The Mineral Palace: A Novel

by Heidi Julavits Narrated by Susan Ericksen

Overview

In a bold debut novel of the Great Depression, a young doctor's wife uncovers the sordid secrets of a withering Colorado mining town, even as she struggles with the ravaging truths about her marriage and her child.

In the drought-ridden spring of 1934, Bena Jonnsen, her husband Ted, and their newborn baby relocate from their home in Minnesota to Pueblo, a Western plains town plagued by suffocating dust storms and equally suffocating social structures. Little can thrive in this bleak environment, neither Bena and Ted's marriage nor the baby, whom Bena believes - despite her husband's constant assurances - is slipping away from her.

To distract herself from worrying, Bena accepts a part-time position at Pueblo's daily newspaper, The Chieftain, reporting on the "good works' of the town's elite Ladies' Club leaders, women such as Reimer Lee Jackson and her plans to restore the town's crumbling monument to the mining industry - the Mineral Palace - to its turn-of-the-century grandeur. Bena is drawn to the Mineral Palace and to the lurid hallways of Pueblo's brothel, befriending a prostitute, Maude, and Red, a reticent cowpoke. Through these new emotional entanglements, Bena slowly exposes not only the sexual corruption on which the entire town is founded, but also the lies enclosing her own marriage and the sanctity of motherhood. She returns again and again to the decaying architecture of the Mineral Palace; within its eroding walls she is forced to confront her most terrifying secret, which becomes her only means for salvation.

With her gritty and magical prose, Heidi Julavits elegantly examines the darker side of paternity and maternity, as well as the intersection of parental love and merciful destruction. The Mineral Palace is a startling and authentic story of survival in a world of decadence and depravity.

Editorial Reviews

Esquire

Heidi Julavit's debut novel, The Mineral Palace, is as marvelous as we've seen in a long time. A beautiful, sinister novel.

Newsweek

The Mineral Palace is a marvelous debut novel: harrowing, poetic and tragic enough to satisfy both Faulkner and Oprah.

Amy Tan

Mesmerizing.

Elle

With hard grace and quiet command, The Mineral Palace marks a compelling debut by a strong new voice in fiction.

Denver Post

...an intriguing read.

Voice Literary Supplement

A novel of daring imagination.

New Yorker

In this richly atmospheric first novel, Julavits transposes a Faulkerian gothic to a parched Rocky Mountain setting...

Jeff Giles

A marvelous debut novel: harrowing, poetic and tragic enough to satisfy both Faulkner and Oprah.
—Newsweek

Hillary Rosner

A novel of daring imagination...
—The Voice Literary Supplement, Spotlight on New Writers

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172696510
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	05/25/2005
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Things aren't always as they seem in The Mineral Palace. How does Heidi Julavits use lies and secrets to tell the story?

Q>Inclement weather occurs throughout The Mineral Palace. How does the weather mirror actual events in the novel?

Q>How do superstition and coincidence impact Bena's decisions throughout the story?

Q>Bena's role as a mother is a recurring theme in The Mineral Palace. How does the conclusion affect this role? Do Bena's actions break down what might otherwise be a positive construction of motherhood?

Q>How would the story change if it took place in a different setting - if, for example, Bena and her husband had originally moved to a more fertile part of the country?

Q>How are Maude and Bena alike? How are they different?

Q>What characteristics does Julavits give Maude to set her apart from a stereotypical prostitute?

Q>Why do you think Julavits chose The Mineral Palace as her title? In what way is the Palace at the structural and thematic center of the novel?

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