Bean Blossom Dreams, With a New Afterword: A City Family's Search for a Simple Country Life - Softcover

Murphey, Sallyann J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253219876 ISBN 13: 9780253219879

Publisher: Quarry Books, 2008

Synopsis

Sallyann J. Murphey and her husband did what a lot of us have dreamt of but never quite built up the courage to do. In 1990, Murphey, who was a successful BBC producer, and her husband, Greg, a commercial photographer, left their high stress, hectic life in Chicago and moved to a dilapidated 40-plus-acre farm in Brown County, Indiana, hoping to raise their daughter in a more natural and less stressful environment. In Bean Blossom Dreams, Murphey warmly and humorously details life on the family's farm. Though Brown County might not offer the idyllic country life they were expecting, Sallyann and Greg have realized through trial and error, laughter and tears, that they made the right decision to relocate. A delightful fish-out-of-water story!

About this title

About the Author:

Sallyann J. Murphey began her career as a producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. She has worked as an investigative journalist for a number of publications, including IPC Magazines, the Daily Mail, the London Observer, The Chicago Times Magazine, and The Utne Reader. Murphey is now the high school history, government, and media studies teacher at Harmony School in Bloomington, Indiana, where she is also the high school coordinator. She lives in Brown County, Indiana.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Some city folk find that country life is not without its share of troubles, just as Murphey's account--though infused with considerable charm--also has some problems. Many of us dream of shucking off a hectic urban existence in favor of a ``carefree'' country life. The Murphey family acted on their dreams. Sallyann, a print and broadcast journalist, her photographer husband, Greg, and their five-year-old daughter, Charley, trade the confines of their Chicago home for a 22-acre farm in Brown County, Indiana. One moment they're in their apartment in Chicago; the next, Sallyann is talking to a horse in Brown County. The book is stingy with transitions, creating a disjointed effect. And as the Murpheys begin to restore Bean Blossom Farm and grow their own produce, we're left without a clear sense of their goals and struggles; as in nature, all the events in this book happen pell-mell. Sallyann announces, ``It's been fifteen months since the Big Move, and we all have learned and changed a lot.'' But she offers only a few details of this period, glossing over a time of huge psychological--as well as physical-- dislocation. But this incoherence is offset by lyrical, humorous writing that traces some of the Murpheys' rites of passage and their farm's transformation--as well as Sallyann's into gardener, herbalist, cheesemaker, poultry breeder. A colorful cast of characters, both human and animal, inhabits the book. In the spirit of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, the animals have complex lives and psyches: Horses are ``appalled,'' dogs ``mourn,'' bulls grow ``lovesick.'' And a majestic buck teaches Sallyann about strength and survival, becoming a symbol for the will to persevere. Despite its structural and stylistic flaws, this book provides a pleasant rustic excursion, complete with recipes to tease your taste buds. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0253219876
• ISBN 13: 9780253219879
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336