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When the Waters Came–flood, fire, and disease
When the Waters Came
by Candice Sue Patterson
Often, works of historical fiction focus on a famous character, a war, or a period in history. This book has as its subject the Johnstown, PA, flood of 1889 which resulted in two thousand deaths. Add to that the destruction of most structures, thousands of animals, and deep mud everywhere. Families were torn apart, and basic services of electricity and water disappeared. Transportation came to a standstill. The stench of decomposition was overwhelming, and typhoid fever was a concern resulting from the unclean water. The government sent in resources, and Clara Barton brought medical help along with her organizational aid in arranging temporary housing and providing food.
The early part of the story focuses on Monty, a likable, handsome pastor with a secret in his background. He loses everything in the flood as most people do. Annamae is a Red Cross nurse in Washington, D.C., who travels to Pennsylvania to help in the tragedy. She had a very difficult childhood, and following the death of her father in a factory accident she is left to her own resources. She manages to become a nurse and because of her skills attracts the attention of Clara Barton. Monty and Annamae’s paths cross, and they gradually reveal their interest in each other.
Annamae and Monty both have lessons to learn about forgiveness. Annamae has a deep-felt need for revenge, and has to come to grips with acknowledging a trust in God and His justice in dealing with wrongs. While I felt for the people who lost all in this flood and were terrorized by the powerful waters, I never really connected with the protagonists. I did learn a lot about the devastation of floods and this one in particular. The descriptions of the natural occurrences and their aftermath are powerful.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Christian, Historical Fiction, Romance
Notes: 1. #1 in the six book series A Day to Remember featuring disasters in American history written by six different authors.
2. The author includes details explaining which parts of her work were taken from actual sources and which are fictionalized.
Publication: January 1, 2024—Barbour
Memorable Lines:
He looked in the direction the man had come from, and fear pierced his heart. Black mist rolled into the air. Then Monty saw a wall of water as tall as any building, devouring everything in its path. The dam had broken.
This had been no judgment day or act of God. Not in the biblical sense. The truth was that this had happened from the selfishness and indifference of the industrial kings who ran the country and spent summers recreating at the top of the mountain. But proving it would be no easy task.
“Here we are, a hundred and thirteen years after the revolution, ruled by a different tyrant. The tyrant of greed and monopoly, where payment for backbreaking work is given in company scrip that can only be used at the company stores where prices are higher than anywhere else. After years of sacrificing health and family, the reward is death.”
Jayber Crow–Life Story
Jayber Crow
by Wendell Berry
Some books are hard to encapsulate in a book review. Jayber Crow is one of those books. I am grateful to have book club members willing to share their insights and perspectives and give me opportunities to reflect on my own.
Author Wendell Berry is a Kentuckian through and through as is demonstrated in his Port Williams series of 11 novels and additional short story collections with a Kentucky setting. A novelist, poet, agrarian, activist, essayist, and farmer, Berry tells the story of Port William through the lives of his characters. Not a lot “happens” in Port William, but individuals like Jayber Crow are on display for the reader to understand how their experiences determine their strength of character. Jayber Crow has a series of rough circumstances as a child and as a young man; but never viewing himself as a victim, he develops the mental, emotional, and even physical fortitude to become a strong and introspective person. As is often the way in small towns, he is still considered an outsider even after many years of residing in Port William. With the goal of never being under the control of “the man across the desk,” Jayber, who considers himself the town’s most “ineligible bachelor,” has his own business as the town’s barber with side jobs as grave digger and church sexton.
Jayber was born in 1914, so he and all of Port William were affected by both World Wars and the Depression. He was witness to the technological changes that some called progress and others perceived as movements away from self-sufficiency and a difficult, but very satisfying way of life. In the process, they replaced a slower existence powered by manual labor with a more stressful one with a never-ending cycle of debt.
Jayber’s spiritual life is explored in the novel as he was placed in an unloving church orphanage where he thought he was called by God into the ministry. He was given a college scholarship to that end, but had a change of heart as he progressed through his studies. Jayber’s story shows the hand of God working behind the scenes as events from his early days help him as an adult. He is quiet, doing a lot of listening as a barber. As you read this book, you will watch Jayber navigate literal and metaphysical floods. There is a lot of symbolism in the book as related to water and course of direction. His relationships with women are interesting as he finally comes out of his shell by visiting a neighboring town where he will be subject to less town gossip. His marriage covenant is a most unusual one and may leave the reader with more questions than answers.
There is so much to think about in Jayber Crow that it is not a quick or easy to read book. I did enjoy it and recommend it. It takes the reader on a journey across Jayber’s lifetime, but never far from Port William.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Historical Fiction
Notes: 1. #6 in the Port William Series, but works well as a standalone
2. Contains a map and a genealogy of the families of Port William featured in the series.
Publication: 2000—Counterpoint (Berkeley)
Memorable Lines:
Back there at the beginning, as I see now, my life was all time and almost no memory. Though I knew early of death, it still seemed to be something that happened only to other people, and I stood in an unending river of time that would go on making the same changes and the same returns forever. And now, nearing the end, I see that my life is almost entirely memory and very little time.
The talk went the way I love it, so quiet and unhurried I could hear the dampened fire fluttering in the stove.
Her hearing was as sharp as Miss Sigurnia’s was dull. Aunt Beulah could hear the dust motes collide in a sunbeam; she could hear spiders chewing on flies.
The Branches seemed uninterested in getting somewhere and making something of themselves. What they liked was making something of nearly nothing.
Why is hate so easy and love so difficult?
education pathways 