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Chargement... Promisepar Minrose Gwin
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  DonnaEverhart | Jun 21, 2022 |   On Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures. This novel is about Dovey, a black laundress, and her family in the aftermath of this massive tornado. After the tornado struck, Dovey woke up in Gum Pond. She almost drowned until she was able to pull herself out of the water. When she finally located her house, it was totally demolished. She sets out on quest to find her husband, granddaughter and Promise - her granddaughters baby. What she encounters is horrific - the town is totally destroyed, there are bodies everywhere and people wandering around in shock. What was really horrible is that despite all of the pain and suffering going on, the white townspeople still showed their racial prejudice in everything they said and did. The black members of the community got less care and concern than the white people and there wasn't even a list of the black causalities. Dovey's goal to find her family is filled with danger and pain because she is suffering from numerous injuries. She tries to ignore her injuries because she knows how important it is to find her family. This was an interesting well written book about how people coped with the aftermath of a disaster. I enjoyed the book and won't soon forget Dovey and her search for her family. (  ) susan0316 | Jan 22, 2021 | I grew up in a town near Tupelo and heard stories of the tornado's destruction all my life. The author used real business names, and she often mentioned surnames familiar to those from the Tupelo area. The author skillfully weaves in the reality of racism in that time and place. I enjoyed this novel for its setting as well as the story it told. ( ) thornton37814 | Jul 29, 2019 | This would make an excellent selection for books groups. I highly recommend this book. (  ) Loried | Feb 5, 2019 |  ) Thelmajean | Apr 13, 2018 | aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart--one black, one white; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager--fight for their families' survival in this lyrical and powerful novel "Gwin's gift shines in the complexity of her characters and their fraught relationships with each other, their capacity for courage and hope, coupled with their passion for justice." -- Jonis Agee, bestselling author of The River Wife A few minutes after 9 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo's population, who were not included in the official casualty figures. When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, is flung by the terrifying winds into a nearby lake. Bruised and nearly drowned, she makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family--her hardworking husband, Virgil, her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama, and Promise, Dreama's beautiful light-skinned three-month-old son. Slowly navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family. Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one, including Jo, the McNabbs' dutiful teenage daughter, who has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she's found her baby brother, Tommy, and vows to protect him. During the harrowing hours and days of the chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and to battle both the demons and the history that link and haunt them. Drawing on historical events, Minrose Gwin beautifully imagines natural and human destruction in the deep South of the 1930s through the experiences of two remarkable women whose lives are indelibly connected by forces beyond their control. A story of loss, hope, despair, grit, courage, and race, Promise reminds us of the transformative power and promise that come from confronting our most troubled relations with one another. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.95)
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The story takes place in 1936, in Tupelo MS, and is based on the true events about a tornado that tore through the town, and devastated neighborhoods. The historical aspect, aside from the horrendous damage and loss of life caused by the storm, was the difference in treatment of blacks and whites during this tragic event. The author found out, for example, that the death count of black people was not being kept up with. Overall the death toll was 200 people and hundreds were injured.
Side note: The tornado, on record as an F5, the strongest one can get, was so powerful, pine needles were embedded in tree trunks. I read this later, after I finished the book.
The details of how a disaster like this was managed was really interesting. Box cars were used for shelter by those who lost their homes, and because of limitations, I assume, they had to be shared. A theater was set up for managing the injured.
I loved how Gwin altered the story between Dovey, the black launderess, and Jo, a young teenaged white girl, who knew Dovey because she did their laundry. Dovey knew more about the McNabb's than they realized, because of their clothing she washed. Secrets propel the characters to act in certain ways. Jo has hers, and Dovey has hers, too.
The creativity that went into the overall story was captivating, and I found each character's voice particularly strong. Dovey is dealing with her anger and disappointment over an act committed against her granddaughter, Dreama. Promise, her great-grandson, is the result of that act.
Jo hides behind an event she calls the trick, dealt out from the same individual. This person came close to destroying the young girl that was Dreama, and Dovey sorely (righfully) is angered by this. This is the shared secret that neither Dovey or Jo realize they have in common. While this was not resolved in the story, it did not matter in the grand scheme. Life is messy and there isn't always the perfect resolution, or a reckoning, so to speak, to what goes on, right?
But, it is the baby, Promise, who seems to deliver them from their dark pasts, and his name suits his role perfectly. Because of him, there is the promise of a brighter future. (