⇒ PDF Free God Little Acre A Novel Brown Thrasher Books Ser Erskine Caldwell Lewis Nordan 9780820316635 Books

God Little Acre A Novel Brown Thrasher Books Ser Erskine Caldwell Lewis Nordan 9780820316635 Books

Download As PDF : God Little Acre A Novel Brown Thrasher Books Ser Erskine Caldwell Lewis Nordan 9780820316635 Books

God Little Acre A Novel Brown Thrasher Books Ser Erskine Caldwell Lewis Nordan 9780820316635 Books

Erskine Caldwell’s 1933 novel God’s Little Acre is Southern Gothic at its best. Is it better than his 1932 novel Tobacco Road? The jury is still out on that verdict, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 1933 novel. The vernacular language of the 1930’s Georgia/Carolina (the full name of South Carolina was never mentioned) was highly readable, while retaining the slang of the times. An example of that is when the patriarch of the 45 acre farm, Ty Ty Walden, bemoaned the fact that one of his sons, Shaw, dropped his shovel and wanted to go to town, “Why in the pluperfect hell can’t he let the women alone? There ain’t no sense in a man going rutting every day in the whole year. The women will wear Shaw to a frazzle...he ought to be satisfied just to sit at home and look at the girls in the house.” Ty Ty uses the word pluperfect throughout the novel as well as the terms: as sure as God makes little green apples...and that’s a fact. This novel was banned for a long time in many states because it was considered pornographic. While there are a lot of promiscuous sexual happenings amongst the Walden family, they would hardly be considered pornographic in today’s standards...maybe it would have a “R” rating at best. Even with all those restrictions, the novel still sold 10 million copies.

So Ty Ty Walden has been digging up his farm looking for gold for fifteen years with the help of his boys Buck and Shaw. His other son, Jim Leslie (a cotton broker) left a long time ago to marry a rich girl and live in a big white house on a hill in the city. Ty Ty has two d**kies (the author’s words, not mine), Black Sam and Uncle Felix, planting cotton on a small parcel of the land (they also dig when not plowing). On page thirteen, Ty Ty tells Pluto Swint, who is running for sheriff, about the one acre he has set aside, “You see that piece of ground over yonder, Pluto? Well, that’s God’s little acre. I set aside an acre of this place, and every year I give the church all that comes off that acre of ground. If it’s cotton, I give the church all the money the cotton brings at market. The same with hogs, when I raised them, and about corn, too, when I plant it. That’s God’s little acre, Pluto. I’m proud to divide what little I have with God.” Unfortunately, Ty Ty hasn’t planted or raised anything on that acre for many years. And he keeps moving the acre around when he decides to dig there. Most of his farm is pock marked with giant holes and high piles of dirt and clay.`Ty Ty’s daughter, Darling Jill is a real looker, while Buck’s Wife, Griselda, is considered the prettiest girl in the county. A third daughter, Rosamond, lives in Carolina with her husband, Will, in a cotton mill town. Buck hates Will and calls him a lint-head, because cotton mill workers always have residue cotton fibers in their hair. Will and his co-workers have been on strike against the mill for eighteen months. The entire Walden family (except Jim Leslie) are dirt poor.

Pluto, who loves Darling Jill, tells Ty Ty that a albino man has been spotted near the swamp. The d**kies say that an all-white man can divine (locate) a lode. They believe in the power of conjuring. Ty Ty and his boys drive to the swamp in hopes of capturing the all-white man. They capture the albino in his house by the swamp and bring him back to the farm. Sometimes this novel makes me laugh (it’s not supposed to). Uncle Felix keeps guard on Dave, the albino, but he really doesn’t have to since Dave has eyes for Darling Jill. So funny (this novel isn’t a comedy, but sometimes it seemed like one). The next day, Pluto ask Ty Ty, “Did he divine for you, Ty Ty?” “Just like four and four makes eight,” Ty Ty said. “When we got him here and told him what he was to do, why the first thing he did was to point out that spot where the new hole is now. He said that was the place to dig for the lode. And that’s where it is.” There is a lot of excitement in the ensuing pages. Who has sex with who? Who or how many in the family will die or be murdered? How about the cotton mill strike? Does Ty Ty find his gold? This was a great story of the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia that had me hooked from page one to the last few pages, which were fateful or fatal...depending on who the character was.


Tags : God's Little Acre: A Novel (Brown Thrasher Books Ser.) [Erskine Caldwell, Lewis Nordan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Like Tobacco Road</i>, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty,Erskine Caldwell, Lewis Nordan,God's Little Acre: A Novel (Brown Thrasher Books Ser.),University of Georgia Press,0820316636,Literary,Georgia,Georgia - Fiction,Georgia;Fiction.,Mountain life,Mountain life - Fiction,Mountain life;Fiction.,Classics,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction Classics,Fiction-Coming of Age,General Adult,Literature - Classics Criticism,Modern fiction,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States

God Little Acre A Novel Brown Thrasher Books Ser Erskine Caldwell Lewis Nordan 9780820316635 Books Reviews

Like Caldwell's other masterpiece, TOBACCO ROAD, GOD'S LITTLE ACRE is the intimate story of a southern family. Once again set in deep Georgia, this is the story of the Walden family...and what a family they are. Much like TOBACCO ROAD, the story revolves around a family patriarch. For as long as anyone can remember,Ty Walden has been digging up his entire property, searching for gold. The title is derived from a corner of the property designated as "God's little acre". If gold is discovered on that part of the property then it would be donated to god or the church. But when pressed about it, Ty always has a scheme to move god's acre to a place that's already been dug up or thought to be barren.

The various cast of characters includes Ty's sons, one of whom is married to a great beauty, Grizelda. Every man who sees Grizelda for the first time can only gaze upon her beauty. Then there is Ty's daughter, Darling Jill, who has been stringing along a local politician, Pluto, promising to marry him. Ty will do just about anything to continue digging his land for gold. This includes acting as a pimp when a rich son who wants nothing to do with Ty's schemes, sets his eyes on Grizelda. He practically assures the son that he can make Grizelda sleep with him for a loan of a couple of hundred dollars. When Ty and his sons kidnap an albino from deep in the swamps, because local legend has it that an albino can divine gold under the ground, Ty doesn't stop Darling Jill from working her magic on the poor albino.

What is fascinating about Caldwell's characters is their unabashed enthusiasm in pursuing their goals. Nothing will stop Ty from discovering gold on his property, just as nothing will stop the sons and a son-in-law from warring with each other over women.

Another undiscovered classic from a great author. Highly recommended!
Had I not spent most of my life working with the public nor ever had seen a single episode of Jerry Springer, I may have found these characters too unbelievable. As it is, people are people and the world is made of all sorts of individuals who, through the ages, have not changed all that much.
This story is about poorly educated individuals in a family doing what they can to survive in the world while living in abject poverty in a remote area of Georgia during The Great Depression. They are desperate, starving, nearing hopelessness, fairly helpless and ill-equipped to solve their own problems.

The patriarch, Ty Ty, was from an era where many people believed one didn’t need a good deal of education to be a farmer. The Great Depression tore that world apart. Given the fact most people of that time never traveled far from home and the area was quite remote and isolated, he likely felt his options were few. Since gold had been found in the area near him, he felt the best way to provide for his family was to find gold on his property. In spite of his failed efforts, he was able to maintain his optimism and he definitely displayed a great deal of tenacity.
This was a daring novel when it was first published in 1933. It describes a poor, uneducated, racist and exploited family in the painfully segregated South of that time. But its daring went beyond that, stirring arguments as to whether it was great literature or mere porn. I read it in 1939, when I was 14. When I read it again this week, at the age of 90, I realized I had missed some of best-selling author Erskine Caldwell's not-so-subtleties about race, grace and disgrace.
Erskine Caldwell’s 1933 novel God’s Little Acre is Southern Gothic at its best. Is it better than his 1932 novel Tobacco Road? The jury is still out on that verdict, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 1933 novel. The vernacular language of the 1930’s Georgia/Carolina (the full name of South Carolina was never mentioned) was highly readable, while retaining the slang of the times. An example of that is when the patriarch of the 45 acre farm, Ty Ty Walden, bemoaned the fact that one of his sons, Shaw, dropped his shovel and wanted to go to town, “Why in the pluperfect hell can’t he let the women alone? There ain’t no sense in a man going rutting every day in the whole year. The women will wear Shaw to a frazzle...he ought to be satisfied just to sit at home and look at the girls in the house.” Ty Ty uses the word pluperfect throughout the novel as well as the terms as sure as God makes little green apples...and that’s a fact. This novel was banned for a long time in many states because it was considered pornographic. While there are a lot of promiscuous sexual happenings amongst the Walden family, they would hardly be considered pornographic in today’s standards...maybe it would have a “R” rating at best. Even with all those restrictions, the novel still sold 10 million copies.

So Ty Ty Walden has been digging up his farm looking for gold for fifteen years with the help of his boys Buck and Shaw. His other son, Jim Leslie (a cotton broker) left a long time ago to marry a rich girl and live in a big white house on a hill in the city. Ty Ty has two d**kies (the author’s words, not mine), Black Sam and Uncle Felix, planting cotton on a small parcel of the land (they also dig when not plowing). On page thirteen, Ty Ty tells Pluto Swint, who is running for sheriff, about the one acre he has set aside, “You see that piece of ground over yonder, Pluto? Well, that’s God’s little acre. I set aside an acre of this place, and every year I give the church all that comes off that acre of ground. If it’s cotton, I give the church all the money the cotton brings at market. The same with hogs, when I raised them, and about corn, too, when I plant it. That’s God’s little acre, Pluto. I’m proud to divide what little I have with God.” Unfortunately, Ty Ty hasn’t planted or raised anything on that acre for many years. And he keeps moving the acre around when he decides to dig there. Most of his farm is pock marked with giant holes and high piles of dirt and clay.`Ty Ty’s daughter, Darling Jill is a real looker, while Buck’s Wife, Griselda, is considered the prettiest girl in the county. A third daughter, Rosamond, lives in Carolina with her husband, Will, in a cotton mill town. Buck hates Will and calls him a lint-head, because cotton mill workers always have residue cotton fibers in their hair. Will and his co-workers have been on strike against the mill for eighteen months. The entire Walden family (except Jim Leslie) are dirt poor.

Pluto, who loves Darling Jill, tells Ty Ty that a albino man has been spotted near the swamp. The d**kies say that an all-white man can divine (locate) a lode. They believe in the power of conjuring. Ty Ty and his boys drive to the swamp in hopes of capturing the all-white man. They capture the albino in his house by the swamp and bring him back to the farm. Sometimes this novel makes me laugh (it’s not supposed to). Uncle Felix keeps guard on Dave, the albino, but he really doesn’t have to since Dave has eyes for Darling Jill. So funny (this novel isn’t a comedy, but sometimes it seemed like one). The next day, Pluto ask Ty Ty, “Did he divine for you, Ty Ty?” “Just like four and four makes eight,” Ty Ty said. “When we got him here and told him what he was to do, why the first thing he did was to point out that spot where the new hole is now. He said that was the place to dig for the lode. And that’s where it is.” There is a lot of excitement in the ensuing pages. Who has sex with who? Who or how many in the family will die or be murdered? How about the cotton mill strike? Does Ty Ty find his gold? This was a great story of the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia that had me hooked from page one to the last few pages, which were fateful or fatal...depending on who the character was.