Rerooted

Rerooted is a fictionalized story based on the life of Marie Root. It portrays a woman who escapes a brutal marriage in Michigan via the recently completed Northern Pacific Railroad. In 1908 she arrives at the the lakeside logging and mining town of Hope, Idaho. Her survival depends on making choices common to other women in history. Ultimately she grabs the opportunity to rescue the Hotel Hope from a gambling debt, stamping her own brand on its 'hospitality services.' Using bursts of information, history, memoir, and poetry, the author suggests a new way of story-telling. Borrowed from the philosophy of impressionist painting and collage, the story invites the reader to construct connections from a non-linear progression of clues woven through the concepts of roots, roses, and renewal.