School Library Journal Review
YA-- Brown uses a tragic series of bewildering murders that occurred in 1985 in Iowa to explore the historical and contemporary problems of farming in America. Farmer Dale Burr killed his wife and two others before killing himself. Exploring the causes of this case, Brown interweaves Burr's life story with the historical progression of events that have brought American farmers to their current crisis. Students can appreciate the book on two levels: as a clear historical overview of farming in the U. S. and as the story of a murderer and his thoughts, reminiscent of Capote's In Cold Blood (Random, 1966) .--Jane Golenko, Pasadena High School, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1985 in Lone Tree, Iowa, well-to-do farmer Dale Burr killed his wife, his banker and a neighbor, then committed suicide. He had feared that he would lose his farm and hence the work of his family for three generations, although that may not have been the case. Using this tragedy as a springboard, Brown ( Mountain in the Clouds ), a third-generation farmer himself, discusses the history of farming in England from the time of Henry VIII to the repeal of the Corn Laws, and in America from colonial days to the present. We learn that in this country, since independence, farmers were subject to cyclical crises until the New Deal and its program of subsidies; in more recent times this program has been almost eliminated and the result has been the increasing failure of family farms. As a true crime tale the book is pedestrian, but as a sermon on the possible grim fate of the American farmer, it is powerful. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Despite a title worthy of an episode of A Current Affair, Brown (Mountain in the Clouds, 1982) has written a remarkable book that vividly recounts the 1985 triple murder/ suicide that brought home the depth of the farming crisis in America's heartland. On December 9, 1985, an Iowa farmer named Dale Burr killed his wife, his banker, and a neighboring farmer before turning his shotgun on himself. Brown, himself a working farmer, uses the tragic events of that day as a means of examining the changes in the American farm family that have led to the near-disappearance of the family farm. Alternating between the present-day difficulties and historical successes of Burr's ancestors, as well as those of his victims, we come to understand the immigration and cross-continental migration that resulted in the settling of the farmlands of the Midwest and the manner in which families, front siblings to cousins, acquired their control of regions and methods of farming. ""Looking back over half a millennia at the farmers who had been sacrificed to enclosure,"" Brown writes, ""one gets the impression that our culture harvests its farmers, just as the farmer harvests his crops. Generation after generation they have been sown, nurtured for the strength they provide in their prime, and then sent down before the scythe of industrial society."" While tracing the history and transformation of the farming community, the author smoothly draws us into the life of Dale Burr. Incredibly, Burr comes across as more than a sympathetic figure: he seems a respected community leader dragged down by the undertow pulling upon America's family farmers. A dramatic and powerful account with a social message that cannot be ignored. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
On a December day in 1985, Dale Burr, a once prosperous farmer near Lone Tree, Iowa, now fallen on hard times and facing foreclosure, shot and killed his wife of 40 years. Scribbling a note, ``I'm sorry. I just couldn't stand all the problems,'' Burr proceeded to murder his banker and a farmer with whom he had been feuding and then committed suicide. The spare details provided by Brown, a journalist and working farmer, fail to illuminate this tragedy. The author's concern with the larger picture of the American farming crisis sometimes detracts from the specific case of Dale Burr. Still, this is a suitable choice for rural libraries and collections.-- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
