factories, with crushing illnesses, raising children, and fighting (and fighting about) wars. It's a story of ongoing tragedies - mental illness, poverty, sexual harassment, religious delusion, adultery, and death; and small triumphs - building a home, the birth of calves and the cutting of hay, the togetherness of family.

Karen Charbonneau has deftly caught the voice of the time in which her book takes place. It's hard to understand the depth of Mitch's illness or Betty's steadfastness in dealing with it, but in the Laniers' world it all seems to make sense. They are products of their age, of their Catholic upbringing, the then-new medium of television, The Good War and the not-so-good war. What holds Betty together is her love of family (or at least the idea of family), and the land. I can certainly understand the latter.

This is an accomplished first novel from an author with a distinctive voice and, more importantly, an ear for her characters and an eye for her landscapes, whether in the hills of her childhood ranch or a Veterans Administration hospital. I look forward to her next novel. ( )