`Sudden Country' a gripping story, but is it realistic?

Byline: SECOND SUNDAY BOOK CLUB By Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

Karen Fisher's "A Sudden Country" was an exciting, even erotic story of a 19th century woman moving toward control of her own sexual and emotional destiny as she moved with her family along the Oregon Trail.

But how realistic was it?

That was the debate among members of Eugene's First Born Book Club as they dissected the acclaimed debut novel over a picnic lunch June 20.

``I just don't buy that pioneer women walked all day in those tight corsets and those hot clothes and those heavy boots and then at night, in Indian country, they would go off by themselves for liaisons along the river,'' proclaimed one member of the club. ``When you read their diaries, it's all about the hardships and the cooking.''

But most liked the powerful imagery of protagonist Lucy Mitchell shedding her corset - and the societal shackles that bound women of her time just as tightly.

``She quit wearing it after a while - it was hot and an encumbrance,'' another First Born member said. ``She was disgusted at having to wear this when the men were out riding and hunting. And she appreciated the Indian women being free from corsets.''

The book group formed 25 years ago, when nearly all of its members taught together at Springfield High School. They adopted their name after taking a group trip to Newport's literary-themed Sylvia Beach Hotel. The inn's family-style dinners require guests to play a game called Two Truths and a Lie, and they recognized their common birth order position when nearly every one of them offered ``I am a firstborn'' as one of their ``truths.''

For a group of current and retired educators, their discussion was surprisingly disorderly - with much interrupting.

``Focus, everyone!'' retired English teacher Naomi Fellows shouted at one point.

But the exchange was lively and insightful. Some of their comments follow:

The discussion

On the book's sexual content: I found it very profound that we were getting this ``moving West'' story with all this sexual tension going on. She's slogging through all this mud and stuff and lusting for this guy. ... Not lusting, searching - and she had no power. ... She would have never gone West until her husband wanted to go West, and she had no choice. She had no power until she had the affair. ... I don't believe women discussed their lack of power then. They were too tired, not that self-indulgent. ... But I think they thought about it. There was a lot of resentment. ... That goes along with the whole eroticism thing Fisher's got going on here, that starts at the beginning of the book, when she takes us back to Lucy's sexual awakening with her first husband: ``He had undressed her there, every stitch, each thing had come away. She who had never been allowed bare feet.''

On Fisher's writing style: The first two parts were really ghastly. I thought, ``I can't figure this darn thing out. It's so dissembled. ... I think she was trying to use different literary techniques with different characters. Did you notice that the fragmented parts, where all the run-on sentences come on top of one another, come only when James MacClaren is the speaker? ... You also have to remember, he's drunk most of the time. ... Or using laudanum, that opium medicine. ... She was very skillful in her use of foreshadowing. I just knew she was going to lose that baby. Every river they crossed, I thought, ``Poor Mary, she's going to drown.'' And Fisher set that up from day one. ... The book was too epic. Just the wagon train would have been story enough, but she added MacClaren's adventures, then the Whitmans'.

On Lucy's encounters with American Indians: The way she described them - as filthy, with matted hair, I felt was real negative. ... But she was so struck by the color and drama of their clothing and costumes. ... And when that Indian man rides by and all he has on is a loin cloth and she envied how free he was. ... Here's this very Puritan woman, responding physically, realizing he's naked and he's beautiful.

HOW IT WORKS What is the Second Sunday Book Club? It's a vicarious book group. Each month we select a real local book group and allow Register-Guard readers to piggyback on its book choice. Then, on the second Sunday of each month, we'll print a compendium of comments from Register-Guard readers and from the book group's members. What's the next book? ``Motherless Brooklyn'' by Jonathan Letham; it's the pick of the Food for Thought Book Club. How do I participate? Read the book and then go to www .registerguard.com/blogs/books to comment. Or you can attend Food for Thought's meeting on the book at 6:30 p.m. July 31 in the Rose Garden at Skinner Butte Park. When will the wrap-up be published? Aug. 13