Where Dew Drops Shine Bright (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

This story chronicles the lives of three generations of black women in the deep south from 1908 to1948. It is based upon real people and real events revealed through interviews with the author's elder family members. Yet, with details long forgotten or taken to the grave, the author must use his research of the era and area along with poetic license to ‘tell the story’ of his ancestors.

Born a slave, Bill Hollinshed is a prosperous Mississippi landowner in the early 1900s. Though married for thirty years, Bill and his wife remain childless. When the couple decide to find an heir to prolong Bill’s legacy, a bold proposal emerges, pride is swallowed and sacrifices are made. A year later Bill’s heir, Lillie Mae is born. At age 15, Lillie Mae marries her 20-ear-old suitor, Willie Joe Gillespie, despite her reservations about the marriage.

A half dozen years into their marriage, Lillie Mae inherits land from Bill Hollinshed's estate. Their sharecropping days now over, the young family embark upon building a thriving farm of their own. Just so happens the land Lillie Mae inherits is just across the road from the prosperous farm owned by her childhood friend, Pearlie Dee Greaves. In time, Willie Joe’s baby brother moves in to help with the farm. Over a decade younger and considered a more sociable version of Willie Joe, charming Charlie soon develops a crush on the older yet still-fetching Pearlie Dee. Intrigued by the affections of a younger man, Pearlie Dee considers their flirtations innocent and harmless, until the day Charlie presents her with an audacious proposition.

When Willie Joe decides to go into the moonshine business the family fortune and unity begin to ebb. A mean drunk, Willie Joe often terrorizes his children with his incoherent drunken rantings and physical abuse of Lillie Mae. One evening Willie Joe’s abuse goes too far. When Lillie Mae’s teenage children intervene, a terrible family calamity ensues.

Heartbroken by the collapse of her family,Reather is still inspired by her mother’s courage and eternal optimism. Having just graduated eighth grade, Reather and her female classmates are expected to work odd jobs on local farms until they find husbands. Undaunted, Reather is determined to make a better life for herself. Of her own volition, she makes arrangements to do just that.