Road shoes

it starts as a martha stewart-style fantasy. when newlywed gardening magazine editor laura von baden and her husband, thomas, purchase 40 acres of land in northwestern colorado, laura envisions a picturesque rural retreat; and discovering she's pregnant only fuels her passion for creating the ideal country home--an escape from city stresses--for her family. but the dream starts to unravel when laura and thomas find themselves plagued with absentee landowner responsibilities as a menacing neighbor trespasses, floods their land, and swindles them out of water and mineral rights. as the neighborly dispute degenerates into a full-blown feud, laura begins to see an explosive, frighteningly irrational side to city-bred thomas, who starts spending spend more and more time up on their 40 acres, even as a pregnancy complication leaves laura bedridden in denver, her career and marriage in jeopardy. a rich cast of characters, including laura's new-age best-friend serrine, her career-challenged brother lester, their eccentric mother, an unusual mountain man, and a native american high school teacher/deputy sheriff, all play warm and sometimes comic roles as the crises around laura escalate toward an unexpected but wholly satisfying conclusion. in road shoes, author darla worden addresses a large number of topics of current interest: the subdividing of the west into "vanity ranches" ; the baby-boomer propelled gardening boom; survivalists; native american rights and artifacts; the more subtle, verbal forms of domestic violence; career woman pregnancy; "earthships" (self-sufficient dwellings of the type actor/environmentalist dennis weaver built in colorado); male bonding and "drumming"; and various alternative health practices and new-age ideas. worden successfully integrates these diverse elements to create a fascinating, deep-textured--and often humorous--environment in which the story's emotional events unfold. worden has a gift for writing in general, a fresh and appealing voice, and a flair for ironic humor and social satire.