When All the World Was Young (Contemporary American Fiction) - Softcover

Sams, Ferrol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140172270 ISBN 13: 9780140172270

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1992

Synopsis

“Ferrol Sams is a natural-born storyteller with a puckish wit, an obsession with words, and a rare ability to encapsule every off-center character who stumbles into his ken.” – Atlanta Journal & Constitution  

The year is 1942 and Porter Osborne, Jr., is safely ensconced in medical school. He is physically safe, though taunted by the beckoning finger of Uncle Sam. Haunted by the family motto, “Remember who you are,” Porter wrestles with a flood of conflicting emotions. A year later, the conflicts still unresolved, he is an enlisted man in the U.S. Army. In the face of incomprehensible delays and inefficiency, he wonders how America will ever prevail in the world war. Surgical Technician PFC Porter Osborne finally lands at Omaha Beach and joins the Allied fight against Germany.

The final novel in the trilogy that began with Run with the Horsemen and The Whisper of the River, When All the World Was Young continues the story of young Porter Osborne with the supreme wit and wisdom that readers have come to expect from the inimitable Ferrol Sams.

“With his mastery of words, his skills as storyteller supreme and his highly believable attention to detail... Sams remains a master yarn-spinner.” – Nashville Banner

About this title

About the Author

Ferrol Sams is a physician, humorist, storyteller, and the bestselling author of eight novels rooted in the oral tradition of southern humor and folklore. He lives in Fayetteville, Georgia.

From Library Journal

Sams here continues the saga of Porter Osborne Jr., a likable Georgia farmboy. In the beginning of this long and somewhat sentimental novel, set during World War II, Porter is a medical student. He deliberately flunks out so that he can join the war effort and is sent to Normandy as a medical assistant. Porter and his friends deal with the same issues found in any coming-of-age novel--family, religion, personal identity, and relations with the opposite sex. Porter, however, has an edge. He has strong ties to his Baptist family and to the rich soil that is their livelihood and a head full of poetry that becomes his solace and inspiration. In the face of war's devastation, he manages to keep his sense of humor and direction, learning that to understand who he is becoming he must remember where he came from. Readers on the same journey will appreciate this novel, as will fans of the previous Porter Osborne novels, Run with the Horsemen (Peachtree Pubs., 1982) and The Whisper of the River (Peachtree Pubs., 1984) . -- Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0140172270
• ISBN 13: 9780140172270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 624