Desert Phoenix by Suzette Bruggeman is a spell-binding novel set in turn-of-the-century Nevada, and inspired by a true love story.
Grounded in meticulous historical detail, and illuminated by inspired prose, the novel shows the beauties and the miseries of 18th and 19th Century America through the eyes of a most memorable couple. Mostly drawn from extensive research into her grandfather’s notes, the characters that inhabit Bruggeman’s story are both down-to-earth and intriguingly archetypal.
Barely in her teens, Lou, who would later in life be known as Tempa, lost everything; her family was swiped away by fever, and her only relatives are her sister and the older man she eloped with. Still numbed by the shock of her loss, the abuse she receives at the hands of her brother-in-law drives her into despair, which only deepens when she is abandoned by him in a brothel. Her only comfort in these dark years is her friendship with Bella, a beautiful, proud, and strong woman toiling away with her for meager wages.
When Henry first meets thirty-three-year-old Tempa in the derelict mining camp of Stateline, he hasn’t much more than the clothes on his back. Migrating from Germany with a small bag of coins and big dreams, he left behind a cruel stepfather and his mother’s grave. A spring afternoon by the creek ignites the first sparkle of their slow-burning love, but for a miner and a prostitute in early 19th century Nevada, love is a luxury. With this book, their love has a chance to rise again above the ashes of the past.
Spanning from Lou’s childhood to her old age, this incredible tale defies clichés; Bruggeman doesn’t describe two young lovers enveloped in their passion, but instead reveals a slower, deeper, fuller connection between a poor immigrant and an older woman with a glass eye, battered by life, and consumed by years of ill treatment. The powerful feelings that Henry and Tempa have for each other seem to be the only pure thing in a tough, uncompromising world, but Bruggeman doesn’t rely on sentimentality or moralizing – the bad and the good, the kindness and cruelty paint a picture of her characters with as much light as shadow, offering great depth to the attentive reader.
What ultimately gives the story its full power is Bruggeman’s flawless, poetic, and natural ease with storytelling. The way she manages to pin down the most fleeting of feelings, the most unsayable horrors, and the tiniest changes in her characters’ inner lives, gives the book its heart and soul. The stark and vivid images scattered throughout the book are never ornamental – they deepen our understanding of the story the author has brought back from the forgotten past. Henry and Tampa’s visages may be difficult to discern in these original photographs, but thanks to Bruggeman’s talent, they come to life with great force through her lyrical, well-crafted, and thoughtful prose.
All told, Desert Phoenix is a moving, profound, and soulful work of historical fiction that portrays a truly epic love story, made all the more powerful by its historical basis.
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