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Christopher Tilghman

Autor von Mason's Retreat

8+ Werke 545 Mitglieder 15 Rezensionen

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Writer Christopher Tilghman was born in Boston in 1946 and later graduated from Yale University. After Tilghman served in the Navy, he took on construction work until he was able to establish himself as a writer. Tilghman's short stories appeared in The New Yorker magazine and in Best American mehr anzeigen Short Stories. He also published In a Father's Place, a collection of short stories, and Mason's Retreat, his first novel. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen

Werke von Christopher Tilghman

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The Best American Short Stories 1994 (1994) — Mitwirkender — 243 Exemplare
The Best American Short Stories 1992 (1992) — Mitwirkender — 225 Exemplare
The Best American Short Stories 1990 (1990) — Mitwirkender — 221 Exemplare
Nightshade: 20th Century Ghost Stories (1999) — Mitwirkender — 65 Exemplare

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In the early 1890s, childhood friends, now newlyweds Beal Terrell and Thomas Bayly, leave their native Maryland for a new life abroad. Their displacement would be unremarkable, except that Thomas’s father owned the extensive farm and peach orchards on which Beal grew up, as the child of former slaves.

Since interracial marriage is illegal in Maryland — and dangerous anywhere in the United States — the couple has chosen France. Or, rather, Thomas has. Beal, though she loves Thomas and has agreed to the plan as the most practical, sensible way to have a life together, hasn’t chosen anything, and therein hangs a tale.

Thomas and Beal in the Midi offers an unusual twist on interracial marriage. Between the two participants, race causes no rifts. Other people construct what they will about the Baylys, often to indulge their bigotry, but their reactions leave no scars.

The real problem is that the two exiles have married young; their inexperience makes for growing pains, specifically Beal’s difficulties being a beautiful woman. She’s tired of having men tell her who she is or must be, which is perfectly understandable, especially because that would put her in their power. But Thomas doesn’t do that, so when she lets herself be put upon or even drawn to other men who do, it’s perverse.

True, Thomas does decide, after a few months’ research in Paris, that they'll move to Languedoc and grow grapes, and, as the man of the couple, he’s expected to be the planner. But the way Tilghman portrays his protagonists, Thomas would like nothing better than to share his enthusiasm, and Beal acts as if she couldn’t care less.

Consequently, her rebellion — if such it is — takes the form of permitting approaches from precisely those men who look upon her as an object for their own admiration, a self-defeating and hurtful choice all around.

To be fair, Thomas has a certain reserve about him, a delicacy that keeps him from assuming too much. It can be maddening and charming, both, and one thing about Beal’s secret admirers, they’re not shy about talking. Meanwhile, Thomas has a mild flirtation of his own, looking for the intellectual passion Beal withholds, so the wrong doesn’t go only one direction. But he’s more honorable, with a firmer conscience. I find him far more sympathetic than his wife, who acts like an immature ninny, at times. That’s why I like the novel less than I wanted to.

For all that, though, it’s a beautiful piece of writing. Tilghman has a terrific eye for emotional nuance, which finds unexpected meaning in small moments and fills the spaces with tension in this less-than-busy plot. In fact, the last part of the narrative seems rushed, a little, as though a quicker resolution had to happen, even at the expense of a confrontation or two that need to happen before the reader’s eyes. Nothing like destroying a climax before it starts.

Aside from the marvelous prose, I also like the symbolism. Thomas’s grape-growing experiment comes on the heels of an agricultural disaster, the invasion of phylloxera, an aphid that laid waste to much of France’s grape rootstock.

To keep his vineyards alive, he must therefore graft resistant American stock on to what already grows, while uprooting the one hardy local varietal that makes insipid wine, and whose market is glutted. Since Thomas’s father’s peach orchards died off from blight (symbolic of the slavery that existed there), you can take the grafting metaphor in any direction you wish — Beal and Thomas’s marriage; America and Europe; Thomas repairing his father’s mistakes; a rebuilding of tolerance; new life in general.

I could have happily read more about the wine business. But Thomas and Beal in the Midi is an unusual love story, and there’s much to admire in it.
… (mehr)
 
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Novelhistorian | Jan 29, 2023 |
In these brief stories the author succeeds in lucidly reconstructing the place, time and especially the people. The centre of his stories and often the viewpoint is the father, which is rather unique at least in my reading.
 
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amaraki | 1 weitere Rezension | Jul 15, 2020 |
Although it took a while for me to get into this novel, I loved the author's style. I felt the love between the characters and couldn't help but root for them. The combination of historic relevance and deep character development made this novel a wonderful read. Now, I'm going to eat a juicy peach!
 
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Beth.Clarke | 5 weitere Rezensionen | Jun 28, 2019 |
It took me a while to get into this but once I hit page 50 (which is usually my make it or break it point), I was very intrigued by the story of an American family returning from England in the 1930s to take over a family farm on the eastern shores of Maryland. I had no idea where the novel was going to go - and though I found some parts under-developed, I enjoyed it enough follow avidly and want to read the prequel.

I wish I could give it another half star.
 
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laurenbufferd | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Nov 14, 2016 |

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