Looking for Jane

Author: Judith Redline Coopey
Genre: Fiction    

Publisher: Fox Hollow Press, 2013
Pages: 244
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: "The nuns use this as their measuring stick: who your people are. Well, what if you don't have no people? Or any that you of? What then? Are you doomed?" This is the nagging question of fifteen-year-old Nell's life. 

Born with a cleft palate and left a foundling on a doorstep of a convent, she yearns to know her mother, who name, she knows, was Jane. When the Mother Superior tries to pawn her off to a mean looking farmer and his beaten down wife, Nell opts for the only alternative she can see: she runs away. A chance encounter with a dime novel exhorting the exploits of Calamity Jane, heroine of the west, gives Nell the purpose of her life: to find Calamity Jane, who Nell is convinced is her mother. 

Her quest takes her down rivers, up rivers and across the Badlands to Deadwood, South Dakota and introduces her to soot, a big, loveable black dog, and Jeremy Chatterfield, a handsome young Englishman who isn't particular about how he makes his way, as long as he doesn't have to work for it. Together they trek across the country meeting charactes as wonderful and bizarre as the adventure they seek, learning about themselves and the world along the way. 

Review: This novel had a Huckleberry Finn and This Tender Land vibe to it, and while I wasn't a fan of those books, I loved this one. It was fast moving and entertaining. I read this while on vacation in the Cleveland, Ohio area and it was the perfect way to end each busy day.