An Absence So Great A Novel

by Kirkpatrick, Jane

• ISBN13: 9781578569816
• ISBN10: 1578569818
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-16
• Publisher: WaterBrook

Summary

While growing in confidence as a photographer, 18-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele's personal life is at a crossroads. But even a job she loves can't keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.

Author Biography

Jane Kirkpatrick is an award-winning, best-selling author of sixteen historical novels, including A Flickering Light, the first part of Jessie Gaebale’s story, and three nonfiction titles. Known for her unique insights into the exploration of community, family and faith of actual historical women, the Wisconsin native and her husband have called their ranch in Oregon home for the past 25 years.

Excerpts

One
Setting Things Right
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, four months earlier
 
JESSIE GAEBELE’S THOUGHTS AT TIMES behaved like a toddler’s: one moment they stayed safely hidden in the pump organ’s shadow, and the next minute they popped up to pull out all the stops, increasing in volume, shouting in her head, underscoring the aching loneliness that defined her days.
 
Today, as she stood in this men’s refuge permeated by the scent of oil and grease and gasoline, she flicked away those toddler voices. She had good reasons to be here. She was eighteen years old, it was 1910, and young women alone were going places they’d never gone before. She didn’t need to be embarrassed or afraid. Why had she come to Milwaukee if not to prove to herself and others that she could make wise choices and pursue a dream? One day she’d have her own photographic studio back in Winona, Minnesota, where her family lived. Her future beckoned, but she would return only when she’d proven to herself that she was in control of her heart.
 
“It might be best if you had your father look at it, Fräulein,” the proprietor cautioned.
 
“I’m not purchasing it for my father,” Jessie told him, a man her father’s age she guessed.
 
“Ach, I’m sorry. You look so young. Your husband then.”
 
Jessie took a deep breath. “It’s for my own use.”
 
The proprietor’s eyes widened. “Ah, well, do you have”—he looked over her small frame—“the stamina to make such a purchase? Riding an Emblem’s not like riding a bicycle or a horse, if you know what I mean.”
 
She didn’t know how to ride an Emblem or a Pierce or any other kind of motorcycle. She didn’t know where she’d learn or practice, or where she’d keep it once she figured out a way to afford the gas. But it was the perfect accoutrement, so much more distinctive than a certain kind of hat or a new pair of shoes. Jessie needed inspiration with fall closing in on her, the days soon shortening into long, lonely nights. Winter always made her dreary, and this first one away from her family promised to weigh her down like the pile of wool quilts on the bed that she no longer shared with her sisters.
 
“I’m a photographer,” Jessie told him, “and stronger than I look. I have my own income too. I assure you that I can afford to buy it.” This wasn’t quite the truth, but close. She planned to pay small portions each month. She’d read that some businesses did that now, calling itcredit,from a Latin word meaning “to believe.” The proprietor had to believe she would make the payment.
 
“Take a closer look then, Fräulein,” the man told her, moving aside so she could step closer.
Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
 
She was here in this motorcycle shop because she’d seen theMilwaukee Journalphotographer, Robert Taylor, making good use of such transportation. Unlike the Winona newspaper, theJournalprinted photographs not just of disasters like the fire at the flour mill but of everyday things: people picnicking, ships easing along the Milwaukee River, the country’s first kindergarten class. Studio shots they weren’t. Nor were they tramp photographs, as Fred referred to photographs taken outside of the staged, controlled setting of a proper studio. To Jessie, spontaneous photographs of everyday life demonstrated the vibrancy of a people and a place. It was the kind of photography Jessie preferred, a view of the world through a commonplace lens, reminding her that ordinary ways were worthy of remembering.
 
As a photographer, one needed to be distinctive, and that certain

---

Excerpted from An Absence So Great: A Novel by Jane Kirkpatrick
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.