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Title: Cross Creek
ISBN: 0684818795
Author:
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Publicate Date: 1996-03-20
Publish: 1996-03-20
List Price: $16.00
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.79
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.51
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.88
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Fla Stories
I bought this book for one story but it turned out all of the stories were great.
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2: She Always Makes Me Cry
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings always makes me cry. The other reviews of this book here describe it so eloquently and throughly that I don't feel the need to add to that aspect. The book has a strong emotional pull that made me cry and made long to go to Cross Creek and see it for myself. Rawlings is one of my all-time favorite writers, ever since my seventh-grade teacher read the newly published book The Yearling to her class, a chapter or two each day after lunch.
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3: Wonderful FL history
Wonderful view of an isolated place in FL (near Gainesville) circa 1930 written by a brave, independent woman.
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4: A walk through old rural FL
Cross Creek is a series of entertaining if perhaps embellished anecdotes relating to Florida in the years preceding World War II told from the perspective of a educated emigr?? from the North. Some of the language, which was typical of the times, would no longer be considered politically correct and might be offensive to some. The book, however is totally delightful and gives some insight into life in rural Florida at the time. An excellent companion read is Tom Glisson's The Creek, which gives a native's view of the same time and area. Both books are a must read if you live or are interested in North Central FL.
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5: A Classic of Regional Writing
Rawlings explores the lives and interations of the odd assortment of people living in Cross Creek, Florida in the early 1900s. It is often assigned reading for teens, but I doubt that most of them can appreciate it. Her accounts of neighbors feuding and subsistance living gives us many lessons in human behavior.
The lyrical descriptions of wildlife and the orange groves and wild landscape are very appealing. Your mouth waters as you read her essays on downhome foods like hush puppies. She turned those into a cookbook which I'll have to try out.
Modern readers squirm uncomfortably at her use of the N----- word and her characterization of blacks as irresponsible, drunken, immoral, etc. It is probably a faithful representation of common thinking at the time it was written, so recognize it as a snapshot of the times. Then move past that to luxuriate in the beautiful passages in the book. (I deducted 1 star for this)
The reader becomes absorbed in Rawlings' love of the land and the creation of a home. It gives much the same feelings as A Year in Provence or Under a Tuscan Sun.
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