"The Lives of Edie Pritchard" by Larry Watson offers a contemplative exploration of life's twists and turns, earning a steady three stars from me. Watson's writing skillfully delves into the complexities of small-town life and the nuances of human relationships, particularly through the lens of Edie Pritchard's journey. I appreciated the depth of character development and the way Watson weaves together past and present to unravel Edie's story. However, at times, the pacing felt slow, and I found myself wishing for a bit more narrative momentum. Nevertheless, Watson's ability to capture the essence of ordinary lives with compassion and insight makes "The Lives of Edie Pritchard" a worthwhile read for fans of literary fiction and nuanced character studies.

We see Edie Pritchard, as a new bride, as Edie Dunn fighting for her life in a violent marriage, and a grandmother, who is constantly underestimated. A small town in Montana is the background, complete with underlying violence. Men who believe their needs supersede any law. Edie learns quickly to keep her guard up. She remembers few good times. She is never at a loss to explain her mind and thoughts to the reader. It’s a frontier story of a woman’s survival. She is a testament to women who endure. It is character that walks into the room.

I've been a fan of Larry Watson's forever, and this title didn't disappoint. I'll look forward to his next book.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory
glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

Interesting read

I always find it interesting when men write about what women think or feel. Larry captures this perfectly! Kudos to him on another well written book.

The Lives of Edie Pritchard by Larry Watson is a 2020 Algonquin Books publication.

Magnificent character study- great writing!

Montana- 1967

Edie is a beautiful woman, married, but feeling unfulfilled. Her husband is bland, and jealous, but his twin brother, Ray is standing by, hoping for a chance with Edie, himself. Life takes an unusual turn, which gives Edie a nudge, and the perfect opportunity to take her leave.

From there we catch up with Edie at various turning points in her life. In each segment, Edie must make decisions to save herself from the machinations or obsessions of the men in her life- her attractiveness working against her as she struggles to be seen as a person, not an object to owned.

This is a fascinating character study. Edie is a sympathetic character, overall, although she is not perfect. One can feel her palpable feelings of suffocation, and her burning need to live life on her own terms.

She does rise to the occasion, despite the hurdles blocking her path, when necessary, although she is usually forced to unravel a bad situation before any real progress can be made.

The story covers three generations- skipping over decades of Edie’s life at a time, only checking in with her when she faces a hurdle large enough to prompt a complete do-over. In my opinion, there were people who may have been collateral damage in Edie’s pursuit of independence, tragically so, and at other times, Edie was forced to cut her losses.

What stands out, is the sparse prose and the moody atmosphere, which is quite effective. I was riveted to the pages, deeply involved in Edie’s world.

I can’t say this is the type of novel I’m normally drawn to, or that I got from it everything the author intended. The last portion of the book is slightly melancholy, and maybe a little contrived, too. Yet, it is Edie’s strength and resilience that makes the story a triumph.

Because I am still pondering Edie’s choices, and the events that spurred them, I would say the novel did what it set out to do. This is, to my knowledge, my first book by this author. I'm very keen to read more of his work.

4 stars

I'm a huge fan of Larry Watson and his writing. This book didn't disappoint. The Lives of Edie Pritchard are just that. Stories of her life, from young woman and onward. With such realistic every day characters, there is just an honesty in Mr. Watson's writing and the descriptions of lives in Montana, small towns, that is so true to life. Interesting stories that aren't flashy or fast, but just told in a interesting way that keeps the reader engaged. A home run!
Huge thanks to Algonquin Books and Netgalley for an ARC of this wonderful book for an honest review.

Larry Watson is a true storyteller and this story was captivating. The Lives of Edie Pritchard is a character driven story that reminds us to always be true to ourselves. This book was so well written that there was no lag in the story. In my experience character driven stories can sometimes feel like they aren't going anywhere. This wasn't the case here. Following Edie through the different parts of her life was really enjoyable and I always wondered what Edie was gonna do next. Such a joy to read. Highly recommend. I recommend this to someone who likes female driven stories and this would also be enjoyable for fans of Ask Again Yes and fans of multigenerational family stories.

I found the ending a little unsatisfying, as it seems Edie never really got to be exactly who she wanted to. An interesting look at how we cloak ourselves in roles, and sometimes lose who we are in them.

Who said the best predictor of someone’s behaviour is past behaviour? That is certainly true for Edie Pritchard, a young woman married to Dean, a man she met in high school. It’s the 60s. Edie and Dean live in an apartment above a bakery in Montana. She’s a bank teller, blonde, a looker; she tends to get a lot of male attention whether she wants it or not, and being beautiful hasn’t made her life easier. Her husband, former athlete Dean, peaked in high school and now seems locked in depression.

Lives

Dean is a twin, and somewhere in the back of his troubled mind lurks the idea that Edie really wants his brother, Roy. Dean lacks confidence, Roy does not, and to make matters worse, Edie once had a minor thing with Roy, but that’s all in the past as far as Edie is concerned. A bizarre triangle emerges between Dean, Roy and Edie. Roy pursues Edie, Edie goes off alone with Roy and then Dean accuses Edie of really wanting his twin. It doesn’t matter that Edie denies the accusation.

“Do you know me? I wonder. There’s a me who exists in your mind and you know her. But that’s not me. You’ve made her up and you seem to have a whole life for her.”

There are times when Edie is sure that Dean is shoving her at Roy, and Edie and Roy spend a lot of time together–time that Dean bows out of. And during this time alone, Roy constantly hits on Edie. An incident with a truck brings things to a head, and one day, Edie, who has had enough, takes off.

The novel picks up twenty years later with Edie now on her second marriage. She has a child with Gary Dunn and when the past comes to call, her second marriage explodes. The novel then has a third final section with Edie now in her sixties, living in an apartment when her granddaughter comes to visit.

The book explores Edie’s life, her choices and how those choices then impact three generations of women. Larry Watson’s The Lives of Edie Pritchard is a rather depressing read. The book’s biggest argument, at least in my mind, is that women MUST have an education and or a self-supporting career to fall back on. Until women have that, then their lives are not their own, and they are subject to the vagaries of possession. The book’s argument that Edie’s beauty leads men to want to possess and define her is not invalid, however, any woman in a relationship in which she cannot support herself is vulnerable.

For this reader, Edie was a frustrating character. Roy constantly puts the moves on her, his behaviour and conversation is inappropriate as Edie is, after all, his sister-in-law, not a potential lay. Edie complains to Roy about his behaviour and yet does not avoid being alone with him. Neither does she draw a line in the sand and tell him to back the fuck off. She complains about everyone misunderstanding her relationship with Roy and yet she walks right up that path. Maybe she’s baiting Dean, but whatever her motivation, she annoyed me.

She gets out his pack of marlboros, shakes out a cigarette, and raises it to his lips. If he has to be disabled in some way, she thinks, why couldn’t it be his vision that’s affected. If he were blind or nearly so,. his remarks, his unrelenting remarks, about her appearance would finally cease. And their relationship would be different.

Review copy

Published by Algonquin Books on July 21, 2020

The Lives of Edie Pritchard follows a woman through three segments of her life, focusing on the choices she makes as she transitions (or doesn’t) to what might be considered a “new life.” But we only get one life. The novel’s point, I think, is that our life is defined by the choices we make. Sometimes those choices don’t seem like a choice at all, particularly when we decide that not to make a change is the most responsible choice, even if we might prefer a different life to the one we're living.

Edie Pritchard begins the novel in Gladstone, Montana. She dates and eventually marries Dean Linderman, a dull but decent fellow who has a more exciting and less decent brother named Roy. There was a time when Edie came close to letting Roy have his way with her. Roy doesn’t handle rejection well, so he continues to pursue Edie even after she marries his brother. Dean doesn’t handle his insecurity well, even though Edie gives him no reason to be jealous.

For reasons that are at least partially Roy’s fault, he crashes his car and is rescued by Edie. The circumstances are innocent but Dean can’t rid himself of his suspicion that there is more to the story. Some of the drama in the first section surrounds Dean’s belief that Roy should get justice of some sort from the people who, in Dean’s view, are responsible for Roy’s accident. Edie views this as men being men and, even though she’s still young, she’s pretty sick of men being men. The first section ends with Edie Linderman making a choice about whether she wants to stay with Dean or leave Gladstone.

In the second segment, Edie is middle-aged and living in Granite Valley, Montana. She’s married to Gary Dunn, with whom she has a daughter named Jennifer. Gary, like Dean, has a problem with unwarranted jealousy, as if it is Edie’s fault that men are attracted to her. When Roy calls to tell her that Dean is dying of cancer and wants to say goodbye, Gary’s reaction is inappropriate. He’s never been able to accept the fact of Edie’s earlier marriage. At some point, Edie finds herself back in Gladstone, this time with Jennifer. When Gary arrives uninvited, it seems a confrontation between Roy, Dean, Gary, and another guy might ensue. All of this “men being men” is again too much for Edie. The second section ends with Edie Dunn making a choice about whether she wants to stay with Gary or leave Granite Valley.

In the third segment, Edie is in her sixties, living contentedly alone in Gladstone, free from the drama that men insist on causing. The drama reappears when her granddaughter visits, bringing with her a boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother, who is clearly going to cause trouble. The segment reunites Edie with Roy, who helps her rescue the granddaughter from “men being men,” although whether the effort is worthwhile is debatable. Whether Edie and Roy will get together on Edie's terms is an underlying question. The answer is one of the story’s many surprises.

A good bit more occurs during the course of the story but the plot sketch above provides some sense of what the novel is about. Each section generates dramatic tension that centers largely on whether men will harm Edie because of their desire or jealousy or bad judgment or inability to exercise self-control. Despite its subject matter, The Lives of Edie Pritchard avoids becoming a soap opera by its close examination of how Edie’s life is dictated both by choices she makes and by choices she feels forced to make. The novel seems to suggest that no matter how much we try to distance ourselves from trouble, it is always waiting around the next bend.

Roy changes quite a bit during the course of the novel, perhaps not fundamentally but behaviorally. Edie has always known who she is and stays true to herself. Her changes are those that come with age and the acquisition of experience and wisdom. By the last segment, Edie has demonstrated remarkable resilience and proves that she doesn't need a man to protect or guide her.

Larry Watson’s writing is, as always, a combination of power and grace. He manages to infuse elements of a thriller in what is essentially a domestic drama — or in this case, three domestic dramas that add up to a life.

The theme of “maleness” as something with which women must cope is explored without bashing men, although I suspect most men will see something of their instinctive selves in some of the characters. Recognizing those instincts is the key to banishing them and becoming a man who is more respectful toward women. For that reason, I suspect The Lives of Edie Pritchard is a novel that will appeal equally to readers of both sexes. Any reader is likely to become caught up in the peaks and valleys of the plot and to either identify with a character or to recognize a character in someone we know well.

RECOMMENDED

Larry Watson's The Lives of Edie Pritchard is a perfect book for summer where you can take a literary road trip out West with protagonist Edie, starting in the late 1960s to the 1980s up to the aughts. This book is a Western for the modern reader that grapples with themes of marriage, motherhood, and sexuality.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Could more cigarettes been smoked or crushed under the heel of a boot than in this book? For all you Montana lovers, consider reading this book. Not the depth of Ivan Doig’s novels but its an enjoyable, story. The language is sparse and at times gritty and make the story of Edie and Roy told over a 60 year span a quick enjoyable story.

I was sucked into Larry Watson's writing almost twenty years ago when I picked up Montana 1948. I've got multiple copies of that book taking space on the shelf and I'll never get rid of them. He immediately became one of those authors I just buy and read whatever he puts out, regardless of cover (thought they're always great), synopsis (though they always sound great), publicity (I've never read a bad word), anything. I just jump. So I was thrilled to see that a new book was coming on July 21. The Lives of Edie Pritchard begins thusly:

Sunlight glints off the slope of the hood like a snowdrift, and Roy Linderman puts on his sunglasses. Like a man born to drive, he lets one arm hang out the window of his Chevy Impala while the other rests on top of the steering wheel to keep the big car in line.

When you've read some Larry Watson, those lines feel like pulling into the gravel driveway of home after some time away. The Lives of Edie Pritchard is described by the wonderful Algonquin Press as "a multigenerational story of the West told through the history of one woman trying to navigate life on her own terms," and synopsized as follows:

Edie—smart, self‑assured, beautiful—always worked hard. She worked as a teller at a bank, she worked to save her first marriage, and later, she worked to raise her daughter even as her second marriage came apart. Really, Edie just wanted a good life, but everywhere she turned, her looks defined her. Two brothers fought over her. Her second husband became unreasonably possessive and jealous. Her daughter resented her. And now, as a grandmother, Edie finds herself harassed by a younger man. It’s been a lifetime of proving that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere. The Lives of Edie Pritchard tells the story of one woman just trying to be herself, even as multiple men attempt to categorize and own her.

Triumphant, engaging, and perceptive, Watson’s novel examines a woman both aware of her physical power and constrained by it, and how perceptions of someone in a small town can shape her life through the decades.

Praise has been high and wide, including starred reviews from Kirkus:

Watson is insightful in his depiction of Edie and those who seek to control her, and his descriptions of small-town Montana life, where guns are frequently a menacing presence, reflect how the potential for violence is ever present beneath the surface of things. The novel crackles with tension, especially the second and third acts; Watson is a born storyteller, and it shows on every understated page. But Edie's story also rings with a hardscrabble poetry . .A riveting and tense examination of identity, violence, and female anger.

and Booklist:

Watson remains incapable of creating characters who aren't fully formed individuals, as courageous as they are vulnerable, and here he again displays his rare ability to craft strong women and to describe their everyday lives with rare power. Always noted for his novelization of the regions of Montana, his cracking dialogue and unparalleled character work, Larry Watson is a treasure to behold. The Lives of Edie Pritchard is the latest in a line of stellar novels from one of our greatest artists.

Growing up in Montana, Edie Pritchard wanted to be seen for herself, but her beauty and body created a barrier that made people think they knew her even if they’d never met while the men in her life were more concerned about marking their claim than understanding her. She married out of high school to Dean Linderman, twin to Roy. The two always seem to be battling over her, and even her poignant attempts to recapture Dean’s attention fail. Later, Gary Dunn, husband number two, is at first charming and outgoing, but reveals himself as a jealous and controlling mate. Despite her unhappiness, Edie has to juggle her own needs with those of her teenage daughter’s. Finally, in her late sixties, Edie, living alone, finds peace and comfort in her routine, but the arrival of her granddaughter, Lauren, along with her boyfriend and his brother, upends her tranquility as she has to negotiate not only for Lauren’s safety but her own.

Edie spends a lifetime spurning unwanted attention while craving authentic connection—which she finds in the unlikeliest of places. Cars and road trips occur as a repeating motif. On the one hand, this is an appropriate metaphor for the progression of Edie’s lives. On another level, Watson’s writing is propulsive: in each of the three sections of the book, he slowly builds the tension and dread, the holes and possibilities, all focusing on the question “Can Edie be herself instead of what others want or need her to be?”

I highly recommend this for readers who enjoy literary fiction or character-driven novels.

This book was slow going for me.
I didn’t relate with any of the characters except Edie a strong and hard worker but that’s it.
This was a book for me.
Thank you NetGalley, Algonquin Books and Larry Watson for this arc in exchange of an honest review .

This is a character driven book, but I honestly didn’t find anything I liked about Edie’s character to want to go on reading it. I started skimming through The pages at about 20% and finally gave up at around 30%. In all that time, all I found out was that Edie was beautiful - because we were constantly reminded of it. There’s definitely a fan base out here for This book, and the writing at times is really good, but It just Is not for me.

Thank you to Algonquin and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review purposes.

I liked The Lives of Edie Pritchard for the atmospheric writing. However I had problems with characters focusing on how Edie Pritchard looked and how one of them had to have her, no matter what.

I was swept away into both the life and journey of Edie and the landscape that is Montana. Watson writes in such glorious detail about Montana that one can’t help but feel that they are in Montana, right alongside Edie and others in this novel. We observe Edie during various stages of her life, from her early twenties to her early sixties with particular focus on the years 1967, 1987 and 2007. Edie is a strong and self-confident woman who often finds the men in her life attempting to make her feel small. Edie, however, is a force to be reckoned with. Thank you to @algonquinbooks @netgalley and the author for the physical ARC of this beguiling novel. Pub date 7/21/20 Trigger warning for violence/threat of violence (including sexual) yet this novel has so much depth that I would highly recommend it. #bookstagram #larrywatson #thelivesofediepritchard #algonquinbooks #netgalley #goodreads #booksandmrdarcy #withhernosestuckinabook❤️📚

Edie Pritchard grows up in a small town in Montana. She is considered smart and intelligent by those around her and fun-loving. As the novel opens, she is working as a teller in a bank as there aren't many career jobs for women in the sixties. The novel is broken into three distinct parts, Edie in her twenties, in her forties and in her sixties.

Edit marries young. She is married to Dean Linderman. Dean is a twin and his brother Roy has always been the outgoing one, while Dean is more introverted. Roy is a salesman, Dean is a mechanic. Dean can't believe that Edie chose him and wonders if she made a mistake choosing him over Roy. Both men want Edie and now, even though Dean is married to her, he spends his days becoming more and more jealous of Roy and what he imagines Edie might feel for him. When Edie and Roy go on an errand that ends in a disaster, it precipitates Edie's decision that this life might not be for her.

In her second stage, Edie has moved away and is now married to Gary Dunn. Dunn is wealthy and is determined to control all around him, including Edie. When she gets a call from Roy asking her to return to her first home to visit with Dean, who is sick, Gary immediately says no. Edie decides that she will determine where and when she goes places and takes off with her daughter. Dunn follows her and there is a scene that comes from the men around her trying to control her.

Finally, in the last stage, Edie is now in her sixties and on her own. She has moved back to her hometown and lives quietly in an apartment, working and having a few friends. Her life is turned around when her granddaughter decides to visit out of the blue. She brings her boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother and it's clear that these men are trouble. They are the kind who drift from town to town, scheming get rich quick schemes and not too careful to follow the law. The granddaughter leaves with them but then contacts Edie wanting her to come find her and take her back. When Edie does, she is forced into a confrontation with the brother who is determined to keep his brother's girlfriend with them.

This is an interesting novel from successful novelist Larry Watson. As with other novels, he writes about small town life, about people who live lives of quiet desperation and who attempt to find happiness in their surroundings. Edie spends her life trying to throw off the need of men to control her life; her decisions and her happiness. Whether the control is overt or convert, it exists in every male relationship she encounters and the reader is left wondering if Watson sees this as a given in male-female encounter. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.