No matter what you think of what this book will be like, you’re not prepared for how gripping and moving it will be. I work in a library and was well aware of the buzz around One Good Mama Bone for some time before finally reading it myself. I expected it to be sad and maybe a little touching but I had no idea how, after only a couple chapters, I would care so much and be so invested in this unique and superlative story.

The book follows the Creamer family, Sarah and her son Emerson Bridge, who are all on their own and on the knifes edge of dire poverty in 1950’s Anderson county South Carolina. Determined to provide for her son, Sarah makes a desperate gamble and buys a steer to enter into the annual Fat Cattle Show & Sale, a contest with a hefty cash prize. But as mother and son raise the animal and form closer connections with their neighbors and friends they begin to question if they can really enter their steer in the competition, knowing the butchers’ block is the final destination.

A severely poignant novel about family, kindness, and belonging, this story had me firmly in its grip from beginning to end. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, and when I was reading it I was simultaneously desperate to get to then end and also wishing it wouldn’t end. Aside from the engaging story and viscerally descriptive language, the author also portrays the rich inner lives and psychology of her characters with a deft and masterful touch. I couldn’t wait to learn more about these characters and getting inside their heads and seeing how they acted and reacted with people in their lives, was endlessly fascinating. One Good Mama Bone is a book that sticks with you changes you as you read it. I sincerely hope Bren McClain continues writing for many years to come, I can’t wait to see what else she has to say.
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Once you attune yourself to the voice of this emotionally evocative story, it’ll submerge you in language like water running in a creek bed. Author Bren McClain takes the reader to a down on its luck farm, in the esoteric pocket of rural 1950’s Anderson, South Carolina, and delivers lines, such as “Get the by God out of my clean yard” and “He’d probably be drunk as a coot and trying to have relations with his common law.” It is McClain’s uncompromising use of language that gives us the consciousness of each character in this purpose driven story, who are all linked to each other by the common pursuit of raising a steer to enter into the 1952 Fat Cattle Show and Sale, with dreams of winning the monetary prize awarded to its Grand Champion. Every character has its own agenda, and the best and worst of human nature is depicted as we follow the motivation of each principal character to the destination of one fateful day. One Good Mama Bone opens with a birth’s gripping drama and never turns the reader loose throughout its breath-catching, suspenseful build. It gives us a protagonist in single mother Sarah Creamer, who doggedly fights the constraints of poverty and wrestles with her own beaten down identity, all in the name of selfless love for her young son, Emerson Bridge. Sarah’s quest tugs at the heartstrings with the lure of her incremental maternal awakening, as reflected in her relationship with a mother cow named Mama Red. That this story contains a nemesis in the contentious, self-serving cattleman Luther Dobbins, who throws up one heart-stopping obstacle after another on the road to Sarah and Emerson Bridges’ goal keeps the pages turning to the very end. I loved this book for the mood that descended every time I returned to its pages. It’s a rare book that hands you a life you can slip into, and an even rarer writer that’ll give you a million reasons to do it. ( )

This book grabbed me from the beginning and wouldn’t let got. Like many southern authors, McClain is able to pull me into a world in which I have no familiarity. I grew up in the 1950’s, but my life was much different than that of a single mother caught up in the cycle of poverty and no education in a rural areal of South Carolina. A mother’s love is fierce. She will do anything to make life bette for her son. The characters are vivid, strong and quirky. Few books make me read past my bedtime, so when I read one that keeps me from my sleep, I celebrate it. ( )

I'd give it ten stars if I could.

Oh, what a story, with the sense of time and place set so solidly on the pages, when you stop reading it might take you a second to realize you're actually still in your house, on your couch, or chair, and no, you have not entered Sarah Creamer's world. But you'll believe you have - just for that split second. You might need to take a breath before you plunge back in. I had to - several times.

I'll tell you this, I've always hated seeing that one lone steer hauled down the road in a cage at the back of a truck.

I loved Emerson Bridge, that beyond brave little boy. I grew to love little LC, and his mother Mildred. Luther? He had his own demons, without a doubt.

I told the author, and I'll say it here, one of the best books I've read in a long time. And I meant it. ( )

Linda Zagon's review Oct 28, 2018 · edit
it was amazing
Read 2 times. Last read October 28, 2018.

WOW!!!Kudos to Bren McClane, Author of “One Good Mama Bone”, for such a captivating, insightful, intense, emotional, and thought- provoking novel. Bren McClane’s vivid descriptions of the rural South Carolina landscape in the early 1950’s and her colorful cast of characters are absolutely amazing. The Genres for this novel are Fiction and Historical Fiction. The author weaves many important topics together to tell this story. One of the questions that comes to mind, Is it Nature or Nurture that causes human being’s behavior?

The author does give us a glimpse of some of the characters as they are growing up, and how their parents place certain expectations, and show lack of parenting skills. For example, Sarah Creamer, was brought up being told she was too fat to go to church and her mother keeps repeating that “Sarah doesn’t have one good mama bone in her'”. Now Sarah is an adult and finds herself in charge of a little boy that was brought into the world by her best friend and husband. Despite their betrayal, Sarah is on hand to help with the delivery of a little boy. The mother kills herself, leaving Sarah holding the baby. Sarah remembers her mother’s word, that ” she doesn’t have one good mama bone in her”, and panics. Sarah and her husband bring up the baby, Emerson Bridge.

When Emerson Bridge, turns seven, Sarah’s husband dies, leaving her in dire circumstances. They live in poverty, and barely have enough to eat. Sarah sews dresses and sells them to try to survive. Sarah owes so much money to many people. Sarah hears of an opportunity to make money and give her son a friend. There is a contest where young boys can help their steer grow, and win prize money. Some of the boys don’t realize what will happen to their steer. His mother buys the calf from Luther Dobbins, who will do anything to win this contest. Luther has a son the same age as Emerson.

Emerson Bridge names his calf Lucky. Lucky is crying all night and the next morning, they find that his mother has made it four miles and is feeding him. Sarah calls the Mama Cow, “Mama Red”, and starts learning some mothering skills from the cow. Sarah is really trying to find her “Mama Bone”.

I appreciate that Bren McClane discusses how important animals are to humans. It is mentioned that humans should be kind to animals. Important topics such as parenting, being a Mother and a Father, compassion, religion, family, emotional support, friendship, love and hope are seen in this story. There are twists and turns , betrayals, loyalty, tragedy, love and hope. I would highly recommend this fantastic novel for those readers who love a well written story. ( )