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Detroit Free Press -- May 7, 2006
The State (SC) – April 23, 2006
Learning from the past, fighting for the future
Reviewed by Claudia Smith Brinson
The review is syndicated, the same review appeared in both The
State, NC and Detroit Free Press
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The State (SC) – April 23, 2006 -- Learning from
the past, fighting for the future -- Reviewed by Claudia Smith
Brinson -- “And She Was” conquers the odds to be the
beautifully written, soulfully instructive novel that it is. The
odds against it: The book is Cindy Dyson’s first adult novel; it is
somewhat autobiographical; the plot alternates between a long-ago
past and its history lessons, and 1986; its title comes from a song.
But it all works — and fabulously well. In the first paragraph, we
meet the narrator, Brandy, a 31-year-old cocktail waitress following
a man...
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The Birmingham News -- March 19, 2006 -- Survival
at heart of Dyson debut --
By Susan Swagler -- They say covers sell books, and they do. But with
Cindy Dyson's debut novel, a song did it for me. I saw the title,
''And She Was,'' and the Talking Heads song of the same name
immediately started looping through my mind.
Sure enough, there's a real connection. And real is an apt
description for this book, which is set in the wind-swept Aleutian
Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. Little wonder,
since Dyson relied on her own experiences as a barmaid there to give
this book a firm sense of authenticity...
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The Denver Post -- March 5, 2006 Sunday --
Survival theme turns complex "Light story'' soon reveals its power
--
By Robin Vidimos -- Cindy Dyson's debut novel for adult readers, "And
She Was," is one of contrasting cultures and psyches, and arguably
the most striking dissimilarities are those involving survival. But
this is just one of many themes that are wrapped in a tale that
juxtaposes a trashy blond bar waitress and the history of the
aboriginal Aleuts on Unalaska Island. Brandy is casual and
unapologetic as she steps off the ferry that carried her 800 miles
and three days from Anchorage. "I am blond, and that's where most of
my problems started...
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Anchorage Daily News – February 26, 2006 -- Brandy
on the rocks at a bar near you -- By AMANDA COYNE -- It's true,
so true it's nearly a cliche: There is something about Alaska that
draws people in search of part of themselves. I haven't met anybody
who has walked away finding that part, but then I live in the world
of real instead of fictional people, where if epiphanies happen at
all, they're more along the lines of "Dude, it's cold and dark up
here." Yet for all the sled-loads of us up here, we haven't, until
recently, seen ourselves much portrayed in literature, which is odd
because many of us roamers tend...
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Anchorage Press – February 23, 2006 -- She's
moving out in all directions -- Cindy Dyson's spectacular debut
novel is rooted in Alaska history -- By Lynne Snifka -- That damn
song. It started months ago when advance reading copies of Cindy
Dyson's book And She Was arrived at the Press. “And She Was,” that
pop soufflé by Talking Heads, gets in your head. I found myself
singing it whenever I opened another padded envelope from
HarperCollins: “The world was moving/ and she was right there with
it/ and she was...” I was sure the book had nothing to do with the
song. It takes place in Alaska, after all. But that song is
sticky...
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New West – February 22, 2006 -- A Mystery At The
End of the World -- And She Was, A Novel By Cindy Dyson -- By
Allen M. Jones -- Not unlike the way your taste in cars keeps
changing, evolving (high school camaro to sensible sedan to
minivan), the sort of book you read comes to be a decent poker tell
for your age. Lately, in my mid-thirties, I find myself enjoying
nothing so much as a well-drawn character. Maybe it’s the equivalent
of a mid-life crisis, a new jaguar for the balding old man. But for
a writer to breathe real life into a fictional creation, to throw
the switch and make a heart thump and cheeks flush...
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Los Angeles Times -- Feb 19, 2006 -- By Susan
Salter Reynolds -- CINDY DYSON, part cocktail waitress, part Arctic
explorer, grew up in Alaska. Her rough, working-class voice is
perfect for a novel set in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, a
"reckless, shameless place" populated by fishermen and Aleuts. The
narrator, Brandy (named by her boozy parents), has traveled 800
miles across the Bering Sea to be with her fisherman boyfriend.
Within a day, she has a job waitressing at a notorious bar, the
Elbow Room; a place to live (without electricity, phone or running
water); and a motorcycle that must be...
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Portland Tribune (OR) – February 17, 2006 --
Island escape is anything but in novel --
By ELLISON G. WEIST --
And She Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4 -- For
the past two weeks, my husband has been unable to get a certain song out of
his head. And it’s my fault.
It’s a 20-year-old Talking Heads tune and also the title of Cindy Dyson’s
debut novel, “And She Was.” The book has been lugged from room to room,
causing my spouse to hum and mutter in his best David Byrne imitation.
Those of you who favor hardbacks over CDs will find the book gets under your
skin as well. It’s a disquieting look at the troubled history of the
Aleutian Islands sandwiched with one woman’s uncertain attempt to change her
life...
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The Oregonian – February 17, 2006 -- A fascination
with all things Aleutian -- JEFF BAKER -- And She Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4
-- Brandy "was thirty-one, the daughter of a bum and a slut, saddled
with a liquor name." It's with these dubious credentials that our
heroine finds herself—yet again—drifting after a man. This time she
follows her latest boyfriend, Thad, a tenderhearted fisherman she
keeps at emotional arm's length, to remote Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in
the Aleutian Islands. Brandy finds a gig as a cocktail waitress at
the local roughneck bar, the Elbow Room, where brawls...
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Entertainment Weekly – February 10, 2006 --
And She Was, Cindy Dyson -- Reviewed by Margeaux Watson --
Talking Heads fans will recognize the title of Cindy Dyson's novel,
And She Was. It not only pays homage to the band's classic tune,
it's one of many retro-pop culture references sprinkled throughout
this imaginative fish-out-of-water tale. Set in Alaska's remote
Aleutian Islands circa 1986, the book opens with 31-year-old Brandy
following her boyfriend to a sleepy fishing village where she takes
a job waitressing in a seedy bar...
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Missoula Independent (MT) February 9, 2006 --
Allure of the Aleuts -- by Azita Osanloo -- Debut novel succumbs
to mystery of ages -- Just when it started to feel like
bookstores were vomiting chick-lit novels like college girls puking
shots after a night at Feruqi’s, a book comes along that proves you
can actually have a female protagonist without rehashing everything
ever written by Candace Bushnell. In her debut novel, And She Was,
author Cindy Dyson (who resides near Glacier Park) introduces
31-year-old Brandy, a hard-boiled, cynical blonde who follows her
fisherman boyfriend to a remote harbor...
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Alaska Star -- October 27, 2005 -- Cindy
Dyson's first novel hits soon to hit home
"And She Was" set for February release -- By AMY M. ARMSTRONG -- A
former Eagle River resident has her first novel coming out next
year. It would be tempting to look for similarities between Cindy
Dyson and Brandy, the main character in the book, "And She Was,"
which is set for a February release.
Both worked as cocktail waitresses in the Elbow Room Bar in Dutch
Harbor - a recently closed down drinking establishment whose rowdy
and raunchy reputation...
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Booklist – October 1, 2005 -- And She Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4
-- In an impressive first novel that echoes Kingston’s The Woman
Warrior (1976) and Proulx’s The Shipping News (1993), the tragic
conquest of a little-discussed ethnic group is filtered through an
unlikely point of view. Thirty-one-year-old Brandy is a blond
drifter who impulsively follows her boyfriend to a fishing port in
the Aleutian Islands. Left alone during his trips at sea, she
becomes obsessed with hints, from sources as unlikely as bathroom
graffiti and an Aleut coke-whore, of a secret the native
community...
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Kirkus Review, September 1, 2005 -- A rootless
young woman travels to a stormy island. -- And She Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4
-- Brandy-a natural blonde who likes to believe she was named after
liquor-is an emotional cowboy. As the offspring of the ill-fated
match between a failed scholar father and a roving femme fatale
mother, she's used to being a wanderer. After years of following men
from town to town, she knows that she is a drifter, but when she
follows her latest fling to a fishing village in the Aleutian
Islands, she's reached a whole new level of rootlessness. Her
boyfriend spends long stretches at sea, and as Brandy settles into
the odd pace of life...
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Library Journal – August 2005 -- And She Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4
-- Until her arrival in Dutch Harbor, AK, Brandy had spent her
entire adult life drifting from one man to the next, with no real
identity of her own. When she follows her latest boyfriend, a
fisherman, to the Aleutian Islands, she finds work as a cocktail
waitress, passing the time while he spends weeks at sea. But instead
of being content to serve drinks at the Elbow Room—one of the most
notorious bars in the country (famously dubbed “the most despicable”
by Playboy)—Brandy sets out to uncover ancient and dark secrets of
the town and its women. Dyson deftly peels back the layers of
Brandy’s persona...
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Publishers Weekly – August 29, 2005 -- And She
Was, Cindy Dyson. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-059770-4 -- Brandy
"was thirty-one, the daughter of a bum and a slut, saddled with a
liquor name." It's with these dubious credentials that our heroine
finds herself—yet again—drifting after a man. This time she follows
her latest boyfriend, Thad, a tenderhearted fisherman she keeps at
emotional arm's length, to remote Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the
Aleutian Islands. Brandy finds a gig as a cocktail waitress at the
local roughneck bar, the Elbow Room, where brawls are the evening's
entertainment and fishermen drink with Aleut women, including
Bessie, a coke whore, and Little Liz, a hostile drunk. Between
drinking, drugging and deciphering mysterious graffiti on the
bathroom walls, Brandy delves into the past of the native...
Read more...
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