"All the Living" has the timeless quality of a parable, but it is also a perfect evocation of a time and place, a portrait of both age-old conflicts and modern life. This lyrical and moving debut novel is an ode to the starve-acre southern farm, the mountain landscape, and difficult love--an unforgettable book from a major new voice.
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"All the Living" has the timeless quality of a parable, but it is also a perfect evocation of a time and place, a portrait of both age-old conflicts and modern life. This lyrical and moving debut novel is an ode to the starve-acre southern farm, the mountain landscape, and difficult love--an unforgettable book from a major new voice.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
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Good. Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
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As New in As New dust jacket. 0374103623. Book New. No notes. No names or ANY markings. DJ with SLIGHTEST crimp to spine head else NEW. DJ not price clipped ($23); Author's 1st book.; 199 pages.
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Very Good in Good dust jacket. 0374103623. Jacket spine rubbed leaving text somewhat obscured.; Signed by the author on the title page, jacket (not price-clipped) now in a clear protector; 199 pages; Signed by Author.
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Very Good. This book is inscribed by the author on the half title page. The dust jacket is clean with some shelf wear. The boards have some stains on the front bottom edge. The pages of this book are clean and unmarked. A good solid copy. FAST SHIPPING & FREE TRACKING!
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The title of C.E. Morgan's first novel derives from Ecclesiastes 9:5. Morgan quotes the Scriptural text as an epigraph: "There is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover,the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion."
The Biblical quotation serves as an apt summation of Morgan's book. The novel, which deals with themes of loneliness, death and suffering, suggests that life is full of woe and leads inevitably to death. But life remains precious in offering hope and possible redemption. The book raises important religious issues. The power of music also plays an important part in the story. The author has studied and felt both music and religion. She is a graduate of Berea University, Kentucky where she studied English and voice, and she holds a master's degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School.
The novel is set on a small isolated, and bleak tobacco farm in contemporary rural Kentucky. Three weeks before the novel begins, a young man, Orren Fenton, has lost his family in an automobile accident. He returns to work the family farm together with his lover, Aloma. Aloma was orphaned at the age of three and lived with relatives until sent to a boarding school at the age of 12. At the boarding school she fell in love with and learned to play the piano. She aspires to serious musical study.
Orren and Aloma have difficulties in their relationship. The taciturn Orren works incessantly on the farm struggling to make a living and to pay off debt. Aloma has no experience with farming or, indeed, with homemaking. She becomes bored and restless. More importantly, she misses the piano and her music. Orren and Aloma quarrel repeatedly. At Orren's suggestion, Aloma takes a job playing the piano at a small church in a village, Hansonville, 20 miles up the road. As the story develops, Aloma is tempted to leave Orren and begin a relationship with the preacher, Bell Johnson. Bell, 36, lives with his aged mother and works a farm of his own inherited from his father. He preaches part-time and without pay.
He has never married, and feels this as a loss.
Each of the three major characters is lonely and searches for love. Orren and Aloma are both orphans and have difficulty understanding each other. Orren seeks meaning in his life by working the land that had been owned by his family. Aloma is seeking to pursue her music and to attain a degree of independence. Both Orren and Aloma have sharp, rejecting parts of their characters which threaten to drive them apart.
The book describes well scenes in rural Kentucky, the difficult fields, the backbreaking work of tobacco farming, old, rickety, and unmaintained houses, dirt roads, small stores, and spare, primitive churches. Much of the novel explores the consequences to Orren and Aloma in this community of living together without marriage. But Morgan's book has a much more universal cast in its exploration of the relationship between commitment and independence, sexuality and love, and religion and secular activity. Each of the three primary characters is drawn with care and with particularity. The book is written in an understated, lyrical tone; and the dialogue generally flows into the narrative without being set-off with quotation marks.
While Orren and Aloma are the focus of attention, much of the wisdom of the book is delivered by Bell, the preacher. Bell studied briefly at a university, but he abandoned his studies when he despaired of worldly wisdom. He is shown in this book as a persuasive, eloquent and thoughtful individual, far from a stereotyped fundamentalist. The sermons that he gives frame the book, with their emphasis on human loneliness ("we are all lonesome men", p. 78), on the wisdom of understanding the nature of self and selfishness (p. 79) and on the difficulties of overcoming grief and despair (p. 117). These and other words of Bell give some grounding to his own life situation and choices and to those of Orren and Aloma.
An impressive debut novel, "All the Living" is gritty and pensive and avoids cliche. It makes an excellent choice to read for oneself or in the company of a book group.
Robin Friedman
tucketgirl
Sep 3, 2009
little sliver of heaven of a book
this book is such a wonderfully sweet and quiet book that you find yourself in another world reading it. I enjoyed every second of this novel. It has a soft slow pace that you don't find in a lot of novels lately. A true treasure.
