So Far Back: A Novel [Hardcover]

Pam Durban (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2000

Sixty-year-old Louisa Hilliard--the last descendent of one of Charleston's oldest and most prominent families -- is caring for her ailing mother. An upright, unmarried spinster, Louisa has spent her life looking after others. In the aftermath of a hurricane that turns her life upside down, she finds a battered diary kept by one of her ancestors. The journal recounts the story of Diana, a 19th-century slave who worked for the Hilliards, but sought to improve her life and her means, and was severely punished. Diana's fate is gradually revealed, even as Louisa discovers objects in her house missing, moved, dented, and seemingly handled by an unappeasable presence. In some small way trying to set right age-old wrongs, Louisa discovers how her own life is entangled in her family's haunted history. So Far Back is a nuanced and resonant portrait of two families sharing an enduring past and an uneasy present.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An aging South Carolina heiress confronts her slave-owning family's ghosts in this sensitive, gothic-tinged third novel from Durban (All Set About with Fever Trees). Single at 65, Louisa Hilliard Marion spends her days caring for her dying mother and attending to Charleston's historic buildings.The month after her mother dies, Hurricane Hugo hits Charleston, and lands Louisa in a Red Cross shelter, jolting her out of her routines. Afterward, Louisa devotes herself to her longtime chore of collecting, sorting and assembling a cache of historical documentsAchief among them the 1837 diary of her ancestor Eliza. Louisa plunges into the diary, which tells the affecting story of the slave girl Diana, whose independent spirit provoked the Hilliards to particular cruelty. As she uncovers the secrets of Eliza's and Diana's lives, Louisa comes to suspect that a ghost stalks her family's house, moving, scarring and denting the heirloom woodwork and pewter. How can Louisa understand and make amends for her family's history? Will the offended spirit subside if she doesAand is that spirit Diana's? Besides Louisa's own (third-person) story and Eliza's diary, Durban's narrative also includes two "walking tours" of historic Charleston and a variety of fictive interview transcripts. Though her literary-cum-archeological plot is sometimes slow paced, Durban effectively conveys an American milieu where a seemingly peaceful surface both conceals and alludes to troubled racial relationships in the present and the past. And Durban's carefully managed cast of charactersAantebellum aristocrats, slave families and their descendants in the modern SouthAare drawn with subtle grace, producing a narrative of compelling intensity. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Going back and forth between the life of Louisa Hilliard Marion, 65 years old and the last surviving member of one of the South's "best" families, and excerpts from the diary of her great-grandmother, this story paints a realistic picture of Charleston, SC, past and present. As this third novel by Durban (The Laughing Place) begins, Louisa is coping with the decline and death of her mother. Left alone with the family home and memories, she finds an ancient, battered diary. As she begins reading it, strange events become daily occurrences: dishes are moved, the sugar caddy is opened, and the air takes on a definite chill. One morning, Louisa finds a cryptic note on the floor: "I come for my things." She becomes convinced that the key to the "presence" can be found in the pages of the diary and, as she reads on, realizes that her family's history of slave ownership is perhaps not as benign as she was led to believe. Recommended for public libraries with a demand for historical fiction, this book may appeal to fans of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.DKaren Traynor, Sullivan Free Lib., Chittenango, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (October 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312268696
• ISBN-13: 978-0312268695
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,809,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Meaning to Historical Fiction, November 26, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Far Back: A Novel (Hardcover)

Durban's insightful and often haunting descriptions of personnal relationships and struggles to overcome ingrained prejudices elevate this novel to a great read for all ages. Her character development is exquisite, and the subjects of aging and racial relationships are daunting but sensitively portrayed. A definite book club choice for me, this novel gives new meaning to historical fiction.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pam Durban's SO FAR BACK, October 27, 2000

By 

John Rosenthal (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Far Back: A Novel (Hardcover)

This hypnotic novel about Charleston past and present is a brilliant exploration of racism - its bitter roots and its modern disfiguring effects. But it's also something else: an act of alchemy in which years of painstaking historical research have been transformed by Durban into what can only be called "living history." She has so completely imagined her fictional universe - its sounds and odors, its self-justifying strategies, its specific cultural dementia, its continuously tragic but nevertheless human failures - that one feels somehow present in the past, but this time blessed with an understanding that is always missing from the actual present. This is really a fine, thoughtful, and ultimately unforgettable book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting and Beautiful Novel, October 28, 2000

By 

Anthony M. Tambakis (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Far Back: A Novel (Hardcover)

It is very rare to find a work of fiction as rich and emotionally complex as SO FAR BACK. A writer of remarkable insight and compassion, Durban explores the complexities and contradictions of race in a story that expertly weaves present and past, and provides an understanding of humanity that will resonate with readers whether they grew up in the South or not. This is, quite simply, a haunting and beautiful novel.