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Preacher's Boy
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From: Dean Schneider <schneiderd>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 15:56:52 -0500
Preacher's Boy, Katherine Paterson's latest book, is a beautifully and subtly written novel. The evocation of Vermont in 1899 is wonderfully done, never sounding like a history lesson and never heavy-handed with the details. It's a story you find yourself reading, pondering, and reading again, which is what I have done: I read it myself and am now reading it aloud to my twelve-year-old son.
It is, in part, a story of moral responsibility. In chapter one, there seem to be many signs of "creeping moral decay that was rotting America from the core like a worm in an apple." Mabel Cramm's bloomers are run up a flagpole, a rowdy crowd hangs out at the livery stable, and there's concern about the Italian stonecutters - their religion and drinking. And Robbie's father, the Congregational preacher, seems to be soft on sin and too lenient in raiising his son.
In chapter two, Rev. J.K. Pelham visits to rouse the town with his fire and brimstone sermons and dire predictions of the Day of Judgment.
Robbie figures if the world is going to end at the turn of the century, the Dread Day, he might as well live it up - give up on Church and the Ten Commandments, ride a train to California, ride in a car ( a new invention that few people have seen yet), and get a bicycle. He wants to live the self?ntered life of a Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. (The novel has already been compared to Huckleberry Finn.)
Though Robbie does break some of the Ten Commandments, the novel becomes a story of Robbie's rise to moral responsibility and new-found respect for his father and brother. He comes to realize that his actions affect other people, that he cannot think about just himself. As he says, "I was thinking mostly about myself in those days."
Of course, as a fine novel, there are more layers than these, but this is what struck me about the story. As with all of Katherine Paterson's work, this is a full-fledged story peopled with full-blooded characters. It is not a dogmatic tract meant to preach a lesson. If there is a lesson or a spirit about life, it comes from a story well told.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School 211 Ensworth Avenue Nashville, TN 37205 schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Tue 24 Aug 1999 03:56:52 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 15:56:52 -0500
Preacher's Boy, Katherine Paterson's latest book, is a beautifully and subtly written novel. The evocation of Vermont in 1899 is wonderfully done, never sounding like a history lesson and never heavy-handed with the details. It's a story you find yourself reading, pondering, and reading again, which is what I have done: I read it myself and am now reading it aloud to my twelve-year-old son.
It is, in part, a story of moral responsibility. In chapter one, there seem to be many signs of "creeping moral decay that was rotting America from the core like a worm in an apple." Mabel Cramm's bloomers are run up a flagpole, a rowdy crowd hangs out at the livery stable, and there's concern about the Italian stonecutters - their religion and drinking. And Robbie's father, the Congregational preacher, seems to be soft on sin and too lenient in raiising his son.
In chapter two, Rev. J.K. Pelham visits to rouse the town with his fire and brimstone sermons and dire predictions of the Day of Judgment.
Robbie figures if the world is going to end at the turn of the century, the Dread Day, he might as well live it up - give up on Church and the Ten Commandments, ride a train to California, ride in a car ( a new invention that few people have seen yet), and get a bicycle. He wants to live the self?ntered life of a Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. (The novel has already been compared to Huckleberry Finn.)
Though Robbie does break some of the Ten Commandments, the novel becomes a story of Robbie's rise to moral responsibility and new-found respect for his father and brother. He comes to realize that his actions affect other people, that he cannot think about just himself. As he says, "I was thinking mostly about myself in those days."
Of course, as a fine novel, there are more layers than these, but this is what struck me about the story. As with all of Katherine Paterson's work, this is a full-fledged story peopled with full-blooded characters. It is not a dogmatic tract meant to preach a lesson. If there is a lesson or a spirit about life, it comes from a story well told.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School 211 Ensworth Avenue Nashville, TN 37205 schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Tue 24 Aug 1999 03:56:52 PM CDT
