Ma's really kind of racist, isn't she? Also something of a killjoy. On the other hand, being dragged from pillar to post by a husband completely uninterested in staying in one place wouldn't put me in the best of moods either. And Mary is taking being blind much better than I would.

Like the last book in this series, I think the most appealing part of Silver Lake for me is the landscape. I'd like to visit a prairie one day... those massive grasslands are beyond my experience, especially given how flat they are. There's a sense here, though, that in many ways their days are numbered: no more buffalo, no more wolves, trains running over everything. I was entirely in sympathy with Laura when she hoped that the wolves would get away. I mean yes, she was lucky she wasn't eaten, but the wolves were there first, and so were the buffalo.