Customer Reviews

A Land Remembered

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A Land Remembered is an amazing book that tells the story of three generations of the MacIvey family. The novel takes place in Central Florida, starting before the Civil War. The first generation arrives in Central Florida with literally nothing but their determination, desperation and their love for each other.
Patrick Smith paints a clear and detailed picture of the endurance and sacrifice made by a young couple in order to even just barely get by. The stark reality he portray is extremely vivid.
The hardships that are experienced by the different generations range from natures fury in fires, ice storms, insect swarms covering miles and miles of the grasslands, hurricanes to the emotional hardships of sacrifice, lost love, doubt and loneliness. The MacIvey family looses their footing in several business ventures through the natural disasters and also through the greed of others. The one thing they never loose is their love and caring and determination to take care of their family and to see each other through the difficult times that they are faced with. Each generation must come to terms with what is is truely important in their lives and the simple values that the family began with always seem to come clearly into focus.
The visions of Florida as a raw, unsettled land that tolerates but never encourages those daring enough to challenge her have a unique clarity to them.
Through everything that occurs, this wonderful family pulls together, creating a history that Patrick Smith has crafted into an unforgettable novel.

Patrick Smith gives the reader an opportunity to glimpse at Florida from 1848 to 1970 through the eyes of the MacIvey family members over three generations. It is an enthralling book, if you're interested in the state of Florida from before Civil War times through present day era. I have read this book four times and am very much a fan of this author. In fact, I have met this studious writer of history, twice. Step back in time and read about Florida in its days of infancy. Enjoy reading about a family that survived in spite of rough times, the elements, outlaws, and animal predators. I have read this to my class and they beg you to keep going! They enjoyed it tremendously! If you do read it, I'm sure you will be captivated by its great story and the personnae of its characters.

As a history professor, I've found numerous people have used A Land Remembered as their introduction to Florida history. I finally gave in and read it myself and can see why this is the case.

Patrick Smith compellingly recreates an aspect of Florida history that predates Disney, NASCAR racing, tourism and "God's waiting room." He takes the reader on a three-generation journey through Florida history from the Civil War to the 1960s. Told through the experiences of the MacIvey family, it recounts the family's rise from hardscrabble poverty to wealth and influence.At the same time, we see the evolution of Florida to the state it is today, and laments over its change, a "land remembered." Along the way the reader will encounter the formative events of Florida history from the Civil War onward.

Smith's portrayal of Florida's cattle raising history should enlighten many readers of a little known and often neglected part of Florida's history.

The book may be flawed in some of its literary aspects, but for accessible history it has few peers.

I've read this book MANY times...starting 13 years ago when I was in the 11th grade! Our teacher had Patrick Smith come to our school and we got to meet and talk to him about his book. Let's just say that this book had such an impact on me that when I became an English teacher I had my students read it! Every student in my class fell in love with it and couldn't put it down. Even students who proudly declared, "I've never read a book in my life," devoured it. It is easy to read but has such a deep meaning for Floridians.

The MacIveys are amazing...the way they dealt with life in the wilderness is so fun to read about. This book has something for everyone...romance, friendship, war, history, you name it. It portrays a pretty accurate picture of how Florida developed over the years. I highly recommend it for anyone from Florida or anyone wanting to study Florida history. It is one of my most treasured novels that I could read over and over again.

This is a great book. It chronicles three generations of the MacIvey family, beginning with Tobias MacIvey's arrival in Florida in 1858 and ending with Solomon MacIvey's realization in 1968 that much of the original Florida is gone. In that time span, the MacIveys suffer through tragedy and bask in success, as the family rises from poverty to great wealth. The book's strongest characteristic is Patrick Smith's ability to describe the Florida that was - the Florida before developers and retirees and rockets and theme parks. I'm not certain that the Florida pictured so well by Patrick Smith exists anywhere in today's Florida, but it makes wonderful reading.

Patrick Smith's biography must be wrong; he was surely born in Florida. I enjoyed A Time Remembered more than any other book I have read. While its down-to-earth characters and smoothly flowing action make it enjoyable to anyone, the book is especially endearing to me and my cracker family. I am currently reading it to my grandfather, born 84 years ago in Kissimmee (one of the towns featured in the book). As we read, we stop constantly for him to comment on the places and activities of the characters or just to reminisce. According to my expert, Smith's characters and settings are entirely authentic. Each hurdle the characters surmount is true to my grandfather's memory. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to know more about Florida than just sand and beaches. Those of us who know the real meaning of a cracker will especially appreciate Smith's work.

Even though this book is fiction, you will wish it were true, so that you could meet the decendents of this family. Having researched Florida history it runs so close that it could be storys passed down through the generations. It follows a family through three generations, how they scatched a poor earning in Florida's diverse landscape from swamps to scrub lands, and palmetto flatwoods. It is proof there were cowboys in Florida long before cattle grazed in Texas, and how the pioneering families survived long before Disney's grandfather was even born. This book is well written and I would recommend it for teens and adults alike.Read it, you will soon be reading Mr. Smiths other books!

I'm a student in 9th Grade at a high school in Miami, Florida, and we were told to read A Land Remembered. At first, I was thinking "a book about Florida in the 1800's, who wants to read this!". I was totally surprised of how good this book was once I started reading it! It's about a fictional family, the MacIvey's, that are struggling to survive in early Florida. The story is filled with passion, love, suspense, it has some poignant sections, and it has a dash of humor one in a while. I recommend it to anyone who wants to be entertained and at the same time wants to learn about the history of Florida. You won't be able to put it down!

So you've been to Disney and the beaches and you think you know Florida? This will open your eyes and your mind to the "real" Florida, before theme parks, beach motels, air conditioning and cheap souvenirs. An amazing first-class chronicle of Florida's land, people, wildlife and wild places. Unforgettable, well-written story of a Florida family and the one of a kind beauty of Florida's natural habitat.

I've never in my life liked reading books. Of course it's the same with every student. Just the fact that I had to read books over the summer for my Sophomore year was enough to make me a little irritated. Then I saw the size of A Land Remembered and thought "Oh this can't be good." After the first couple of chapters, however, I was hooked. This story is so deep it makes you want to keep reading. It's amazing to think of how hard life in Florida was before all of the technology. (Especially since I live in Florida)Overall, this book is great. Now I'm actually interested in reading.