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BarnacleBill's avatar

Help identify a book?

Asked by BarnacleBill (16138points) February 13th, 2011

It’s driving me crazy, and I’ve tried googling the story multiple ways, with no luck.

The plot is a family saga, centering around a daughter. The book opens up with the father riding a bus back to Kentucky from somewhere in the midwest, where he’s been working as a farm laborer. It is sometime in the 1930’s. He has lost the family farm, and is moving his family to Florida where he has found work on a citrus farm. The first part of the book talks about the relationship with the land.

The daughter somehow meets and marries a rather wealthy young man from a small town in upstate New York. She struggles to find her own identity and place among strangers, separated from her family, and from her roots. I think part of the story is that she has a child with someone other than her husband, and ends up separating from him.

The part of this book that sticks with me is idea that it takes three generations to better a family’s circumstances, but only one generation to fall.

I’m sure the book is somewhere in the house. I’ve looked at the Bobbie Ann Mason, Wendell Berry and Harriette Arnow books I could find on the shelves. It’s driving me crazy that I cannot place the book.

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9 Answers

bkcunningham's avatar

Is it “A Land Remembered” by Patrick D. Smith? I just came from our place in Florida yesterday. I have found the best used book store near my home there, and one of the most brilliant writers in the Florida section is Smith.

BarnacleBill's avatar

@bkcunningham, that sounds similar, but the time period is off. Sounds like an author I would enjoy reading.

MilkyWay's avatar

maybe it’s “the grapes of wrath” by john steinback?

BarnacleBill's avatar

Not Grapes of Wrath. That’s Oklahoma to California. This is Kentucky to Florida to New York.

MilkyWay's avatar

oh right, sorry lol.

theninth's avatar

Was it actually written in the 1930s, or was it just set during that era?

bkcunningham's avatar

@BarnacleBill if you do remember or you get the correct answer, please let us know. Everytime this question pops back up, it drives me crazy searching for the book title.

BarnacleBill's avatar

It was probably written in the 1960’s? @bkcunningham, I will post it when I think of it.

BarnacleBill's avatar

I think I have it!!! A Garden of Earthly Delights, by Joyce Carol Oates.

I kept getting hung up thinking it was “Swann’s Way” which I knew was not right. The son’s name in “A Garden of Earthly Delights” is Swan.

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