Helpful Score: 10
This book is about a family in Alabama during the depression. The story begins with a baby being dropped into the family well. Although that really isn't the main theme of the story, it is interwoven through the narrative. This is a book about a family struggling to survive in hard times. It is about compassion for your fellow man. It is about the doubts of a young girl who wonders whether there is something else in her future besides being a wife and mother. Also, race relations, and labor struggles, hopes, dreams and disappointments. I know that sounds like a lot to cover in one story, but it is very well written and compelling. I am the granddaughter of coalminers, so I found that part of the story especially interesting.
I loved the story of this family, especially the relationship between the parents and their children. The struggles of the family in hard times were long and difficult, and yet the parents taught by example the need to always be compassionate and charitable, even though you have very little of your own.
I loved the story of this family, especially the relationship between the parents and their children. The struggles of the family in hard times were long and difficult, and yet the parents taught by example the need to always be compassionate and charitable, even though you have very little of your own.
Helpful Score: 7
Oh my gosh!I almost feel sorry for this author,this is her first book and it is amazing! It will be very hard for her next book to compare to this.Everytime I opened it and began reading,I was transported right on this familys front porch,with a sweaty canning jar full of super sweet tea,sitting in an old ladder back chair with the seat almost busted through,eavesdropping on all the secrets and stories this family had to tell! I hated to see the book end!
Helpful Score: 6
Gin Phillips's debut novel is terrific. Told in several voices, it is set in Alabama in a mining town during the Depression. It is a story about a baby thrown down a well, the Moore family, and their friends and neighbors. It gives you a glimpse of how some people survived, just barely, during the Depression. Virgie and Tess Moore are quite engaging characters, as are the secondary characters. It is very well written and I look forward to her next novel.
Helpful Score: 5
A wonderfully rich period piece about the drowning of an infant baby in a well and the mystery that surrounds the unfortunate death. You will view the unfolding events through 9 year-old Tess's eyes and you will feel as if you are in her mind and right there living in the 1930's Alabama's small town coal-mining country. A touching novel from a gifted debut author, highly recommended.
Helpful Score: 3
This is a beautifully written book... A story about family living under some of the most trying conditions, during a difficult era, and still managing to keep their love, values and humor. It's a book that any reader can take something from and apply it to their own life... Gratitude for our plentitude, compassion for those less fortunate, standing in your own values when others would have you compromise them, embracing the simple things in life and, perhaps most importantly, remembering that love, above all else, is what really matters.
Kudos to Gin Phillips for a great first novel. I'll look forward to more from this author and won't hesitate to recommend it to my friends and fellow book lovers.
Two thumbs up.
Kudos to Gin Phillips for a great first novel. I'll look forward to more from this author and won't hesitate to recommend it to my friends and fellow book lovers.
Two thumbs up.
