A Cry From the Ground A Wiscasset Novel The Wiscasset Novels Book 5 edition by John Gould Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : A Cry From the Ground A Wiscasset Novel The Wiscasset Novels Book 5 edition by John Gould Literature Fiction eBooks 
The story of Elvina Denny, who at 14 comes to Maine from Louisiana and becomes involved with the Moody brothers, part of a raucous family of fisherfolk on Westport Island outside Wiscasset, Maine. Set in the 1920's and 30's, the novel contains echoes of the Cain and Abel myth - the source of its title - as well as providing the backstory of Bartholomew Ware, the sheriff of THE GREENLEAF FIRES. Elvina faces her hard path with extraordinary strength of will and character.
A Cry From the Ground A Wiscasset Novel The Wiscasset Novels Book 5 edition by John Gould Literature Fiction eBooks
A CRY FROM THE GROUNDJohn Gould’s fifth Wicasset novel, set in the 1920’s and early 30’s, bids fair to set this little corner of his native Maine in American fictional landscapes alongside a certain county in Mississippi made famous by a certain native of that state. After the first chapter, when we meet Elvina Denny as a 14-year-old on the train from New Orleans, where she has lived her whole life so far, to join her father all the action takes place in Wicasset, and one of the novel’s strengths is to convey a strong sense of place (a place quite unknown to this reader), not only with well-rendered descriptions (of the poor farm where the exotic teen-ager must learn to survive, or the island where the young mother must win her place among the Moody clan) but, perhaps especially, by the author’s sure and convincing use of dialogue. Mainers seem to use speech as though well aware of all that a New England gal from a bit further south, from Amherst, conveyed with her phrase “the unexpected freight/of the delivered syllable”: usually laconic, sometimes with a tinge of wry, almost always spare and minimalist their verbal exchanges (which nonetheless help move the plot to a considerable extent) contribute greatly to the satisfying flavor which the novel leaves on the tongue.
There is nothing minimalist about the sudden strokes of bold, dramatic violence which drive the story along and throw the characters into strong relief. Is John Gould renewing contact with the romantic traditions of earlier American literature, Poe or Melville? Teenage Elvina Denny Elvina is already a strong character, fiercely resisting the condescending blandishments of an adult fellow passenger whose attempt to play the genteel southern lady has for her wretched consequences. Elvina will need all her stubborn ferocity of will to meet the succession of challenges chronicled in the novel: a mean-spirited taciturn “father” whose repressed sexual cravings she exacerbates (but is he really her father? She and the reader are sure only that he knew her prostitute mother); a recklessly charming and consciousless young lover, who carries the adolescent off to a whorehouse; now as a young married woman raising twin sons whose sibling rivalry is building dangerously into mutual hatred. A lucid and unsparing social realism tempers any underlying romanticism in the story. We are in a harsh among unprivileged people for whom life can turn suddenly brutal: a prostitute moaning, beaten bloody by a client, a fisherman caught in a winter storm at sea, hands frozen to the oars. We also meet well-rendered characters both strong and decent: Roland, who will rescue Elvina and marry her; the deputy sheriff Bartholomew Ware, who senses Elvina’s quality of spirit, and be there to rescue her at the novel’s climax.
A Cry from the Ground is a real page-turner—I read it in the course of 24-hours.
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A Cry From the Ground A Wiscasset Novel The Wiscasset Novels Book 5 edition by John Gould Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
A CRY FROM THE GROUND
John Gould’s fifth Wicasset novel, set in the 1920’s and early 30’s, bids fair to set this little corner of his native Maine in American fictional landscapes alongside a certain county in Mississippi made famous by a certain native of that state. After the first chapter, when we meet Elvina Denny as a 14-year-old on the train from New Orleans, where she has lived her whole life so far, to join her father all the action takes place in Wicasset, and one of the novel’s strengths is to convey a strong sense of place (a place quite unknown to this reader), not only with well-rendered descriptions (of the poor farm where the exotic teen-ager must learn to survive, or the island where the young mother must win her place among the Moody clan) but, perhaps especially, by the author’s sure and convincing use of dialogue. Mainers seem to use speech as though well aware of all that a New England gal from a bit further south, from Amherst, conveyed with her phrase “the unexpected freight/of the delivered syllable” usually laconic, sometimes with a tinge of wry, almost always spare and minimalist their verbal exchanges (which nonetheless help move the plot to a considerable extent) contribute greatly to the satisfying flavor which the novel leaves on the tongue.
There is nothing minimalist about the sudden strokes of bold, dramatic violence which drive the story along and throw the characters into strong relief. Is John Gould renewing contact with the romantic traditions of earlier American literature, Poe or Melville? Teenage Elvina Denny Elvina is already a strong character, fiercely resisting the condescending blandishments of an adult fellow passenger whose attempt to play the genteel southern lady has for her wretched consequences. Elvina will need all her stubborn ferocity of will to meet the succession of challenges chronicled in the novel a mean-spirited taciturn “father” whose repressed sexual cravings she exacerbates (but is he really her father? She and the reader are sure only that he knew her prostitute mother); a recklessly charming and consciousless young lover, who carries the adolescent off to a whorehouse; now as a young married woman raising twin sons whose sibling rivalry is building dangerously into mutual hatred. A lucid and unsparing social realism tempers any underlying romanticism in the story. We are in a harsh among unprivileged people for whom life can turn suddenly brutal a prostitute moaning, beaten bloody by a client, a fisherman caught in a winter storm at sea, hands frozen to the oars. We also meet well-rendered characters both strong and decent Roland, who will rescue Elvina and marry her; the deputy sheriff Bartholomew Ware, who senses Elvina’s quality of spirit, and be there to rescue her at the novel’s climax.
A Cry from the Ground is a real page-turner—I read it in the course of 24-hours.
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