Items related to A Whistling Woman (Curley Large Print Books)
Tells the story of Georgeanna, an illegitimate girl who, during the Civil War, is seduced by an older man and finds herself pregnant, but whose mother pretends to be pregnant in order to spare Georgeanna from shame
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly:
In her second novel, following by a decade her memorable Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail , Shivers again demonstrates her talent for taking a familiar plot line and imbuing it with evocative and stark prose and unforgettable characters. She returns to the South, this time shortly after the end of the Civil War when Chaney and her eight-year-old daughter Georgeanna go to live and work on a rundown North Carolina plantation. Though the old, addled owner is kind and the black farmhand couple wise, Georgeanna is troubled by her mother's reluctance to talk about the past, by her own recurring nightmares and, when she becomes a teenager, by the strange feelings that young womanhood brings, especially when "Doll," the plantation's 35-year-old (married) heir begins to pay attention to her. Their brief romantic interlude leads to an illegitimate child when Georgeanna is 15. Protecting Georgeanna, Chaney lets everyone believe the infant is hers, setting in motion many of the book's ensuing dramatic events, including a deathbed confession that, while horrific, is anticlimactic. The novel never quite reaches the intensity and powerful emotional pitch of Baby . Without much passion driving the unfolding scenes, Georgeanna narrates the story in flashback, offering simplistic comments about life's vicissitudes. Though emotionally affecting and very good reading, A Whistling Woman lacks the dramatic strength of Shivers's first book,which Longstreet is simultaneously reissuing in paperback. 20,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal:
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Shivers's first novel, Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail ( LJ 2/15/83), drew critical acclaim and comparisons with Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty. Her second novel assures her a place among the best of these modern writers. Set in North Carolina soon after the Civil War, this work examines with a critical eye the relationship between a mother and daughter. Georgeanna Weeks, an unwed mother at age 15, is given a second chance at youth and happiness when her mother, Cheney, assumes her shame and responsibility by claiming the child as her own. Georgeanna takes good advantage of the opportunity given her and lives a productive life despite longings, guilt, and feelings of resentment that grow between mother and daughter. It is not until Cheney's story is told that the conflicts between them are resolved. Shivers's perspicuity, storytelling prowess, and verbal economy are wonderful. Don't miss this one.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherChivers North Amer
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0792720008
- ISBN 13 9780792720003
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages152
- Rating
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