A review of the novel “This is the Place”

“This is the Place” is a complex, multi-layered novel that reveals a little more with each reading. Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s fiction style is polished and authentic, not flash or show-offish in any way, drawing the reader relentlessly forwards, adding strand after strand of interest and emotion.

“This is the Place” tells the story of 19-year-old Skylar Harriet Eccles, whose initials appropriately spell “she” (since one of the themes is the prejudice and oppression suffered by women in 1950s Utah), as she becomes ever more fixated by her desire to write a history of her family. In her life she struggles to balance several conflicting forces: the Mormon-dominated State, her Mormon family and her desire to marry a non-Mormon, Archer Benson. The family’s surname, Eccles, means “church” (another good touch as the Mormons are known as “The Church” in Utah).

Howard-Johnson’s skilful use of alliteration adds to the effect: “... she left the breadth and breath of her life” (p. 13) and “Boston, bastion of Harvard” (p. 171). However, her style sometimes -- not often -- comes up short, as in “homesteaded the land” on p. 31, which jars on my ear (sounding a little ugly to me), though, on the same page, “given slabs of choclaty soil so they could start families of their own” more than makes up for that. The use of “choclaty” there is inspired as chocolate is, of course, closely connected to both children and eating. Thus it links neatly to the phrase “ so they could start families of their own”.

Yet the first sentence of paragraph #3 on p.20 is, to my mind, too complicated and too long for easy reading, being comprised of some sixty words over five lines with only two commas to separate the parts. It made me feel mentally breathless while reading it the first time and I had to go back over it to establish exactly what was going on. But, otherwise, Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s writing flows seamlessly along, using unusual words and striking images to ram home the points she is making and to shape our emotions.

Overall, it is interesting, genuinely moving and kept me turning the pages: it is a treasured find.