Egrets to the Flames [Kindle Edition]

Barbara Anton (Author)

Book Description

A steamy saga of love, passion, and greed, Egrets to the Flames introduces the Hamptons, a wealthy, privileged family of sugar cane growers.

Trouble in the fields: patriarch James Henry Hampton must struggle to maintain his holdings, as forces seek retribution for the egregious impact on the environment and the exploitation of Jamaican sugar cane cutters.

As he juggles a wife and a mistress, James Henry’s family unravels. He must fight to save son Henny from self-destruction and a disastrous marriage to a field hand’s pregnant daughter. Son Jeffrey and his bride face immeasurable loss, while daughter Melisandra marries an impoverished prince intent on taking her riches at any cost. In the end, James Henry will face his toughest battle yet -- a battle that may be his last.

Will the very things that hold this family together ultimately tear them apart?

A splendid story of the clash between old and new, and the struggle between holding on and letting go, Egrets to the Flames is a triumphant tale about ties, tradition, and temptation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran playwright Anton opens her impassioned debut saga with a flock of egrets inexplicably diving into South Florida sugar cane fires in the early 1980s. James Henry Hampton, the tough-talking but well-intentioned patriarch of the family sugar cane plantation Hampton House, near Belle Glade, feuds with the local environmentalists and cane cutters' union to keep his lucrative enterprise thriving. He struggles to hold together his dysfunctional family, most notably his cokehead son Henny, but takes time out to bed his best friend wife. James Henry's daughter, Melisandra, lives in high style and buys a trophy husband, while his long-suffering wife, Grace, endures it all. The earthy Berlinda is the Hamptons' black housekeeper who delivers timely aid and dispenses family advice. Vivid scenes of harvesting and processing the sugar cane and the hot subtropical setting earn solid marks for Anton, who died in May of this year, and her over-the-top melodrama rages like a field afire. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Barbara Anton has won hundreds of awards for short stories, articles, light verse, poetry and plays. Thirty six of Anton's plays have been produced in New York. Born in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Barbara Anton lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Product Details

• File Size: 413 KB
• Print Length: 312 pages
• Publisher: Oceanview Publishing; 1st edition (November 1, 2007)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0089OS164
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #832,679 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sugar Cane Saga! November 12, 2007

By Viviane Crystal TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Egrets are frantic birds that seem to fly into disaster while nearby vultures wait for the looming feast borne of the deathly chaos. In this case, the egrets dive into the infamous fires of James Henry Hampton's sugar cane plantation in southern Florida.

James Henry has worked hard to develop his sugar cane, sometimes by straight, hard work and at other times through paying off Senators and lobbyists who keep voting for subsidies to keep his empire prosperous. He's a tough-talking, no-nonsense kind of guy who loves his wife and three children but always seems to say the wrong thing that provokes the most dysfunctional results.

There's Henny, the crack-addicted rebel son who wants to marry the daughter of a plantation field hand. Daughter Melisandra has divorced the love of her life and now wants to marry a Prince who has nefarious, gold-digging motives for agreeing to her proposal. Then there's Jeff who has married a Japanese woman and moved to Japan but comes home for Mel's wedding, bringing his wife who may or may not experience the most warm-welcoming reception.

Add to the melee conflicts among James Henry, union negotiators and the environmentalists trying to get the Hamptons to consider more than just themselves.

Adult children learn from their parents and the unbelievably whirling dervish plot in this novel spins the reader through a cycle of breathtaking events. Passion, rebellion and unexpected traumas transform this amazing family in ways you will be unable to predict but never forget!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on November 12, 2007

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I thought this book was exciting! November 8, 2007

By Lou Samson

Format:Hardcover

This novel, fiery title aside, scorches through a host of twists
and turns, seemingly bent on sending its characters through the
tortures of hell, which, once the sugar-cane fields start burning next
to the family mansion, don't seem that far away. A large cast of
characters, all dependent in some way on the "cane", are torn apart
(in one case, literally) and sometimes put back together, usually only
to self-destruct again in spectacular fashion. A searing indictment
of what money can do to a family.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every twist and turn kept my interest October 29, 2007

By Reader Views

Format:Hardcover

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (10/07)

The large beautiful egrets dive and dip into the flames of the burning sugarcane fields of South Florida. Some singe their wings. Others blacken their white feathers. Even a few die. Yet, they are drawn to the flames and keep coming back for more.

"Egrets to the Flames" is the title of this novel and symbolizes the actions of the main characters in the story. Set in the late-twentieth century in Belle Glade, Florida, sugarcane grower James Henry Hampton is facing some of the toughest challenges of his life. The environmentalists and the union are pressuring him to ease up on some of his practices in the field and with his cutters, who are mostly Jamaican immigrant laborers. At home, things are even worse.

Although James Henry is the main character, we see life in the sugarcane business through the eyes of many. Jazzman is a Jamaican cutter who wants to start a reggae band. Grace is James Henry's wife. She worries constantly about her son Henny. Henny is supposed to take over the family business, but is caught up in drugs and alcohol, and fighting with his father over wanting to marry his pregnant girlfriend Beth, a field hand's daughter. Of their other children, Jeff is married to a Jap, and Mel is marrying a prince that she does not love. Then there is Vonda, Chip, and Steve. A family mixed up with the Hampton's in more ways than one.

Author Barbara Anton's writing invokes the feverish passion of a soap opera. One desperate act leads to another in this family and the action never stops. From confrontations about illegitimate children to drugs and alcohol and several deaths, the story always keeps you on your toes. Most chapters end in catastrophe and foreshadow something even worse coming around the corner.

I recommend "Egrets to the Flames" to those who like a fast-paced read with lots of drama. Every twist and turn kept my interest as I followed the Hampton family through their saga. With a happy ending for some, and a sad ending for others, the characters dip in and out of the flames in this exciting novel.

Received book free of charge.