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Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC REED | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Written with a storyteller's grace and a poet's touch,A Still Small Voiceis the magnificent work of a gifted young novelist. Taking its place beside the great novels of the Civil War, John Reed's sweeping saga is at once a passionate love story and a powerful human drama set against a vivid backdrop of a nation at war. The year is 1859. As this breathtaking novel opens, seven-year-old Alma Flynt arrives in the small Kentucky town of Cotterpin Creek to begin a new life in her aunt's home. There, a whole new world opens up before her eyes-a world of impossible grace and comfort, of lush pastures and billowing bluegrass. And there, Alma will meet a family who will shape the course of her life. The Clevelands, with their sprawling mansion and gleaming thoroughbred horses, are magnificent. But from the beginning, one Cleveland draws all her attention-the youngest son, John Warren. Of their childhood bond, Alma later recalls: "The stubborn fact was, without the slightest hint of imagination, that it was clear to him, and to me, and to everyone, that we were meant to be together." But like a swift storm cloud, the Civil War descends on Cotterpin Creek, taking men from the land and husbands from wives, never to return. Swept into the chaos are the Clevelands, and John Warren himself, leaving their fading mansion and sprawling horse farm behind. Against this turbulent backdrop, Alma will come of age. And when the fighting is over, the story of a brave young man riding off to battle becomes a haunting journey of vengeance, loss, and redemption. But for Alma, yet another journey begins on the day a strange, battered, starved, and tormented young soldier staggers back into her life. Grand in scope, filled with small miracles of language,A Still Small Voiceis a stirring adventure of the heart, a historical saga of extraordinary power and depth. Haunting, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, this is storytelling at its very best.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The simple, homespun narrative voice of elderly Alma Flynt establishes the tone of this often cloying historical novel. Alma looks back on her childhood in a small Kentucky town from 1859, when she is seven, to the late 19th century, having survived the Civil War and many of life's vicissitudes. An innocent, beautiful and unsullied orphan, she evolves into an innocent, beautiful and unsullied young woman. As Kentucky is a neutral state, some of the families in the town of Cotterpin Creek are pro-Union while others are Confederates, but all are as honorable as they are one-dimensional. Similarly, the slaves and ex-slaves who occasionally make appearances invariably wear their hearts of gold on their sleeves and carry themselves with a quiet dignity born of inner strength. Horses are the most prominent symbol in this book, and just as his canny characters find a use for every part of the possums and pigs they kill during hard times, so Reed manages to squeeze every last drop of meaning from his various equines, who represent slaves, human nature and just about everything else. Even when Alma is a child, she possesses a mystical moral certainty that serves as a convenient alternative to any character development. Describing her first childhood meeting with her future true love, she remarks, "I believe it was that when he saw me, and I saw him, our two souls lightened, and curled up together, rising on a breeze as faint as a horse's breath." Simplistic and sentimental, the narrative is at best a quick summer read. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A highly imagined but lightly plotted debut, this about a tender young love born in the years just before the Civil War. Seven-year-old Alma is plucked from her Virginia orphanage by a pastor who takes her to her aunt Bettina, in the lush bluegrass country of Kentucky. There, she soon encounters the neighboring Cleveland family, whose horse-breeding and -training skills and magnificent estate are all a marvel to her. Alma's eyes, though, are most drawn to young John Warren, scion of the Cleveland clan and a few years her senior, with whom she forms an immediate, deep, and mutual affection. Theirs is an innocent love, full of horseback rides and games of marbles, but one day it ends abruptly: the Clevelands and Bettina are on opposite sides of the issue that will tear the country apart. In no time it seems the war has begun, John Warren's father and older brother are both dead, and everything the family once had is either looted or destroyed by marauding armies. John disappears; not until the war is over does he return, haggard beyond his years and near death. Aunt Bettina, a renowned herbalist, brings him back from the brink with Alma's help, only to have him vanish again when soldiers come looking for him, bearing his face on a Wanted poster. Years pass. Alma, a young woman now, is courted by a boy she'd gone to school with, as well as by another man who later struck it rich in California. Although she comes close to accepting the latter's offer of marriage, in her heart she still waits for John Warren, whom most folks believe is dead. Fortunately, the rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated. Period details and insights into the inner life of a girl growing up in a dark time have a definite appeal, but can't overcome such a slim and conventional story. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In 1859, seven-year-old orphan Alma Flynt begins a new life with her aunt in Cotterpin Creek, KY, where she falls under the spell of the wealthy Cleveland family. Her admiration for the thoroughbred horses they raise is exceeded only by her devotion to the youngest Cleveland, John Warren. That infatuation persists through the Civil War, which divides community and country. Soldiers from both armies appear intermittently to pillage and destroy, but Alma cares about only one of them: the wounded and defeated John Warren, fleeing his pursuers. Years after the war, she rejects suitors as she waits and pines for his return. Alma recounts these events for her grandchildren, which may explain the lack of urgency in the telling. Self-conscious reflections deaden the pace, while tedious passages about horses, gardens, and excursions read more like a dissertation than a narrative. How can a first novel with this setting achieve such plodding dullness? Not a necessary purchase, but because extensive advertising campaigns are slated, public libraries should anticipate some media-generated demand."Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.