At the Edge of the Orchard

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Robert is the youngest in the Goodenough family and this story really belongs to him. We get his travelogue through letters he writes home to his family. Once Robert settles in with an English botanist, his story unfolds in regular chapters. While Robert isn't always a completely engaging character, his story is interesting and the people with which he surrounds himself is equally of importance.

I had this vision of a couple, a pioneer couple, arguing over apples — one of them wanting sweet apples to eat, the other wanting to grow sour apples so that there'd be enough cider to go around ... At The Edge of the Orchard is brutal yet tender, educational and evocative. Tracy Chevalier is a first-class author and this is quite possibly, her best novel yet. The strongest parts of the book are the historical details. I enjoyed the portrayal of the historical John Chapman (known as Johnny Appleseed), the details of early redwood/sequoia tourism, and all the bits about apple varieties. The seed collector, William Lobb, was a real person ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...) and his story was simply fascinating.The search for happiness, the complex entanglements of family life, and people’s reactions to trying circumstances: these themes are familiar and universal. What makes Chevalier’s eighth novel distinctive is how she links them to the mid-19 th century world of trees and the care she takes with her realistic characters. It also moves beautifully between different styles and viewpoints, and the plot offers many surprises.

MA in creative writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, 1994. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not you can be taught to write. Why doesn’t anyone ask that of professional singers, painters, dancers? That year forced me to write all the time and take it seriously. Robert’s and Martha’s letters serve as pivot points for the book. Why do you think the author chose to tell big portions of the story in this way? What effect does it have on the emotional impact of Robert’s decision to leave his family? Of Martha’s life after he does?

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As in other Chevalier novels, there’s an impressive amount of research with the inclusion of real-life historical figures and wonderful attention to detail. The characters are flawed and not very likeable but all the more compelling as a result. From internationally bestselling author Tracy Chevalier, a riveting drama of a pioneer family on the American frontier By the spring of 1838, they have buried five of their 10 children. The remaining children include two older boys, Caleb and Nathan, and three younger children, Sal, Margaret, and Robert. Sadie hates their lives there and has become vindictive to the point of hating everything and everyone. She turns to alcohol for comfort, made from some of the family's apple trees. James loves the apple trees and the orchard has become his method of coping with his harsh, disappointing life. He is prone to violence and often beats Sadie and even the children. Absorbing…[Chevalier] creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a particular moment, it transcends its time and place.” We start with the family and their efforts to settle in this swamp, and then we travel with young Robert, the eldest son as he travels westward, working different jobs until he meets Hobbs and find employment with him collecting seeds and comes. We don't know why he left his family and won't until the third part of the book.

With impeccable research and flawless prose, Chevalier perfectly conjures the grandeur of the pristine Wild West . . . and the everyday adventurers—male and female—who were bold enough or foolish enough to be drawn to the unknown. She crafts for us an excellent experience.” This book was another example of that. Up until almost two thirds of the way through I was wondering what the point was. That's not to say I wasn't enjoying the book, as I was happy to follow the two generations of the Goodenough family and the apples they grow which provide the central theme, but I was often wondering where the story was going, who was meant to be the protagonist etc.... A well written tale about people with courage, including strong women who make the best of what life offers.” A very depressing story in the beginning, historically interesting for the second part, but much time spent on apples and seeds. More time spent on the historical than in fleshing out the characters, or so I felt. Molly, who appears in the second half of the novel brings a welcome and refreshing, even uplifting boost to this novel. Not until them last part did we get a better understanding of Robert and it was this part of the book I enjoyed the most. So a mixed reaction from me, loved the writing, the story was interesting but I felt it was a little disconnected. Definitely worth reading though. As always appreciated the author's note which lets the reader know what was factual and what was fiction.Writer Tracy Chevalier spins fiction from history. Her best-selling novel Girl with a Pearl Earring was set in the 17 th-century studio of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer; 2010's Remarkable Creatures focused on 19 th-century English fossil hunters; and 2005's The Lady and the Unicorn told the stories of medieval tapestry weavers. Now, Chevalier's latest book looks at a pioneer family trying to scrape out a life in the swamps of Ohio. Imagine burying five children, and spending nine years in constant war with your environment just to keep yourself and your family alive, while being mostly isolated from family and from neighbors. How would you hold up under these circumstances? How would your family have dealt with this life? What would your children do? What would your marriage be like?

However, there's a situation yet to come involving Robert's sometimes-lover Molly, and his long-lost sister. More tragedy waits in the offing.Many readers did not like the Goodenough parents - James and Sadie. I found them and their story to be the most interesting thing about the novel! Perhaps because they are quite like a lot of people I grew up around. Plain, detail-obsessed men with little time for people or family, and dissatisfied, hard women out for vicious, petty revenge wherever they can get it. Where their story literally ends is where I've seen a good handful of marriages metaphorically end. Sadie’s mistakes and aggressions are the ones that propel the plot in the first half of the book. What did you think about her character? Discuss the ways the author makes Sadie’s behavior more understandable or sympathetic. In what ways is James responsible for the family’s strife? What would this novel be like without Sadie? Chevalier’s research is painstakingly detailed without weighing down the story…Chevalier has created a patchwork of stories…together they form a picture of lives wrested from an unforgiving land, but with a promise of renewal.” This author is meticulous in her research, not only into the lives of those who lived in the swamps of Ohio during that period of time and the California Gold Rush, but also the growing and nurturing of trees, which I found to be very interesting. This is a very good story about an unforgiving land and those who tried to endure there.