One Good Mama Bone: A Novel

Bren McClain

Feb 2017 · Univ of South Carolina Press

About this ebook

A mama cow’s devotion to her calf provides lessons in motherhood to a poor Southern woman in this novel of family, survival, and human-animal bonds.

South Carolina, 1950s. Homemaker Sarah Creamer has been left to care for young Emerson Bridge, the product of an affair between Sarah’s husband and her best friend. But beyond the deep wound of their betrayal, Sarah is daunted by the prophecy of her mother’s words, seared in her memory since childhood: “You ain’t got you one good mama bone in you, girl.”

When Sarah finds Emerson a steer to compete at an upcoming cattle show, the young calf cries in distress on her farm. Miles away, his mother breaks out of a barbed-wire fence to find him. When Sarah finds the young steer contently nursing a large cow, her education in motherhood begins.

But Luther Dobbins is desperate to regain his championship cattle dynasty, and he will stop at nothing to win. Emboldened by her budding mama bone, Sarah is committed to victory even after she learns the winning steer’s ultimate fate. Will she too stop at nothing, even if it means betraying her teacher? One Good Mama Bone explores the strengths and limitations of parental love and the ethical dilemmas of raising animals for food.

Ratings and reviews

I've been around cows all my life, so the connections made to this great story are real. I love the stories of each character and how they weave together to make one great novel. There are many contrasts in the story, good and bad. I feel the characters were true to life for the time the story takes place. I can't wait for the next novel by this author!

This is a great book! Well done and it really brings you a great perspective on life. I'm glad to have been able to read this and look forward to more from the author. Well cone!

About the author

Bren McClain was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, on a beef cattle and grain farm. She has a degree in English from Furman University; is an experienced media relations, radio, and television news professional; and currently works as a communications confidence coach. She is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and the recipient of the 2005 Fiction Fellowship by the South Carolina Arts Commission. McClain won the 2016 William Faulkner–William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress for "Took" and was a finalist in the 2012 Pirate's Alley Faulkner Award for Novel-in-Progress for One Good Mama Bone. This is McClain's first novel. Visit her website at http://www.brenmcclain.com.