Josephine Humphreys

This is a pretty book about an ugly situation -- one of those drifting, almost elegiac novels of a time and place long gone.

The residents of Shuffletown, North Carolina, are an isolated and tight-knit clan, mixed-race descendants of early Scots settlers, an Indian tribe whose Native American traditions and heritage has long been subsumed in the mix, and an occasional freed or escaped slave. They get buy on subsistence farming, the making of turpentine, and a total lack of interest in the Civil War that is raging through the south as it crawls to its bloody and broken conclusion.

Inevitably, the war comes to them, though mostly through the anti-Union sentiments of neighbors from nearby communities. And through all this, Rhoda Strong grows from a 15-year-old dreaming of marrying (although she's not sure to whom) and struggles, along with her family, to survive the coming violence.

There's an unexpectedly leisurely pace to this book, as much of it concerns itself with the nature of Scuffletown and its surrounding pine forest, sheltering and unconcerned, even as dreadful acts are being performed.

This is mostly a story of perseverance, of family loyalties, and of the lengths to which people will go when the society around them is trying to drive them to extinction.

Don't pick it up if you're looking for Gone With the Wind, or The Daring Adventures of Jesse James. Settle in, let it wash over and through you like the Lumbee River, and let the lives of these simple, honest people inhabit your soul for a while.… (mehr)

This novel is set in Lumberton, NC, during and after the Civil War. The story centers on a place in Robeson County called Shuffletown that housed a mixture of Native Americans and their families. The story discusses the turpentine business in North Carolina and the beetles and war that destroyed this business. The story recounts the terrors and hardships of the war, and shows that the Robeson County inhabitants had to fight off both the Yankees and the Rebels. I felt the story difficult to follow with the multitude of characters. This is not a book that I enjoyed, and do not plan to read other books by this author.… (mehr)