American Cream: A Novel [Hardcover]

Catherine Tudish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2007

When Catherine Tudish's story collection Tenney's Landing was published in 2005, Margot Livesey said Tudish "casts an irresistible spell" and David Huddle said, "Tenney's Landing conjures up a place and a people with that magical vividness we found in Porter, Welty, Cheever, and Updike." Here, in her first novel, Tudish has fashioned a masterful and intimate portrait of a woman returning, midlife, to the small farming community where she grew up.

After Nathan Rownd is injured in a tractor accident, his daughter, Virginia, leaves her suburban life and returns to Tenney's Landing with her teenage son to work the family farm. She struggles with the long periods of separation from her husband and begrudgingly relearns the insistent, exhausting cadence of farm chores. But when Nathan decides to sell the farm, Virginia realizes how deep her connection to the land is and begins to question who she is and where she belongs. Catherine Tudish's writing is a tribute to small-town America. In simple, elegant prose she captures the rhythms of everyday life and the moments of truth and transformation that are found there. American Cream is a tender and wise novel by a writer of unusual sensitivity and grace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tudish returns to the rural Pennsylvania depicted in her debut story collection, Tenney's Landing, in this restrained novel about a woman reconnecting with her past. The story follows Virginia Rownd, who is grappling with her mother's death and her father Nathan's quick remarriage. Six months after the wedding, Nathan is injured in a tractor accident, and Virginia is called upon to pitch in on the family farm for the summer. A reluctant Virginia drags her 13-year old son, Randall, along and leaves husband Rob in suburban Maryland. On the farm, she hays and milks the cows while attempting to get along with her recalcitrant new stepmother, Lydia. In addition, Virginia reconnects with the townspeople, most notably her ex-boyfriend West Moffat, and friend Hennis Henny Eastman, now in a wheelchair. An additional story line involves Irene, a troubled girl from a broken home whom Randall befriends and Virginia attempts to save, with mixed results. Tudish portrays a realistic world, yet Virginia's abrupt transformation, brought on when her father contemplates selling the farm, is at odds with the novel's unhurried pace. Readers who enjoyed the story collection will appreciate this return journey. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

With a prologue so intensely poignant only those with the hardest of hearts would fail to weep, Tudish sets the tone for her incandescent debut novel about the depths of loyalty to family, to friends, and, ultimately, to oneself. Returning to Tenney's Landing, the fictional Pennsylvania town first introduced in Tudish's luminous short story collection of the same name, Virginia and her son unexpectedly find themselves forsaking their comfortable suburban lives when they are forced to tend Virginia's family farm following her father's nearly fatal tractor accident. Living under the constant glare of her new stepmother's disapproving eye, being separated from her husband, dealing with a recalcitrant teenager, and reuniting with old friends and lovers presents Virginia with wearisome emotional trials that surpass any grueling physical challenges the farm can offer. Tenney's Landing may be a small town, but it is proving to be a giant source of familial inspiration for Tudish, whose endearingly earnest characters subtly reveal themselves through crystalline acts of grace and charity. Haggas, Carol

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (August 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743267699
• ISBN-13: 978-0743267694
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,127,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Praise for a debut novelist, July 31, 2007

By 

T. Schwarz "Grotto Dwelling" (FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Cream: A Novel (Hardcover)

Catherine uses a rural setting, Tenney's Landing (the fictional setting of her previous work), to portray the deep connections between the townspeople and Virginia, the main character, especially focusing on the Virginia's physical and emotional journey beginning with her mother's death and her father's remarriage. The amazing restraint of the text reveals the emotional struggles between families and friends, the loyalties of a woman to her family, her friends and herself, and the humor of the author. Each sentence has a sense of motion and action that is inspiring.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who's beyond teenage fiction. Try to find her for a live reading as well, the author has an amazing presence, reserved and humerous like her novel. You do not need to read Tenney's Landing, her collection of short stories, to read this novel.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story, September 6, 2007

By 

birds eye view (cambridge MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Cream: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved this book! One of the most memorable and powerful characters in this book is the country life and landscape, lovingly described, and within which much happens. There are many well drawn characters , people you know well by the end. This book and its setting grows out of a book of short stories by Tudish that I also recommend highly-"Tenney's Landing"

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, September 13, 2007

By 

A Reader in Vermont - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Cream: A Novel (Hardcover)

American Cream is a beautifully written and deeply rewarding novel. Tudish portrays her characters with such wit and compassion that the reader comes to feel a real tenderness for them. And the novel is so emotionally rich and compelling that it is hard to put down. What a lovely book!