This book, more than any we have read yet, highlights the timely nature of the early Pulitzer Prize novels.
Peterkin's appallingly racist book was considered progressive for the time, yet it describes Mary, a member of a Gullah community, as an earthy woman ready for anything: birthing babies, picking cotton, a roll in the hay with pretty much any man who passes by.
Mary just loves her children -- in the end she is looking after 4 newborns pretty much single handedly and thinks it is just swell.
I guess because the focus is not on the big house but in the fields this book was considered worthy of a Pulitzer. The jury the year this was chosen actually selected another book, but the Pulitzer Committee overruled and chose this one anyway. A prominent committee member resigned, although he claimed it had nothing to do with this controversy.
Ethel Barrymore appeared on Broadway in the adaptation, the only time she appeared in blackface.
Rea this book if you want to feel hopeful about how far race relations have come since the 1920s.
Monday, March 17, 2008
1923 -- One of Ours, Cather
Another disclaimer: I am a big Willa Cather fan.
This, however, is not among her best books.
That said, I found Claude Wheeler to be a fascinating character, especially given Cather's personal story. Claude, a midwestern farm kid, is a fish out of water among his family. Wanting to study, his father cruelly gives Claude a taste of university life only to take it away when he forces Claude to return to the farm.
Typical of Cather's books, the straight-laced, upstanding community members are unsympathetic and fail to appreciate Claude's sensitivities. The Bohemian community and others outside society are his real friends, but family and society reject these relationships.
Most of the women in this book are some combination of unsympathetic, simple minded, and manipulative. The men of Claude's family are louts.
Claude finds happiness in the end by going to war in France. He forms a strong friendship with another soldier and is recognized as a leader in his platoon.
Some aspects of this are funny: When Claude asks his father-in-law to be for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father tries to warn Claude of her headstrong ways by telling him that the daughter is a vegetarian. And Claude goes off to war and spends most of his time appreciating how fresh and sweetly scented the French sheets are. Lavendar!
Cather seems to be working through some pretty strong ideas of identity and gender in this book. Claude's relationship with his soldier friend is nominally platonic, but totally committed and much more meaningful than that he has with his wife.
This, however, is not among her best books.
That said, I found Claude Wheeler to be a fascinating character, especially given Cather's personal story. Claude, a midwestern farm kid, is a fish out of water among his family. Wanting to study, his father cruelly gives Claude a taste of university life only to take it away when he forces Claude to return to the farm.
Typical of Cather's books, the straight-laced, upstanding community members are unsympathetic and fail to appreciate Claude's sensitivities. The Bohemian community and others outside society are his real friends, but family and society reject these relationships.
Most of the women in this book are some combination of unsympathetic, simple minded, and manipulative. The men of Claude's family are louts.
Claude finds happiness in the end by going to war in France. He forms a strong friendship with another soldier and is recognized as a leader in his platoon.
Some aspects of this are funny: When Claude asks his father-in-law to be for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father tries to warn Claude of her headstrong ways by telling him that the daughter is a vegetarian. And Claude goes off to war and spends most of his time appreciating how fresh and sweetly scented the French sheets are. Lavendar!
Cather seems to be working through some pretty strong ideas of identity and gender in this book. Claude's relationship with his soldier friend is nominally platonic, but totally committed and much more meaningful than that he has with his wife.
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