Neglected Books have made it their mission to remember and republish forgotten novels – this one, from 1966, is a gripping tale of life in the midwest from a child’s perspective.
Joaquina Ballard Howles was born in 1930, and this was her only commercially published novel, informed in part by her childhood in the American West and the death of her brother.
Why has it been neglected all these years – never published in the USA until now – and why did Howles never follow it up until a self-published book appeared on Amazon the year she turned 90?
And, more importantly, is No More Giants a book that deserves to be discovered, or is it justly neglected? It reads well as a family tale told by Jenny, aged fifteen, who lives on “just a ranch” with her parents, her 12 year old brother Brian, and Aunt Lila.
It’s a hard and isolated life and a poor one. As Jenny seeks out what she interprets as true love, Brian seeks to escape the butchering and dehorning norms of his father’s legacy.
I found the book well-written and a definite page turner, with strong characterisations and situations. Howles’s perspective on mothers and motherhood is particularly effective throughout, from Jenny’s family to animal mothers she encounters on the ranch or in the imnediate vicinity.
Boiler House Press has done the same service as Virago did in the UK fifty years ago by bringing forgotten and sidelined authors, many of them women, back into prominence, with forewords and afterwords to provide context on the work.
The books themselves are extremely good quality paperbacks with strong typography and atmospheric covers. At retail of approximately £15, they feel very good value, and I am definitely interested to see what other fiction they return to circulation.
As for those questions about Howles, she seems a victim of circumstance, but her book definitely deserves its time in the sun.
No More Giants is now available from the Boiler House Press’s Recovered Books imprint. Boiler House is part of UEA Publishing based at the University of East Anglia.
***.5
Image credit: Neglected Books X account