Fire in Beulah - Hardcover

Askew, Rilla

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670888435 ISBN 13: 9780670888436

Publisher: Viking Adult, 2001

Synopsis

The author of The Mercy Seat serves up a stunning new novel set in 1920s Oklahoma that chronicles the complex relationship that exists between Althea Whiteside, the wife of an oil wildcatter, and her black maid, Graceful, as they become caught up in the events surrounding the Tulsa race riot of 1921. 15,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Rilla Askew is the author of Strange Business, a collection of stories, and of the novel The Mercy Seat, nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association Award and winner of the Western Heritage Award and the Oklahoma Book Award.

From Publishers Weekly:

In an arresting examination of race and heritage, Askew (The Mercy Seat) mixes historical fact with compelling fiction. From the ominous opening scene to the race-segregated society of 1920s Tulsa, Okla., the reader is carried along on a journey of fragmented memories and introduced to characters with shadowy motives and even darker secrets. Althea Whiteside is 13 when her mother, kicked by a calf during pregnancy, gives birth to Japheth, the only boy in a family of seven girls. His portentous entrance into the world is just the beginning of his influence on Althea's life and the destruction he will leave in his wake. Years later, Althea has left her impoverished family and married dashing oil baron Franklin Dedmeyer. She's content to be his pampered, social wife, taken care of by servantsDincluding Graceful Whiteside, a black woman whom Althea views with alternate fascination and repulsion, as she slowly realizes that the two share more than a surname. A mysterious letter, a double lynching and Japheth's sudden intrusion into Althea's life set in motion events that draw these characters closer to one another and to the great fire and race riot of Tulsa in 1921, a murderous rampage that ran most of the blacks out of town and left hundreds dead. Written from multiple perspectives the narrative is at times difficult to follow, but Askew's bold and disturbing chronicle of greed, racial hatred and intrigue rewards patient attention. Her proseDrich, leisurely, gracefulDengages all the senses and encloses the reader in a bell jar of heat, hate and budding violence. By the novel's end, all the voices coalesce into a vivid account of the riot, during which the various characters' hubris and heroism are exposed. Agent, Jane Gelfman. Author tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0670888435
• ISBN 13: 9780670888436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352