Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1419320 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 257 pages

Amazon.com Review
It's 1916 in the fictional town of St. Elmo, California, and it hasn't rained in weeks. Drastic measures are due. Over steak, eggs, pie, and coffee, St. Elmo's biggest bigwigs strike a deal with the much maligned rainmaker, Hank Beecham: if he fills the reservoir with water, they'll pay him $50,000; if he fails, he won't get a cent.

When Hank heads up into the hills with his dynamite, caps, and gunpowder as well as his "battalion of tins and ladles, a flotilla of scoops and long-handled spoons," most of the town is skeptical. But when explosions and flying debris give way to that old familiar pitter patter, it's apparent Hank is no amateur in procuring precipitation. This time, though, he's gone too far. Before you can say "hell in a handbasket," the dam's about to burst, and with it Hank's hopes of retrieving his financial due.

In this tightly woven tale of honor, love, and greed, we're supplied with a healthy dose of odd characters, page-turning intrigue, and a playful look at the Old West. "Like metal from which every alloy has been burnt off, leaving only what is hard and pure," Kalpakian puts her prose through the proverbial refiner's fire. What is left can only shine.

From Publishers Weekly
"Rainmaker Returns to Valley" trumpets the local paper. The year in this winning fable is 1916, and the place is Kalpakian's familiar, fictional St. Elmo, Calif., a Methodist and Mormon stronghold victimized by 302 straight days without rain. Into this arid landscape returns black sheep Hank Beecham after an absence of 20 years, invited by the city fathers in order to break the drought. Along with a reputation for saving towns in similar predicaments, Hank brings a ton of baggage: a drunken Confederate father whose ranch (aptly named Shiloh) was about as successful as the South's efforts in the war; brothers who were either drunks or felons; a sister who's a horse thief; an affair with an older woman; and a mother who taught him, "Never forget a wrong or a slight." Hank bets the city fathers $50,000 that he can fill the town's entire reservoir. There's one caveat: he gets credit for every drop of rain that falls, whether or not it can be clearly attributed to his rainmaking efforts. But Hank does his job a little too well. When, in the wake of his Old Testament downpour, the city fathers renege on their bet, Hank vows revenge. Kalpakian is skillful in evoking the conservative moral and cultural atmosphere of an earlier America; what might have been the plot of a conventional western is elevated to a fully dimensional story of human relationships under crisis. Written with graceful economy, her eighth book (after Graced Land) is an object lesson in being careful about what you ask for. More important, it is rich, never coy and startlingly original.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-In 1916, a renowned rainmaker is summoned and asked to rescue his hometown of St. Elmo, CA, from a drought. Rather than pay the dour Hank Beecham's outrageous fee, the Mormon city fathers propose a wager. If he fills the city's reservoir, he will receive $50,000. Anything less, and the town will pay nothing. Beecham agrees, but with the caveat that he gets credit for every drop of rain that falls from that day forth. When he unleashes a horrific flood that destroys lives, property, and livestock, the city fathers refuse to pay the man, citing his own caveat and holding him responsible for the damage he caused. Beecham vows to seek revenge. Based loosely on historical events in 1916, Kalpakian's novel is a dark, moral fable in which neither hero nor villain is clearly defined. Does the greed of the city fathers justify Beecham's revenge for slights to his family as a youth? Young adults will find this tale illuminating, as both town and rainmaker come to terms with the consequences of their deeds.
Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

"Caveat" a wonderful ride into damnation and redemption
When I heard about this book, I thought that it sounded mildly interesting, so I picked it up. I ended up reading it in little more than three hours. This story, about a rainmaker who practices his magic through science, has to be the most original thing I've ever read in my entire life. In an age where there is "nothing new under the sun," stories like this are a refreshing reminder that the ideas, new or otherwise, are there, waiting to be found. This book, "The Pied Piper" meets witchdoctor, is nearly everything a reader could want. Bravo, Miss Kalpakian!