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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
3.0
3.5 stars
The Goodenough family leaves Connecticut in 1838 to settle on the frontier and cultivate apple trees. They get as far as the Black Swamp of Ohio and there they are literally stuck, unable to drag themselves and their belongings another step farther in the sucking mud.
James and Sadie should never have married. James contemplates the layers of flavor in each apple they grow, while Sadie just wants to grow any kind of apple that can be made into a potent drink to keep her drunk for as long as possible. The frontier is brutal, they've lost five of their ten children to swamp fevers, and their family dysfunction brings the Ernshaws of Wuthering Heights to mind.
This sounds like pretty dire reading, but it is actually quite engrossing. They buy apple seedlings from John Appleseed, who down the river dressed in nothing but a coffee sack. They go to a revival meeting in the closest town. James nurtures his pippins and Sadie revels in the other product of apple farming. Where can this family be going?
Part two is set fifteen years later in the California Gold Rush, as the youngest Goodenough son becomes increasingly involved with a different sort of tree--the giant redwoods and sequoias, as he collects seeds to be shipped to English gardeners. He writes to his family in Ohio, not knowing who is there or if the letters ever arrive.
Reading the Ohio section is like anticipating a train wreck. The family is so out of whack and their circumstances so difficult that "What is going to happen here?" hangs over the reader's head like a muddy cloud. Part two is brighter. The Gold Rush is winding down, but there is so much natural beauty to explore. There is the beginning of tourism to visit the huge, glorious trees, more people with different interests. But James is haunted by his family. What happened there? Will he ever see any of them again?
I read this book with only expecting to like it, but I enjoyed it completely. It's different. You see how living on the frontier influenced so much in the American character, how the wonder of the wilderness formed us.
The Goodenough family leaves Connecticut in 1838 to settle on the frontier and cultivate apple trees. They get as far as the Black Swamp of Ohio and there they are literally stuck, unable to drag themselves and their belongings another step farther in the sucking mud.
James and Sadie should never have married. James contemplates the layers of flavor in each apple they grow, while Sadie just wants to grow any kind of apple that can be made into a potent drink to keep her drunk for as long as possible. The frontier is brutal, they've lost five of their ten children to swamp fevers, and their family dysfunction brings the Ernshaws of Wuthering Heights to mind.
This sounds like pretty dire reading, but it is actually quite engrossing. They buy apple seedlings from John Appleseed, who down the river dressed in nothing but a coffee sack. They go to a revival meeting in the closest town. James nurtures his pippins and Sadie revels in the other product of apple farming. Where can this family be going?
Part two is set fifteen years later in the California Gold Rush, as the youngest Goodenough son becomes increasingly involved with a different sort of tree--the giant redwoods and sequoias, as he collects seeds to be shipped to English gardeners. He writes to his family in Ohio, not knowing who is there or if the letters ever arrive.
Reading the Ohio section is like anticipating a train wreck. The family is so out of whack and their circumstances so difficult that "What is going to happen here?" hangs over the reader's head like a muddy cloud. Part two is brighter. The Gold Rush is winding down, but there is so much natural beauty to explore. There is the beginning of tourism to visit the huge, glorious trees, more people with different interests. But James is haunted by his family. What happened there? Will he ever see any of them again?
I read this book with only expecting to like it, but I enjoyed it completely. It's different. You see how living on the frontier influenced so much in the American character, how the wonder of the wilderness formed us.