The Metcalfe Family Album: The Unforgettable Saga of an American Family - Hardcover

Murphey, Sallyann J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811820971 ISBN 13: 9780811820974

Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc, 2001

Synopsis

A work of the imagination presents the memories of six generations of women on a homestead in Indiana, chronicling their experiences and traditions over a century and a half

About this title

About the Author

Sallyann J. Murphey is the author of several books, including Bean Blossom Dreams, the story of her life on an Indiana farm. Formerly a producer with the BBC, she lives in Indiana with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

When Jan Andersen, raised in a lonely, single-parent household, marries into the Metcalfe clan, she is given responsibility, as the "new mistress," for the Metcalfe Family Album, which has documented the clan's life, updated virtually every Christmas, since 1835. The lavishly illustrated book, which simulates a real album in appearance and layoutAit is a m?lange of sepia-toned pages, old-fashioned photographs, letters, recipes, crafts and memorabiliaAfollows six generations of women, beginning with Marianne, who arrives from France alone at age 12, later marrying Joshua Metcalfe and settling in Georgetown, Ind. There, she begins the album, a record of life events, household chores and favorite recipesAeven a few thoughts and feelings. Successive diarists are women who marry Metcalfe sons and add their stories: starchy Constance; German-born, Vassar-educated feminist Anna; shy but spirited Irish Kathleen; British war-bride Jessie; and finally Jan, taking the reader through 1996. Their domestic triumphs and tragedies are shaped by wars (from Civil to Vietnam), deaths, births, medical and technological advances, and of course, their families, to which all the women are devoted. Little changes at the homestead, with each generation unwaveringly dedicated to their husbands, in-laws and traditions. Even in the early 1980s, Jan abandons a bright career as a TV news reporter to marry and move to the country; her entries often mention how stressful and shallow her life would have been if she'd pursued her career. Women who don't share that opinion may not be impressed with the treacly domestic tales and their attendant moralizing. Sentimentality is overworked: there's a letter in a childlike scrawl from an 11-year-old mourning her mother, and samples of children's artwork. Clearly intended for the Christmas season, the book should please readers who enjoy the comfort of family continuity and the calm treasures of hearth and home. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Deceptively packaged, this book presents itself as one of those finds beloved of historiansthe untouched trunk in the attic full of journals, letters, and souvenirs. It is, in fact, a work of the imagination, pretending to cover the memories of six generations of women on an Indiana homestead. Here's the concept: Marianne, a French aristocrat, marries pioneer Joshua Metcalfe in 1835 and happily departs for the Indiana wilderness to chop wood, draw water, tend chickens, clean, and cook. She also sets the scene for a family Christmas whose traditions will continue to the present. Another tradition: an end-of-year journal summing up annual events and appending recipes or household hints (making candles, ink, suckling pig). Both rituals are picked up by succeeding generations, usually daughters-in-law of different ethnic backgroundsGerman, Irish, English, Swedishwho can add cultural variations to the Christmas celebrations and reflect in their annual summations the progress of civilization at the farm: indoor plumbing, electricity, automobiles, computers. Sons go to war, daughters support suffrage, the stock market crashes. Theres a birthday celebration with cocktails (recipes provided) during Prohibition, instructions for tie-dyeing during the 1960s, and a Green Christmas, devoted to ``creativity, conservation and thrift,'' during the 1990s. No matter how accomplished the womanthe alleged compiler of this book was a high-profile TV journalisteach daughter-in-law is happy to settle into the slow rhythm of High Meadows Farm. Author Murphey (Bean Blossom Dreams, 1994), incidentally, is a former BBC producer who now lives on an Indiana farm. Beautifully published, with each woman's entries in a different handwriting and authentic-looking photographs and memorabilia reproduced, here's a charming reconstruction of the flow of history as it affects one particular family. Too bad it's not the real thing. (Photographs, illustrations) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811820971
• ISBN 13: 9780811820974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256