J
JAMESBJOHNSON
Guest
I came across another winner yesterday. It's the forgotten novel of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, GOLDEN APPLES.
GA was published in 1935 and immediately forgotten by everyone. Its not in print. You can buy all the autographed copies of it you desire.
I ignored it, too, because I've never read one kind word about the book. But I came upon a copy of it while looking for something else, and was bored enough to risk reading it. I expected the worst. Even the dust jacket ignores GA, and pitches Rawlings popular novels.
I opened the book and was hooked instantly. Odd! Everyone hates the book. How come?
The book came out in 1935 in the midst of the Depression. GA is filled with despair and struggle and futility. I imagine it reminded everyone of their own circumstances.
In a nutshell, 2 young kids are orphaned when their parents die; the story begins at the funeral. The kids, Luke & Allie, are promptly abandoned by friends, neighbors, and the community. When I say 'abandoned' I mean immediately left on their own. The parents were sharecroppers and didnt own their cabin or their land. They have ONE Dollar in coins, and they go to work.
Eventually theyre evicted from the farm and find refuge in an abandoned cabin in the Florida jungle. They survive. And after a few years an exiled English boy arrives to claim the cabin and the land. His family led him to believe the farm was a country manor with servants and carriages and an income. The English boy is immediately overwhelmed by the dismal prospect. For better or worse, he is marooned, just like the children. There is no where else to go.
It's well-written, but I dont care for the Cracker dialect Rawlings uses. I'm a 7th generation Floridian and the words are familiar to me, but they arent pronounced accurately. I imagine Rawlings struggled to make the dialect comprehensible at all. But it fails.
GA was published in 1935 and immediately forgotten by everyone. Its not in print. You can buy all the autographed copies of it you desire.
I ignored it, too, because I've never read one kind word about the book. But I came upon a copy of it while looking for something else, and was bored enough to risk reading it. I expected the worst. Even the dust jacket ignores GA, and pitches Rawlings popular novels.
I opened the book and was hooked instantly. Odd! Everyone hates the book. How come?
The book came out in 1935 in the midst of the Depression. GA is filled with despair and struggle and futility. I imagine it reminded everyone of their own circumstances.
In a nutshell, 2 young kids are orphaned when their parents die; the story begins at the funeral. The kids, Luke & Allie, are promptly abandoned by friends, neighbors, and the community. When I say 'abandoned' I mean immediately left on their own. The parents were sharecroppers and didnt own their cabin or their land. They have ONE Dollar in coins, and they go to work.
Eventually theyre evicted from the farm and find refuge in an abandoned cabin in the Florida jungle. They survive. And after a few years an exiled English boy arrives to claim the cabin and the land. His family led him to believe the farm was a country manor with servants and carriages and an income. The English boy is immediately overwhelmed by the dismal prospect. For better or worse, he is marooned, just like the children. There is no where else to go.
It's well-written, but I dont care for the Cracker dialect Rawlings uses. I'm a 7th generation Floridian and the words are familiar to me, but they arent pronounced accurately. I imagine Rawlings struggled to make the dialect comprehensible at all. But it fails.
