The Sojourner [Hardcover]

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

One of the best novels by Rawlings, author of The Yearling. It is a poignant tale about a boy who feels unwanted as his mother is distracted with missing his absent brother.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rawlings' final novel, The Sojourner,-set in a northern setting, was about a boy who feels unwanted as his mother is distracted with missing his absent brother. In order to absorb the natural setting so vital to her writing, she bought an old farmhouse in Van Hornesville, New York and spent part of each year there until her death. Rawlings published 33 short stories from 1912 to 1949. Her editor was the legendary Maxwell Perkins of Scribner-s. Over the years, she built friendships with fellow writers Ernest Hemingway whom she met in 1936 and traded praises with about their writing, Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald whom she also met in 1936 when Fitzgerald was recuperating in the mountains in North Carolina, Robert Frost, and Margaret Mitchell.

Because many of Rawling's works were centered in the North and Central Florida area, she was often considered a regional writer. Rawlings herself rejected this label saying, "I don't hold any brief for regionalism, and I don't hold with the regional novel as such - don't make a novel about them unless they have a larger meaning than just quaintness."^[

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Cherokee Publishing Company (GA) (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877972281
• ISBN-13: 978-0877972280
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" book., February 17, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Beaufort, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sojourner (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is about man's eternal search to fit in this world and to make it a better place when we leave than when we entered. Very thought provoking. What a shame it was not better received when first out. I am thankful it is being reprinted and hope future generations will come to know and love it.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary book !, May 8, 1998

By 

J Martin Buck (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sojourner (Hardcover)

I had the tremendous good fortune to read "The Sojourner" in the early stages of my discovery of Marjorie Rawlings' works. As a result, I have read virtually all of her published writings. Anyone who wrote such a magnificent book as "The Sojourner", I decided, certainly deserved as much attention as possible. My loyalty has been richly rewarded. I cannot recommend this book too highly to anyone who enjoys a beautifully written, epic and inpirational story with an extraordinary protagonist. It amazes me that this book has never become better known. Rawlings' last novel, it shows her at the formidable peak of her powers.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sojourner : Not a Florida Novel, but Just as Good., March 21, 2003

By 

rebecca gorman (Jacksonville, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sojourner (Hardcover)

The Sojourner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1953.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 313 pp.

Ase Linden, is a small farmer who adores his wife, loves and fears his lunatic mother and yearns for the return of a brother who fled the confines of an overly affectionate mother to never look back again. Over the course of the story, Ase is confronted with trials set upon him by family members. The story is surrounded by the theme of Ase recognizing his failures with his children, mother, and wife. He desperately wants to share with them his thoughts and feelings, but is unable to effectively articulate what he wants to communicate. This literary effort greatly contrasts with Marjorie Rawlings' earlier Florida writings. Critics tend to be hard on The Sojourner, probably due the enormous success of her previous Florida based novels. This criticism is unfounded. This story, though unlike her Florida novels is an impressive book. The readers will find themselves siding with Ase Linden and cheering him on in his pursuit of simple pleasures and joy through personal connections.