It cetainly kept me reading. From a family trying to settle in the mud swamps of Ohio and grow apple trees, The son Robert falls out and leaves, heading west. After a few adventures he gets involved collecting tree specimens for Engllish collectors, and this becomes his living, until his pregnant sister finds him, and his occasional lover turns up pregnant, and his boss is unwell. He ends up taking his family exploring even further as they embark for England to protect and plant the trees that he has collected. I see an allegory of going beyond the edge of the orchard as he has done this once when he left home and went west into the unknown, and now he is venturing into his unknown again. Robert is a caring man, even if he doesn't know it. I liked how it showed the passing of time in the letters from Robert to his family, and how he learned to write and improve his english, because of course in the swamps with his family he wasn't ediucated at all. Mark - 9
This tale is
initially set in the US state of Ohio and features the dysfunctional
Goodenough family who have migrated from New England when the family
farm is unable to support all of its sons and their families.
James - the
father is a grower of apples and especially wants to grow eating
apples. His wife Sadie prefers cider apples and their product. They
bicker constantly over this as James strives to cultivate his land
allocation (50 trees in the first 3 years) She is an unpleasant
character and uncaring mother to her surviving children Sal,
Caleb, Nathan, Robert, Martha . We learn that she has borne 10
children but many have died of swamp fever – Patty, Mary Ann,
Jimmy, Tom.
Most of the new
apples are supplied by John Chapman who travels the area in a canoe
laden with trees. Sadie a drunk and woman of easy virtue sets her
cap at him but he is more interested in selling his trees.
During one of
their violent arguments James and Sadie kill each other and Robert
runs away westward taking a variety of jobs until eventually he
meets and hooks up with a tree collector in California who makes a
living sending sequoias and giant redwoods back to estates in the
UK.
After many years
and a failed correspondence with his family Robert is found by his
sister who is pregnant following an incestuous rape by her brother
Caleb. (She had already miscarried a child fathered by an abusive
neighbour Mr Day after his wife’s death.
Sadly Martha dies
following the birth of her baby boy just days after finding Robert.
He meanwhile is being pursued by a pregnant former prostitute
Molly who implies that he has fathered the baby girl she bears.
Robert and Molly end up together with the 2 babies Jimmy and Sarah
and we leave them sailing off to England with a load of trees
I enjoyed reading
this story and found the descriptions of the Ohio farm and the family
characters very convincing. The additional characters were also
well described – John Chapman, Mrs Day, Nancy and Billie Lapham,
William Lobb and Mrs Bienenstock the landlady. The author draws a
compelling picture of the hard lives of the pioneers both in Ohio and
further west in Texas and California. Less an American dream for many
and more a day to day nightmare.
It is possible to
have some sympathy for Sadie living in the conditions she does and
watching her children die one by one. And her husband is a bit
obsessed by his trees – I couldn’t help thinking it might have
been a good idea to diversify a bit more.
It was also
interesting to learn about the grafting of the apple trees (
although I was ready to leave the edge of the orchard by the time
Robert did!) and to find out about the trade in Californian trees
back to the UK. (I lived near the Veitch nurseries in Devon)
I felt sad that
Martha died after all that had happened to her – but I wonder what
would have happened between Robert and Molly had she lived? Did
Robert settle for Molly as a matter of convenience to provide for
Martha’s son?
My score: 8
In the documentation at the end of the book it explains that John Chapman was teh Johnny Appleseed of American legend.
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