The View from Half Dome
In Jill Caugherty’s novel The View from Half Dome, a girl makes plans to fills the void left by her father and sister.
Isabel moves into a rundown apartment in Depression-era San Francisco with her mother and her sister, Audrey. Her father has died; her brother, James, helps to support the family by working in Yosemite. Isabel and Audrey long to escape their circumstances, dreaming of an imaginary, magical place, the Isle of Castaways, to do so.
When Audrey dies while under Isabel’s supervision, Isabel hides the circumstances. Her guilt feeds into a decision to catch a ride to Yosemite. There, she befriends Mrs. Michael, a ranger and the first woman naturalist, who becomes her mentor. She also meets other people whom she wants to emulate; Ansel Adams quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson and tells her about his desire to preserve the national parks while photographing their natural beauty.
The book’s pace is dictated by Isabel’s steps toward her goal. At first, she refuses to talk about how Audrey died, and the world around her feels bleak. But Yosemite’s quiet grandeur, which she sees during hikes with Mrs. Michael, calms her. She finds it to be a forgiving environment in which she is able to admit her part in Audrey’s death. The tension of the book’s first half gives way to conversations between Isabel and her mother about her education and career plans; Isabel risks speaking her truth. However, the heroine’s attempts to tie feeding the poor into her budding aspirations are underdeveloped—and somewhat at odds with her quest for independence.
Working toward a practical resolution, the historical novel The View from Half Dome follows a determined teenager as she pursues the incremental fulfillment of her dreams.
Reviewed by
Mari Carlson
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