Theme of the Week
State Reading
Reader: Kitty Simmons
Author: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Title: Cross Creek
Call Number: PS3535.A845 C7
Rating: 5
If Florida brings to mind Disney World or scenes from CSI Miami, you will be amazed by this totally different vision of the same state. Be prepared to slow down, imagine the Spanish moss swaying gently in a summer breeze, and spend some time with critters, Crackers, and other characters as they were in 1930s Florida.
Summary: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for The Yearling, but the memoir of her life in rural Florida published a few years later is the book which best captures a special place and time for me. She moved from Rochester, New York to a farm in Cross Creek, Florida in 1928 with her writer husband intending to live on profits from their orange grove and writing. The marriage didn’t last, the orange grove was a continuing challenge, and the writing got off to a slow start, but Marjorie stayed. She generously shares her experience of this place with the readers of Cross Creek though a series of stories that reveal the highs and lows she endured learning to live off the farm and live with her neighbors, both human and animal. Although inspired and invigorated by the natural beauty of the area, the difficulties of everyday rural Southern life during the Depression prevent the author’s descriptions of the environment from ever seeming overly romantic. The uncomfortable and sometimes lethal aspects of this rugged country were not ignored. Reality permeates the writing even through the recounting of some pretty fantastic episodes.
Although Rawlings was progressive in many ways throughout her life, this book reflects the racial viewpoint and stereotypes commonly held during this era. An even more grating example of this perspective published a few years earlier can be found in Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road. In fact Caldwell’s story of a rural family in Depression-era Georgia was my first choice for this week's state theme. However, after reading it, the moral bankruptcy of the Jeeters and their desperation just made it too depressing for me to recommend.
Cross Creek also has a element of personal appeal for me. My father was also born in 1928 and grew up on orange grove farm much like Marjorie’s about 100 miles south of Cross Creek. I felt that the times and places described in this book are part of my own heritage through my dad. Also, I had visited the Rawlings Cross Creek home during my college years when the University of Florida managed the property as a retreat for students. After recently reading the book, my interest was renewed and I returned for another visit last month when I was in Florida. The homestead is now a state park with guided tours. Being there to see the area and house again was a memorable experience for me and brought to mind the book’s closing lines: "Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seeds, and beyond all, to time."
Kitty Simmons, Library Director
Reader: Cindy Parkhurst
Author: Bill Bryson
Title: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small’Town America
Call Number: E169.04 .B78 1989
Rating: 5
Summary: I really love Bill Bryson’s books! Not only are they interesting travel books but he is so entertaining. I must say I laughed out loud reading this book about his attempt to recreate the family summer vacations of his youth. He travels from his mother’s home in Des Moines, Iowa (in her Chevette) all through the Midwest stopping at places his family visited on family vacations. He never fails to see the humor in American “car trips” and recalls endless meals in Howard Johnson’s restaurants as well as stops at Stuckey’s gas stations for gasoline and pecan log rolls!
So many of his references to family life and car travel from the 1960’s and ‘70’s reminded me of my own family’s adventure from California to Yellow Stone National Park in a station wagon. I remember vividly wanting to stop at all the places advertised on the billboards just like Bryson describes in his book.
If you want a trip down memory lane to all those places you went as a child (or took your children to see) then this is the book for you. I actually called my brother and read him several passages that reminded me of our trips. We laughed so hard that he bought the book and read it himself! Fortunately you can just come to the library and check this one out!
Cindy Parkhurst
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