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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"All you care about is being happy. I....I can't have that, that ain't an option.", April 30, 2009
This review is from: All the Living: A Novel (Hardcover)
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C. E. Morgan's first novel, ALL THE LIVING, ought to be destined to become a classic. It should be read in classrooms, and then again later by people who have soaked up more life experience than young students -- or for that matter, than Aloma, its central protagonist -- so they can better appreciate the hard lessons imparted.
It is Orren, Aloma's lover, who speaks those implacable words (above) about happiness. He is a young man determined to make a go of the tobacco farm he inherited when his mother and brother died. He's tied to the land by grit, grief, duty, and sheer stubbornness, and he wants to do everything by himself. Aloma was three when she lost her parents, so she is as alone in the world as Orren. This, and their primal attraction to each other, is why she agreed to come live on this subsistence farm. But, blessed with musical talent on the piano, she isn't tied to the land in thought or action. She has ambitions for herself. She desires escape from the dreary and lonely life there, and she wishes to expand herself as a pianist. Enter the pastor in nearby Hansonville, who, at Aloma's behest, hires her to play for his church's services. He is single and, again, because Aloma implies it, thinks she is also. But these are not frivolous characters, and this is no salacious melodrama. ALL THE LIVING doesn't shy away from honest sexuality, but it isn't so much concerned with extreme acts of betrayal (erotic or otherwise) as with the subtler, internal struggles of men and women.
Morgan earned a master's degree in Theological Studies and puts it to good use by applying a vibrant undercoat of spiritual philosophy to her novel. The constant opposition between male and female, silence and expression, solitary habits and sharing, outright meanness and passive aggressive tactics highlight the harsh realities about merging as a couple -- particularly when love is such a submerged part of the equation. The author also counters light and dark, drought and deluge, mountains and bottom land to underscore the natural suspense that human beings are additionally dealt by God's creation. Life and death on the farm, and the fundamental tension between survival and higher pursuits contribute too to the characters' grapplings. Happiness, ALL THE LIVING argues, is a superficial goal because existence from moment to moment is a tumultuous and simultaneous wrestling with the beautiful and the ugly. What counts is endurance in commitments and bone-deep unions. The question is, will these people step up to that uncompromising reality?
This novel's crisp, slotted language, redolent with the cadences of Kentucky rural talk, and brimming with both casual and profound insights works economically, at the bone. Morgan wastes no words. She casts light and shadow with a steady and wise hand, leaving us to see stark contrasts and rough splendors. ALL THE LIVING, Job-like, questions the ordering of nature and the cosmos. Perhaps more importantly, it meditates on what constitutes human maturity. It SHOULD become a classic.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
JOYS AND SORROWS OF LIVING, June 12, 2009
This review is from: All the Living: A Novel (Hardcover)
ALL THE LIVING
Aloma and Orren meet when he is helping deliver supplies to her school. They at once are attracted to each other and begin 'dating'. Their dates, however, consist of having a relationship in his truck, either the truck bed or the back seat.
Aloma has no family to speak of. Her parents died while she was a little girl and her aunt and uncle take her into their already filled home. She begins to attend a mission school and that is where she meets Orren.
Orren is a few years older and wiser than Aloma. He lives on his family farm. He is in the middle of despair; his daddy died while he was a young boy and his brother and mom recently passed in a tragic, awful accident.
Orren is hell-bent on making the farm truly his and making it profitable. He does this out of being strong-willed, but also from feeling guilty and full of grief about his mom and brother. He wants to make this work to a point of obsession, but it is a hard and thankless job trying to run a tobacco farm.
Aloma finishes school and moves out to the farm in the Kentucky mountains with Orren. Does she love him? She thinks so. She moves to the farm and at once feels isolated and alone, not getting much attention from Orren who is too busy trying to make the farm work and still deep in grief. He does love Aloma, but is too busy to tell/show her and down in the tunnel of grief that is so deep he can't seem to climb out.
Aloma sets to fixing up the old and run-down farm house that was in Orren's family. She learns how to cook, tries to help out with the chores, and cleans until there is nothing left to clean. She is alone even with Orren is with her.
She finds a job working at the church playing the piano which is her first love. There she meets the handsome preacher, Bell Johnson, who also works a farm and is single. She finds herself attracted to Bell who talks to her and pays attention to her.
This book is short, only 199 pages. What you get out of this short book is so much about life, living, loss of loved ones, relationships, grief, being lonely. C.E. Morgan wrote a wonderful book and I find that I simply cannot stop thinking about this one.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. What a super movie this would make! This book would be great for any book clubs or discussion groups. Treat yourself to this book. You will feel the heat of the Kentucky sun, see and smell the tobacco plants growing, feel the frustration from both Orren and Aloma. Do these two stay together? Does Bell Johnson get the girl? Does Aloma stay in this half-horse town, forever lonely? Read this grand little book and find out.
Thank you!
Pam
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written examination of relationships, March 19, 2009
This review is from: All the Living: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
First off, for those of you who might be confused by the plot description - this is not a romance!
The plot of this slim novel is easily described but it not so simple to explain what the author has done here. The prose is beautiful, unusual and almost poetic. The author's ability to cut to the heart of relationships will hold your interest until the last page. I read this book in a day and was surprised at how few events had actually occured but at how much the characters had been through emotionally.
The story, in brief, is that of orphaned Aloma who is raised by Nuns, has a relationship with Orren and returns with him to his family farm when his family is killed in a car accident. If you are expecting action or steamy romance, you will not find it here. Aloma and Orren may be living 'in sin'( and it does figure prominently in Aloma's mind as something she should be ashamed of), and there may be an 'other man' in the story, but the primary focus of the novel is not romance.
Aloma's bereavement is old and one that she is long used to. When we meet her and Orren he too has been bereaved but she cannot fathom his sense of loss or his mute grief at the death of his family. Never having a place of her own she struggles with his desperate need to cling to the family farm which is withering away before them.
This is a wonderfully well written book and I highly recommend it.
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