Download or read book This Side of Jordan written by Monte Schulz and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2009-10-20 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A seductive novel of southern lyricism. Monte Schulz's prose novel opens in the spring of 1929, as the 19-year-old consumptive farm boy Alvin Pendergast attends an ill-fated dance marathon he's too sickly to participate in. After a year of his life has been stolen by a sanitarium, Alvin knows he's relapsing, and dreads not only the drudgery of his family's homestead, but a return to the hospital. In this state of mind, an invitation for a late-night slice of pie is too seductive to pass up and before he knows it, Alvin crosses the Mississippi River and finds himself working for a slick con artist named Chester Burke. Alvin is no match for Chester, who's not merely a con man, but a gangster from Chicago, following the bootleg liquor trade through the small towns of America's middle border. With Alvin in tow, Chester's insouciant disregard for life serves him well as he embarks upon a series of bank robberies and senseless murders. All summer long, Chester assumes the role of a dark angel on Judgment day, cleansing the scrolls of those whose sad fortune had drawn them across his path. Too ill to flee, too morally weak to object, Alvin resigns himself to what seems like certain doom somewhere down the road. Fortunately, Alvin finds another companion on his journey, a lonely, eccentric, and grandiloquent dwarf named Rascal, whose own infirmity binds his and the farm boy's destiny together. Drawn deeper and deeper into Chester's murderous frolic, they come across a curious assortment of characters, from small town businessmen and religious kooks to wayward girls and dance contestants, spiritualists and sideshow freaks. Caught between Chester's villainy and Alvin's own physical deterioration, the young farm boy must make a decision: stick with Chester, who would surely kill him at the slightest hint of betrayal, or muster the courage to stake his life on faith in Rascal's clever plan to save them both. Tired of being afraid, Alvin finally grasps the need not only to outwit the gangster but to find another road to travel. What he discovers about the meaning of home offers a solution to escape and freedom. This Side of Jordan is a thoroughly American novel told in the voice of a lost generation hurtling toward the Great Depression, and evokes a long ago America of crowded Main Streets and tourist camps, miles of cornfields, rural church¬es, and musty parlors. It ends on the fairgrounds of a traveling wagon circus that beckons gangster, farm boy, and dwarf toward a startling resolution, and a hard-fought absolution for the two young, frightened collaborators. The narrative of this novel has the momentum of a freight train, but told in the seductive, rhythmic tradition of Southern lyricism reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor and Truman Capote, and filled with vivid, outsized literary characters. If Jim Thompson and Carson McCullers went on a collaborative bender by kidnapping Holden Caulfield, Perry Smith, and Ignatius J. Reilly, they'd have come up with something like This Side of Jordan.

Download or read book This Side Jordan written by Margaret Laurence and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel of Africans and British, community and exile, set against the backdrop of the Ghanaian fight for independence: “A talented writer.”—The New York Times It is a time of change in West Africa, as the land known as the British Gold Coast is transformed into a new, independent nation known as Ghana. This lyrical, vivid novel follows multiple characters—a schoolteacher torn between his loyalty to his tribe and his hopes for his country’s future; a British business executive who distrusts Africans; a passionate nationalist—as they experience all the tensions of the time, the excitement, anticipation, and dread. A novel that confronts issues of race, gender, and the effects of colonialism, This Side Jordan is by Margaret Laurence, the author of The Stone Angel and a winner of two Governor General’s Awards, one of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes. “Artistically and expertly written and constructed…unusual and noteworthy.”—Kirkus Reviews “A first novel of rare excellence.”—Mary Renault, Saturday Review “Highly recommended.”—Library Journal

Download or read book This Side of Jordan written by Roark Bradford and published by . This book was released on 1929 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Bible True to Itself written by Alexander Moody Stuart and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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Download or read book The Old Testament According to the Authorized Version The Pentateuch written by and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 910 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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Download or read book A Suggestive Commentary on St John with Critical and Homiletical Notes written by William Howard Van Doren and published by . This book was released on 1879 with total page 924 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: