The tales in Arizona Rain reflect over landscapes and across generations while weaving together with unexpected meaning. To create this mix between a novel-in-stories, creative nonfiction, and historical fiction, author Jessica Lynn MacLean meticulously compiled her ancestors' words and photographs so they could help tell their own stories of life during the Great Depression, World War II, the baby boom, and the big snow.
On one side of her family, at least nine relatives worked at the Grand Canyon from 1902 to 1949. On the other side, a young lady who was more of a Bradshaw Mountain woman than a beauty queen explores romance, adventure, and building beauty.
As Arizona enters the 1950s, reverend's daughter, Gerry Turner, loves Chuck Baltzer, but they can't afford a ring, let alone a decent place to live in Phoenix. Despite dreams to make an old cabin with an outhouse their refuge, its remote beauty may be deadly. WWII Army barracks and a sleeping porch that rains scorpions aren't the family adventure she has in mind either.
When James Barnett MacLean is killed by a train, his six-year-old son, Mike, doesn't have enough memories to last a lifetime. He implores family to tell stories from the past and help him remember his dad. Uncle Robert tells about bike tires wobbling from cars whizzing by on Route 66. Mike's mom, Georgia, talks about fearing for her life and the life of her baby with her husband deployed. Mike's grandparents, Harvey Girl, Ida Barnett, and mule train guide, Harry Dale, survive working at the Grand Canyon in the 1920s. But a failing economy and an added surprise threaten their resolve.
