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The Well: Logan Family saga
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 11:58:00 -600
What were your first responses to this new addition to what Mildred Taylor calls "the Logan family saga"? Ginny
Kathleen Horning responds: As a reader who's read all of the Logan family saga pretty much as soon as each volume was published, I am continually amazed at Mildred Taylor's ability to return to the same family and community again and again, approaching it each time from different points of view to reveal new insights into the complexity of human relationships.
Her central and consistent point of view throughout has been Cassie Logan whom we first see as an 8-year-old in Taylor's first book "Song of the Trees" published twenty years ago. In her latest novel, "Road To Memphis," Cassie is 16. I see Cassie's narratives (which also include "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and "Let the Circle Be Unbroken") as the straightforward, chronological story of Logan family history. But even these books present a changing point of view, because as Cassie matures as a character, so does the subject matter about which Taylor is writing. Cassie's observations of the adult world become more firmly grounded in her understanding of a perverse social order (i.e. race relations in a small southern town in the mid th century) with each book Taylor writes.
It strikes me that even though Cassie is the central character in these books, she is never really telling her own story. Rather, her role is to observe, document, and report what is generally someone else's story. In "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry," for example, it's her older brother Stacey's story.
Taylor follows this same point of view in "The Well," using the point of view of the younger brother, David, to tell of an incident that happened to his family in which his older brother Hammer played a key role. I think she subtitled it "David's Story" to make it clear that it occurred a generation earlier than most of the stories in the Logan family saga. Most readers will immediately recognize David as Cassie's father and will be interested in finding out what he was like as a young boy.
What do others think about Taylor's use of point of view?
Kathleen Horning, CCBC
UW-Madison
Received on Tue 03 Oct 1995 12:58:00 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 11:58:00 -600
What were your first responses to this new addition to what Mildred Taylor calls "the Logan family saga"? Ginny
Kathleen Horning responds: As a reader who's read all of the Logan family saga pretty much as soon as each volume was published, I am continually amazed at Mildred Taylor's ability to return to the same family and community again and again, approaching it each time from different points of view to reveal new insights into the complexity of human relationships.
Her central and consistent point of view throughout has been Cassie Logan whom we first see as an 8-year-old in Taylor's first book "Song of the Trees" published twenty years ago. In her latest novel, "Road To Memphis," Cassie is 16. I see Cassie's narratives (which also include "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and "Let the Circle Be Unbroken") as the straightforward, chronological story of Logan family history. But even these books present a changing point of view, because as Cassie matures as a character, so does the subject matter about which Taylor is writing. Cassie's observations of the adult world become more firmly grounded in her understanding of a perverse social order (i.e. race relations in a small southern town in the mid th century) with each book Taylor writes.
It strikes me that even though Cassie is the central character in these books, she is never really telling her own story. Rather, her role is to observe, document, and report what is generally someone else's story. In "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry," for example, it's her older brother Stacey's story.
Taylor follows this same point of view in "The Well," using the point of view of the younger brother, David, to tell of an incident that happened to his family in which his older brother Hammer played a key role. I think she subtitled it "David's Story" to make it clear that it occurred a generation earlier than most of the stories in the Logan family saga. Most readers will immediately recognize David as Cassie's father and will be interested in finding out what he was like as a young boy.
What do others think about Taylor's use of point of view?
Kathleen Horning, CCBC
UW-Madison
Received on Tue 03 Oct 1995 12:58:00 PM CDT
