Customer Reviews

The Sugar Camp Quilt

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Sugar Camp Quilt is the tale of Dorthea Granger, who during the period of unrest shortly before the civil war, must grow up quickly in the face of grave danger.

Her family lost their own farm to a flood and now lives under the unforgiving roof of her Uncle Jacob. He is a harsh, humourless, and unforgiving man who lost his beloved wife and twin sons to illness years before. This results in the farm potentially being willed upon Uncle Jacob's death, to Dorethea's brother who is back east studying medicine. So her parents work from sun up to sun down for Uncle Jacob, uncomplaining at his constant critiscim.

Uncle Jacob allows no one to get close to him, and bullies his niece into creating a quilt for him with several unusual blocks of his own design....it is only after his sudden death that Dorethea and her family discover the true meaning of the Sugar Camp Quilt. It throws her family into danger and mystery while at the same time showing a new side to Uncle Jacob that they never knew about.

The Sugar Camp Quilt book is a wonderful story, at first I missed the familiar characters from the previous Elm Creek Quilt books, but Dorthea's story was strong enough to keep me engrossed and I finished the book quickly. I gave it four stars only because it did not have the familiar characters in it, otherwise it would have been a 5 star review.

This book is set in the years preceding the Civil War, when feelings about slavery are running high. The heroine is Dorothea Granger who lives with her parents on her uncle's farm. Her father's farm was swept away in a flood and Uncle Jacob took in his sister and her family, when they had nowhere else to turn. Jacob is a harsh man and Dorothea's family lives uneasily under his strict rules, hoping that someday the farm will be left to her brother Jonathon, who is studying to be a doctor. Dorothea is not married, but one of the young men in the area shows a lot of interest in her. Their relationship is marred by the fact that their families stand on opposite sides of the Abolition question. The Grangers are steadfastly in favor of Abolition and they befriend their black neighbors, some of whom are former slaves. As the book continues, the tensions rise, until people's lives are put in jeopardy. As usual, author Chiaverini spins an interesting story with well-drawn characters and a plot in which a quilt plays a major part.

I was looking forward to reading this new book in the Elm Creek series. I was disappointed. The other Elm Creek books have been hard to put down once I started reading. I didn't have that problem reading The Sugar Camp Quilt. You knew what was going to happen between Dorthea and Thomas when they first met. I love historical novels but this one was boring. I hope Ms. Chiaverini's next book is more like her other books, The Quilter's Legacy and The Runaway Quilt.

I found the book to be so engrossing, that I have been unable to put it down at night. I just finished it and can't wait to buy more. The author does a wonderful job of drawing you in to care about the characters.

It is clear from the start that Jennifer has done her homework. Her desciption of everything from everyday life, the quilting bees, the sugaring and the Underground Railroad ring true to the times.

The book holds the reader's fascination with its mysteries and the complex family and neighborhood relationships. Each night brings the uncertainy of visits from either escaped slaves or worse still, the slavecathchers.

In the beginning one never quite know whose side any of the Elm Creek population is on. Especially Uncle Jacob. He is the mysterious catalyst that changes the tone of the story from life with his constant rebukes to his relatives to the unraveling of the reasons he spent so much time in the sugar camp.

Dorothea is the perfect central character. We see her world through her eyes and a confusing place it can be. Cyrus with his boasting and Thomas Nelson with his quiet fortitude. One pretending the court her only for the information to be obtained, the other admiring from afar until certain circumstances bring them closer to a promising future.

I could not wait until I have some free moments everyday to reading this book. Now that I am finished, I look forward to Jennifer's next book which is due out in the winter.

Her imagnination and attention to detail make all of her books a joyful adventure in reading and a constant inspiration to my quilting.

I started this book Saturday morning and did not put it down until the wee hours Sunday morning. The story just drew me in and kept me enthralled. I've read all of the Elm Creek Quilts Books and enjoyed the way this one explored minor characters from The Runaway Quilt, my previous favorite. I loved the characters and the fascinating details about history, quilts, and the Underground Railroad. Buy this book if you love great storytelling with compelling characters.

Jennifer Chiaverini did an amazing job with this book. While I'm a fan of all her books, I truly enjoyed this one and felt as though she really captured that period in time. It was also great to gather that insight into the dear friends, and enemies, of Sylvia's ancestors. She did a brilliant job with this book and I hope she takes us back there again!

I have read all seven of Jennifer's novels and thought this one was definitely the best yet. I enjoyed the purely historical fiction approach and was very engrossed by the underground railroad theme. This is an exciting novel with terrific character development of Dorothea Granger, who appears briefly in The Runaway Quilt.

Jennifer Chiaverini adds a seventh novel to her Elm Creek Quilts series with the story of a family's attempt to deal with the abolition question in years immediately preceding the Civil War. Set in Creek's Crossing, Pennsylvania in 1849, Dorothea Granger is a temporary schoolmistress, but finds her job in jeopardy when a wealthy man's son displaces her as teacher. Thomas Nelson rivals her in background qualifications for the job. However, his hidden secrets are a source of mystery she longs to unravel.

Dorothea's job loss is but one of a series of misfortunes that threaten her family's livelihood. Business miscalculations have stripped them of the family farm. Nearly destitute, they now reside with an unforgiving and stern Uncle Jacob. To compound difficulties, Dorothea has lost her hope chest in a flood, her prized handworked quilt top gone forever. Adding insult, Uncle Jacob demands that she make him a quilt from his exact pattern specifications. His design is unlike any she's encountered. When she attempts to straighten the uneven, random pattern, Jacob insists that she re-work the stitches to his precise instruction. A puzzlement, his reasoning is understood only upon his death.

The undercurrent in the rural community is the slavery subject. Slaves from Southern states travel through the area on their way to freedom, in Canada. Their route is an unspoken "Underground Railroad" system whereby local families hide the travelers from hunters who would re-capture, torture, and at times, kill them. Creek's Crossing is home to sympathizers on both fronts.

Uncle Jacob, with a stiff word of thanks, takes Dorothea's finished quilt to his sugar cabin in the woods behind the farm. Later, she finds it slung across a chair and covered with dirt. Puzzled by both his reverence and disregard for her quilt, she's ready to confront him. Her hard work accomplished in dim light through long hours means apparently little to him.

Her love of literature directs our heroine on another adventure. With passion, she embarks on a fund-raising crusade to build a library. The committee chairwoman is Mrs. Hiram Engle, wife of the town's wealthy benefactor. Her son, Cyrus Pearson, has returned to Creek's Crossing and becomes Dorothea's steady companion and escort on committee meeting days. Her enthusiasm for the project lands her the ominous task of putting together a quilt to be auctioned in the fundraiser. Quilt squares will be sewn from handwriting samples requested from favored authors, upon request by letters from the committee. Dorothea's choices are too liberal for Mrs. Engle. A confrontation between two strong-minded women erupts, with embarrassing consequences for the youngest.

THE SUGAR CAMP QUILT is well-written and tells a story of life in a rural community during times in turmoil. Neighbor is pitted against neighbor in the stand for and against slavery. The quilting art becomes a voice in the arguments. The villains are painted with a full color palette. Heroes are less colorful but stand with strong voices. This is the story of depression overcome and motives uncovered. An understanding of quilting as an art form is an additional bonus for the reader. THE SUGAR CAMP QUILT is without question a good historical read.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

While I am not a quilter, I picked up the book because of it's storyline involving the Underground Railroad and the use of special quilts as maps. I enjoyed the story and was actually perturbed that the pre-Civil War characters were not regulars in the series. (I was hoping to read more about Mr. Nelson and Dorothea's work with the Underground Railroad.) However, the storyline about the relationship between Mr. Nelson and Dorothea is a blatant rip-off of that of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice." Mr. Nelson and Dorothea meet at a dance, where he is bored silly and looks down upon the locals and she proves to be an intelligent woman who speaks her mind. (P&P's ball at Netherfield) Mr. Nelson secretly uses his own money to free Mary's father from the slavecatchers holding him in custody. (In P&P, Mr. Darcy secretly uses his own money to pay off Mr. Wickham's debtors and arranges for Wickham and Lydia to marry.) Dorothea finds out that she has been greatly mistaken about the overbearing pride of Mr. Nelson. (In P&P, Elizabeth finds out she has been greatly mistaken about the overbearing pride of Mr. Darcy.) Even the last two pages were a rip-off of P&P, where Mr. Nelson (Mr. Darcy) confesses he did all those deeds for Dorothea (Elizabeth) and Dorothea (Elizabeth) confesses that her feelings for Mr. Nelson (Mr. Darcy) were quite the opposite of what they once were. You get the idea. If it is the relationship between these two leads that interests you the most, skip this book and read the real thing by Jane Austen.