A white boy living with a poor and abusive sharecropper uncle and an unusual black man become unlikely friends in this novel set in 1950s Alabama. By the author of My Last Days as Roy Rogers. 75,000 first printing.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Out of the Night That Covers Me takes place a decade before the civil rights movement, but the spirit of the coming upheaval hangs over its pages as heavily as the humidity of an Alabama summer. Pat Cunningham Devoto's second novel revolves around two characters: John McMillan, a precocious, sheltered 8-year-old sent to live with poor relations after his mother's death, and Tuway, an African American with a foot in both the black and white worlds. Their stories intersect when the powerful Judge Vance takes an interest in John. He brings the boy to work at the Planters and Merchants Bank of Lower Peach Tree, where the mysteriously disfigured Tuway acts as his assistant. The judge, we soon learn, is no judge at all. Instead, his title is an allusion to his economic omnipotence: "He the one says if you get a crop loan or not. Round here, if you gets a crop loan, you can make it, and if you don't, you might just as well go on off down the road."
A suspiciously large number of black families have done just that, defaulting on debts and fleeing Alabama's cotton fields for the factories of Chicago. But who provides the money and means for their flight? As John learns more about the financial and political intrigues of Lower Peach Tree, he dreams of making his own escape from his abusive new family. The events that follow forge an unlikely alliance between the silent, wounded black man and the equally wounded orphan--and test their courage in unexpected ways.
As skillfully as Devoto evokes time and place, her novel is not without flaws. John's voice, for example, tends toward the irritatingly precious, and the writing sometimes falls flat. Yet the author movingly portrays the ways poverty can both pinch lives into meanness (witness the case of John's alcoholic Uncle Luther) and challenge people to face their problems together, as in the all-black community known as the Bend. If this juxtaposition of violence and cooperation seems a little, well, black and white, that's part of the book's charm; its moral sureties belong to a time when good and evil were as easy to distinguish in life as they are in fiction. --Chloe Byrne
Eight-year-old John Gallatin McMillan III's mother has just died, and so he finds himself living with his aunt and her family in rural Alabama. John's new life is replete with hard work in the cotton fields, hoeing and weeding in the hot sun, and interaction with poor blacks and even poorer whites. John's story is interspersed with a disconnected second theme, which disconcertingly interrupts the flow of the story. Pat Cunningham Devoto's heavy Southern accents require attentiveness on the part of the listener. Devoto's tongue clicks and slow enunciation are distracting at first, but eventually they smooth into the background as the story takes hold and John learns to flourish in the South. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 5.25
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 6.00
Within U.S.A.
Seller: The Yard Sale Store, Narrowsburg, NY, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. A reasonable and presentable library withdrawal in the plastic protective covers. Stamped at the page edge with a card pocket pasted on the inside back cover. Seller Inventory # DJkHCDec7VI26
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Redux Books, Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Like New. Like new advance reader's copy. All advance reader's copies are PAPERBACK.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Ships same or next business day!. Seller Inventory # 61312310025
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 32-0446527513-G
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Book Nook, Cadillac, MI, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Usual ex-library markings. Dj had been in a taped-in wrap, tape has been cut, wrap removed but tape pieces remain on covers. Front endpage has been removed. There is a light liquid stain along top edge of inside back cover & just a little near spine edge of last endpage. Good reading copy. Seller Inventory # 030964
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Bruce Davidson Books, Arlington, MA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. First printing. Fine in a fine dustjacket. (box 84). Seller Inventory # 007869
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Muse Book Shop, DeLand, FL, U.S.A.
Trade Paperback. Condition: New. ARC. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 0908810
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: medimops, Berlin, Germany
Condition: good. Befriedigend/Good: Durchschnittlich erhaltenes Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit Gebrauchsspuren, aber vollständigen Seiten. / Describes the average WORN book or dust jacket that has all the pages present. Seller Inventory # M00446527513-G
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Cheryl's Books, Vinemont, AL, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Good. Hardcover with dust jacket in good condition. Seller Inventory # DEDC1022B0252926
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Frank J. Raucci, Bookseller, Wallingford, CT, U.S.A.
Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. ADVANCE READING COPY. Softbound. "From the author of 'My Last Days As Roy Rogers' comes an extraordinary novel that goes to the heart of what makes us human. In a glowing starred review of her debut novel, 'Booklist' called Pat Cunningham Devoto 'the literary love child of Harper Lee and Mark Twain." Now, in this book, Devoto tells the profoundly moving story of a scared, orphaned, eight-year-old boy thrust from a life of luxury into one of lovelessness and poverty, the desperate journey he undertakes to save himself, and the extraordinary man who helps him. Within these pages, you'll find two heroes, a white boy and a black man, both scarred by life but both blessed with indomitable courage, who will remain in your heart long after their tale is told." 416 pages. LF. Seller Inventory # 002058
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Ziebarth Books, Coal Valley, IL, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. First edition, first printing, hardcover. Black cloth spine with gilt titles/blue paper-covered boards. 416 pages. Fine in a fine, mylar-covered dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 008455
Quantity: 1 available