At the Foot of the Rainbow by Gene Stratton Porter

Dannie Macnoun lives in Rainbow Bottom, a valley with a trickling creek full of fish, on a small farm next to that of Jimmy Malone his life long friend’s. Fifteen years ago, Dannie sent Jimmy to the girl he loved on his behalf to convince Mary to be his wife. But Jimmy was the one to win Mary’s hand. After fifteen years of unhappiness, Dannie is beginning to realize the pointlessness of his life. He spends his time shielding Jimmy from Mary – and visa-versa – by doing Jimmy’s work while his friend is out getting drunk at the local bar.

Dannie is determined that he will always be faithful to his best friend, no matter how he feels … but Jimmy is hiding a dark secret that may rip their friendship – and their lives – apart.

Though I enjoyed the general plot and writing of this story, I didn’t particularly like it. It seems like it took too long for Gene Stratton-Porter to get to the actual story. It looks as if she didn’t really have enough material for a full-length novel and might have done better if she had just written a short story of half the length of the novel she published.

My favorite thing about At the Foot of the Rainbow …

Dannie’s everlasting friendship and trust taught me a lot of friendship. He’s a very good person and I really liked and cared what happened to him. He was probably the main reason I finished the book.

My least favorite thing about At the Foot of the Rainbow …

As I said, it dragged on at times. It seemed somewhat gloomier than some of her other novels. In fact, at some points it was down-right depressing! Definitely not up to Gene Stratton Porter’s original standards.

Rating:

3/5 stars.

How can you find out more about Gene Stratton Porter?

Gene Stratton Porter wrote twelve novels in total plus many books on natural history. Here’s a link to Gene Stratton Porter’s Amazon Page.

~Kellyn Roth