Reviews

God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell, Lewis Nordan

olivehead's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

2.75

jrmlong4e's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

ktoumajian's review against another edition

3.0

3+ Although I did not start out liking this book, I did come to appreciate some of what Caldwell is doing in it. Highlighting the plight of the poor Southern white due to failure of the sharecropping system and the textile mill closures of the 30s, these characters are reduced to their most base needs and desires, existing in their animal bodies which are in a constant state of heightened sexual need. Though I understood the purpose, it was hard to witness the complete lack of agency of the women in the book who are constantly touched, gawked at, or literally having their clothes ripped off of them without any push-back whatsoever. The only woman who seems to use her sexuality to her advantage is Darling Jill who moves outside expectations somewhat but is still captivated by the alpha male, Will, in the end.

As expected in a Southern Gothic novel things do not go well in the end for any of the characters, leaving the patriarch of the family where he began: surveying his senselessly dug up land (symbolic graves??) and still digging in a futile search for gold with his family even worse off, bereft of 3 members and of any hope for a better future.

cascadianriot's review against another edition

4.0

This may as well be the same as Tobacco road. good... but same basic plot.

mjmettle's review against another edition

2.0

This is a novel about white sharecroppers during the Depression. I read it because Erskine Caldwell was involved in another famous project I read called "You Have Seen Their Faces," a collection of prose and photos (in collusion with the photographer Margaret Bourke-White) of sharecroppers in the South.

This story may be a good portrayal of poverty, of the wish to escape poverty through miraculous means (digging for gold in the back yard), and of the sexual politics of the times. But the story is over the top. I simply didn't believe it. I think non-fiction accounts of sharecroppers' lives, such as James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, are more worthwhile.

ireadslow's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bundy23's review against another edition

4.0

The first half is a hilarious comedy about half-wits and then it becomes very dark, very quickly... They're still a bunch of half-wits though. I think I preferred the comedy.

sparksinthevoid's review against another edition

liked this quite surprisingly, dragged a bit in the middle but the last paragraph was very nice

book 5 for my american south module

sjchaima's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

eilyk97's review against another edition

1.0

Subtitled: In Which the Author Inserts Himself into a Fictional Work So He Can Live Out His Kinky, Misogynistic Fantasies At the Expense of Women Everywhere

0/5 stars, would never recommend