Publication
Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, 2014.
Collection
Call number
Large Print Fiction G
Physical description
453 p.; 23 cm
Status
Available
Call number
Description
"In the summer of 1936, the TVA plans to build a dam in a Tennessee town at the same time a little girl goes missing--possibly stolen by a drifter determined to blow up the dam"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member msbaba
“Long Man,” by Amy Greene, is a moody, tense, and powerful historical drama that focuses on the inner psychological struggles of its characters. The book takes place in the Appalachian town of Yuneetah, Tennessee, over three days in the late summer of 1936. The setting is a breathtakingly
Change is never easy, but in this valley, it’s been disastrous and gut-wrenching.
The townfolk need to be evicted because the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has dammed the river downstream of the town and the valley is rapidly filling with water; very soon, everything will be submerged. The new lake has already reached the edge of town and the evacuation has taken on a new urgency because torrential rains have not only hastened the rapid expansion of the lake, but they’ve also caused the hillsides to subside and collapse.
It’s become dangerous place for man and beast.
But one family stubbornly remains: Annie Clyde Dodson, her husband, James, and their three-year-old daughter, Gracie. Against all reason, Annie Clyde has dug in and won’t budge. It’s causing an enormous wedge in her marriage. She knows she’s fighting a lost cause, but she can’t imagine selling the property that’s been in her family for centuries. After all, her blood is mixed with the original Cherokee Indians that lived in the valley. She is a part of this land. Annie Clyde’s husband, James, is tired of the relentless hardscrabble life of farming this difficult valley soil. He wants to accept the TVA’s offer and resettle the family in Michigan, perhaps Detroit. He’s excited about the possibility of a better life for himself and his family, a life with indoor plumbing, electric lights, a manufacturing job, and the thrill of city life. But Annie Clyde can’t bear to think of Gracie not knowing the closeness to God she had found in their valley.
Into this tragic setting, a mysterious drifter returns to his roots. The man is Amos Kesterson; he a kind of “Long Man” himself, wild and unpredictable, powerful and relentless. The town folk have always mistrusted him and thought of him as a troublemaker and a liar. He left town as a teenager and has drifted around the country for most of the past two decades, returning home now and again to visit his foster mother, Beulah Kesterson, and his teenage girlfriend, Silver Ledford (Annie Clyde’s aunt). He was a damaged kid, and now he’s an odd, mysterious, and unstable damaged soul.
Against this historic and tension-filled setting, little Gracie goes missing. Naturally, Annie Clyde thinks that Amos has something to do with her daughter’s disappearance. Silver Ledford and Beulah Kesterson believe otherwise. Sheriff Ellard Moody is sure Amos is involved. Ellard has always through the worst of Amos; the two grew up together as friends, but became archenemies when Amos stole Silver’s love away when they were all around seventeen…not long before he left the town to wander the country as an itinerant drifter.
Although the plot revolves around the tension of a missing three-year old child, the author was not able to create the degree of suspense or mystery that this plot deserves; this is one of the chief reasons why I’m not rating this novel as high as it might otherwise have been. However, the novel remains an intense and successful detailed character study of five interlocking lives living through a series of personal crises all brought about by the rising water behind the dam. The author is an absolute master at characterization, particularly for these people and period. For me, the place and time came alive between these covers. This novel could easily have been a five-star standout had the author been able create more tension, suspense, mystery, and focus.
Despite this drawback, I was very pleased to have had the opportunity read this powerful literary Southern novel. The characters were flesh and blood real. I was riveted by the authentic historical setting. But perhaps most of all, I enjoyed the novel’s serious and significant themes, especially the one about government intrusion into the lives of its citizens in the name of progress. Much of that is still going on today. This book helped me see these current events in a new light.
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beautiful and idyllic valley, but the people living there have always struggled against enormous odds to survive. They’re the poorest of the poor, eking out an existence without electricity or indoor plumbing, grappling with the vagaries of nature, especially the floodwaters of the mighty Tennessee River. Around these parts, the town folk prefer to call the river by its original Cherokee name, the Long Man. In the last few years, the town folks’ struggles have intensified because of the Great Depression and a persistent period of unusually bad weather. And now, to top it off, the government has intervened to force them off their land, to abandon their friends, their way of life, their culture. Change is never easy, but in this valley, it’s been disastrous and gut-wrenching.
The townfolk need to be evicted because the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has dammed the river downstream of the town and the valley is rapidly filling with water; very soon, everything will be submerged. The new lake has already reached the edge of town and the evacuation has taken on a new urgency because torrential rains have not only hastened the rapid expansion of the lake, but they’ve also caused the hillsides to subside and collapse.
It’s become dangerous place for man and beast.
But one family stubbornly remains: Annie Clyde Dodson, her husband, James, and their three-year-old daughter, Gracie. Against all reason, Annie Clyde has dug in and won’t budge. It’s causing an enormous wedge in her marriage. She knows she’s fighting a lost cause, but she can’t imagine selling the property that’s been in her family for centuries. After all, her blood is mixed with the original Cherokee Indians that lived in the valley. She is a part of this land. Annie Clyde’s husband, James, is tired of the relentless hardscrabble life of farming this difficult valley soil. He wants to accept the TVA’s offer and resettle the family in Michigan, perhaps Detroit. He’s excited about the possibility of a better life for himself and his family, a life with indoor plumbing, electric lights, a manufacturing job, and the thrill of city life. But Annie Clyde can’t bear to think of Gracie not knowing the closeness to God she had found in their valley.
Into this tragic setting, a mysterious drifter returns to his roots. The man is Amos Kesterson; he a kind of “Long Man” himself, wild and unpredictable, powerful and relentless. The town folk have always mistrusted him and thought of him as a troublemaker and a liar. He left town as a teenager and has drifted around the country for most of the past two decades, returning home now and again to visit his foster mother, Beulah Kesterson, and his teenage girlfriend, Silver Ledford (Annie Clyde’s aunt). He was a damaged kid, and now he’s an odd, mysterious, and unstable damaged soul.
Against this historic and tension-filled setting, little Gracie goes missing. Naturally, Annie Clyde thinks that Amos has something to do with her daughter’s disappearance. Silver Ledford and Beulah Kesterson believe otherwise. Sheriff Ellard Moody is sure Amos is involved. Ellard has always through the worst of Amos; the two grew up together as friends, but became archenemies when Amos stole Silver’s love away when they were all around seventeen…not long before he left the town to wander the country as an itinerant drifter.
Although the plot revolves around the tension of a missing three-year old child, the author was not able to create the degree of suspense or mystery that this plot deserves; this is one of the chief reasons why I’m not rating this novel as high as it might otherwise have been. However, the novel remains an intense and successful detailed character study of five interlocking lives living through a series of personal crises all brought about by the rising water behind the dam. The author is an absolute master at characterization, particularly for these people and period. For me, the place and time came alive between these covers. This novel could easily have been a five-star standout had the author been able create more tension, suspense, mystery, and focus.
Despite this drawback, I was very pleased to have had the opportunity read this powerful literary Southern novel. The characters were flesh and blood real. I was riveted by the authentic historical setting. But perhaps most of all, I enjoyed the novel’s serious and significant themes, especially the one about government intrusion into the lives of its citizens in the name of progress. Much of that is still going on today. This book helped me see these current events in a new light.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
I finished this yesterday and have debated whether to rate this book 4 or 5 stars. I went for five because this book was very thought provoking and left me in a pensive mood. The characters are amazing, the atmosphere immersive and the writing brilliant. Not a thought or word was wasted , not an
Yuneetah,Tennessee in the 1930's, a small Appalachian town now about to be flooded, making the way for a new dam. The residents displaced from the place they call home, in most cases from farms that had been handed down throughout generations. A hard life, especially during the depression, but these people pitched in and helped each other.
A man from the TVA, will learn the hard way that displacing people has way more meaning than is first thought. A young woman, who wants only to protect her young daughters birthright. An Old women named Beulah, who reads bones and who takes in a young boy, who becomes a drifter. A woman named Silver, who is this drifters only friend and a sheriff who wants only to do the best for those under his protection.
All will learn a difficult lesson during these dark times, when a young child goes missing, a lesson about what all goes into making a home and a family. A novel about loyalty and honor for long held family traditions. A novel about the importance of family and friends and about how a community has much more meaning than houses and farms about to soon be under water. In short this novel makes us really see the people.
As Ellery the sheriff thinks, " He would try to remember what he must have known once, what he guessed all of Yuneetah had forgot. How a fresh crewel-work of snow dressed even the dustiest of their farmyard. How leaves shaped like the hands of babies sailed and turned on the eddies of the river. How an open meadow sounded when then stood still. How ripe plums tasted. How cucumbers smelled like summer. How lightning bugs made lanterns of their cupped palms. These things they hadn't lost. But, like Ellard they had grown too weary to see them anymore."
A novel that teaches us not to take thongs for granted, to see what one has before it is too late. Makes one think about towns that were and are no longer. A very brilliant and poignant novel
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action was wrong, everything in this book has meaning.Yuneetah,Tennessee in the 1930's, a small Appalachian town now about to be flooded, making the way for a new dam. The residents displaced from the place they call home, in most cases from farms that had been handed down throughout generations. A hard life, especially during the depression, but these people pitched in and helped each other.
A man from the TVA, will learn the hard way that displacing people has way more meaning than is first thought. A young woman, who wants only to protect her young daughters birthright. An Old women named Beulah, who reads bones and who takes in a young boy, who becomes a drifter. A woman named Silver, who is this drifters only friend and a sheriff who wants only to do the best for those under his protection.
All will learn a difficult lesson during these dark times, when a young child goes missing, a lesson about what all goes into making a home and a family. A novel about loyalty and honor for long held family traditions. A novel about the importance of family and friends and about how a community has much more meaning than houses and farms about to soon be under water. In short this novel makes us really see the people.
As Ellery the sheriff thinks, " He would try to remember what he must have known once, what he guessed all of Yuneetah had forgot. How a fresh crewel-work of snow dressed even the dustiest of their farmyard. How leaves shaped like the hands of babies sailed and turned on the eddies of the river. How an open meadow sounded when then stood still. How ripe plums tasted. How cucumbers smelled like summer. How lightning bugs made lanterns of their cupped palms. These things they hadn't lost. But, like Ellard they had grown too weary to see them anymore."
A novel that teaches us not to take thongs for granted, to see what one has before it is too late. Makes one think about towns that were and are no longer. A very brilliant and poignant novel
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LibraryThing member nightprose
Author Amy Greene is back with her much anticipated second novel. She does not disappoint. Long Man is sure to be a classic.
In this lyrical novel Amy tells the story of a community lost to progress and the ways of the world. Her characters are depicted with the heart and soul of someone who is
The town of Yuneetah is almost a place out of time, as it has been taken over by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It will soon be under the river water known as “Long Man”, as a dam floods the town. Annie Clyde Dodson holds onto her land, as she does her roots. She clings to the past for the future of her young daughter, Grace.
Amos is a transient who comes back to the valley, in search of his past and perhaps answers to his own unspoken questions. Suddenly, little Grace goes missing the same day that he is seen in Annie’s field.
The town is divided in their belief as to Grace’s whereabouts. Did she drown in the rising waters of the dam, or did Amos take her? Time is running out. The TVA is not very cooperative or sympathetic in offering more time, as they are absorbed in their own plans for the town and valley.
The lyrical novel is beautifully written. The story is gripping and emotional. The book tells of a time, place and people that are an important and an integral part of history. Author Amy Greene does them all a great justice.
In this lyrical novel Amy tells the story of a community lost to progress and the ways of the world. Her characters are depicted with the heart and soul of someone who is
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familiar with the people. These are Amy’s people, as she is born and bred in eastern Tennessee.The town of Yuneetah is almost a place out of time, as it has been taken over by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It will soon be under the river water known as “Long Man”, as a dam floods the town. Annie Clyde Dodson holds onto her land, as she does her roots. She clings to the past for the future of her young daughter, Grace.
Amos is a transient who comes back to the valley, in search of his past and perhaps answers to his own unspoken questions. Suddenly, little Grace goes missing the same day that he is seen in Annie’s field.
The town is divided in their belief as to Grace’s whereabouts. Did she drown in the rising waters of the dam, or did Amos take her? Time is running out. The TVA is not very cooperative or sympathetic in offering more time, as they are absorbed in their own plans for the town and valley.
The lyrical novel is beautifully written. The story is gripping and emotional. The book tells of a time, place and people that are an important and an integral part of history. Author Amy Greene does them all a great justice.
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LibraryThing member susan0316
This was a fantastic book. Its the story of a small group of people in Tennessee in the 30s who are being moved out of the farms that their families have owned for centuries so that their valley can be flooded for a dam to bring electricity to the area. It is tradition vs progress. The author tells
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the story so well that you can fell the pain of the people who don't want to leave and the hope of the people who are looking for a better life. I would highly recommend this book and this author. Show Less
LibraryThing member mreed61
Astounding. I suppose not everyone can say they really relate to a particular work, but I did this one. This was my family back then. Letters from my Aunt Della talking about the time period, and seeing my great-grandmother in Annie Clyde, I can honestly relate. I am surprisingly (although I feel
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very old) too young to have honestly experienced this firsthand, but talks with my own mother relating my other grandmother's death in the hospital from blood poisoning because they didn't have the money to be first in line, and the loss of a child during a flood, not to mention other things from that time period put me there in Amy Green's work. I felt it. I lived it second-hand, just as I did in those talks and letters. I loved this book. I can't tell you how much, and it is impossible to relate everything I felt and why. I'm glad it ended a little on the upbeat side, but at the same time, I'm sorry it ended at all. Show Less
LibraryThing member SonjaYoerg
The story of a town destined to be flooded by a TVA dam project. The evocation of place is remarkable; I could see and smell and feel it all. Greene's command of the history appears unassailable (I only say 'appears' because I know nothing of it) and is woven effortlessly into the story. The
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central family in the story is memorable, and shone on the page. I had a little trouble with some of the secondary ones--nothing major, just eager to get back to the main plot line. Fans of Southern fiction, especially that of poor, rural areas will devour this. I'm now officially a fan of Greene's and will put Bloodroot on my list right away. Show Less
LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
The huge dam built by the TVA in the 30s brought electricity to so many who never had it before but it did not come without a cost to people who had no choice in the matter.
This historical fiction covers that period of time, and the people forced to leave their homes because their homes and farms
This novel is lyrically written and quite lovely to read. I felt a connection with the characters, even though their lives were so different from mine. There are some characters with strong backbones but little else. There are characters with big hearts. And there are misguided attempts to do the right thing.
There was also a mystery: a child, a drifter protected by one woman and reviled by most others. And bureaucrats caught in the middle.
For a feel of the period, and for a book with a lot of heart, this one is terrific.
I was given an advance copy of this book for review.
This historical fiction covers that period of time, and the people forced to leave their homes because their homes and farms
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would soon be underwater. In the depressed economy, some where willing but some wanted to stay at all costs.This novel is lyrically written and quite lovely to read. I felt a connection with the characters, even though their lives were so different from mine. There are some characters with strong backbones but little else. There are characters with big hearts. And there are misguided attempts to do the right thing.
There was also a mystery: a child, a drifter protected by one woman and reviled by most others. And bureaucrats caught in the middle.
For a feel of the period, and for a book with a lot of heart, this one is terrific.
I was given an advance copy of this book for review.
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LibraryThing member nyiper
I hate to admit that I had to drag myself through the audio version of this book---I kept wishing that the reader could read about three times faster---with no pun intended, the book seemed VERY LONG!! I was committed to finding out what happened to the characters---especially Gracie, and Amos.
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Really a very sad part of history of what happened to small farms and towns who had no control over what would happen to them when the TVA came along with the dam. Reading other reviews makes me think I am being rather small minded in mine. Show Less
LibraryThing member MaureenCean
Really a 3.5 for me, but I had to round up for quality in this case. I wasn't all that enthused about reading it for book club, but there were other choices I was even less enthused about. As I started it I thought, oh Lord this is slow, it's going to take forever. My next thought was this is
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pretty good writing. That was followed by this is getting interesting, which typically leads to housework can wait, and culminates in I need to finish this now. I'm always happy to be proved wrong by a book. The novel had all the makings of an American Tragedy (a sub genre or descriptor I find myself repeating), without being fully realized but for one tragic character. If you don't care for lengthy detailed descriptions of the outdoors, you might not favor this, but that is where the writing is lovely, along with the inner lives of (most) of the characters. I had toyed with borrowing [book:Bloodroot|6595962] in the past and never had, but I will go ahead now. Show Less
LibraryThing member BookConcierge
Book on CD performed by Dale Dickey
There is only one family left in the path of the lake. It’s summer 1936, and Annie Clyde Dodson stubbornly refuses to leave the farm that has been in her family for generations, despite the warnings of the government men who tell her that the new dam built by
Greene delivers a riveting story that explores the question: What cost, progress? Annie Clyde is a treasure. Not only is she strong-willed, but she is tenacious in her efforts to protect her family. Her pleas with her husband to stay with her and not give up the fight moved me deeply. And yet … certainly she was being foolhardy. No one – no matter how stubborn or how “right” - was going to win against the TVA and the encroaching lake waters. The Dodson’s loss of their home is representative of the hundreds of families displaced by such projects.
The novel is peopled with strong characters, from Beulah Kesterson, who found and raised the abandoned child, Amos, to Sam Washburn, the TVA agent who sympathizes and helps the Dodsons in their search for Gracie. I did get a little lost with the interconnected relationships between Sheriff Ellard Moody, Amos, Silver Ledford and Mary. These kinds of competing loyalties are what made the decisions so difficult: to stay or to go, to delay or to embrace change.
Dale Dickey gives a superb performance on the audio. Listening to her was like listening to these characters tell the tale. Her narration really put me into 1936 rural Tennessee.
There is only one family left in the path of the lake. It’s summer 1936, and Annie Clyde Dodson stubbornly refuses to leave the farm that has been in her family for generations, despite the warnings of the government men who tell her that the new dam built by
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the Tennessee Valley Authority will cause the Long Man River to flood and forever cover the land with the lake that will form. She and her daughter have just two days before they’ll be forcibly evicted when 3-year-old Gracie disappears. Did she wander off? Or was she taken by the drifter that recently appeared? Greene delivers a riveting story that explores the question: What cost, progress? Annie Clyde is a treasure. Not only is she strong-willed, but she is tenacious in her efforts to protect her family. Her pleas with her husband to stay with her and not give up the fight moved me deeply. And yet … certainly she was being foolhardy. No one – no matter how stubborn or how “right” - was going to win against the TVA and the encroaching lake waters. The Dodson’s loss of their home is representative of the hundreds of families displaced by such projects.
The novel is peopled with strong characters, from Beulah Kesterson, who found and raised the abandoned child, Amos, to Sam Washburn, the TVA agent who sympathizes and helps the Dodsons in their search for Gracie. I did get a little lost with the interconnected relationships between Sheriff Ellard Moody, Amos, Silver Ledford and Mary. These kinds of competing loyalties are what made the decisions so difficult: to stay or to go, to delay or to embrace change.
Dale Dickey gives a superb performance on the audio. Listening to her was like listening to these characters tell the tale. Her narration really put me into 1936 rural Tennessee.
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LibraryThing member John_Warner
The Appalachian community of Yuneetah, Tenn., is dying. Inch by inch, the town will be soon submerged by a reservoir of water created by a dam on the Tennessee River. The Federal government developed the TVA in the early 1930s to provide flood control and economic development to the
Although I enjoyed Amy Greene’s previous novel, Bloodroot, set in a similar locale, Long Man is better. Ms. Greene evocative prose reflects the fact that she grew up in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains. Her portrayal of Yuneetah, its residents and environs have such authenticity that the reader are no longer strangers to these people or the community. I believe Ms. Greene’s literary novels will eventually be considered classics alongside the likes of William Faulkner and Sinclair Lewis.
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economically-depressed Tennessee Valley. The development of the dams, like the one on this novel’s fictional Long Man River required the displacement of many families in Yuneetah. One of the residents resisting the relocation is the novel’s protagonist, Annie Clyde Dodson, suspicious of governmental agencies, is unwilling, sometimes through the use of a rifle, to pack up her family and leave the property her family owned and worked and its surrounding mountains. One evening, during an argument with her husband, James, who was attempting a last-ditch effort to urge Annie to accompany him to Detroit for available work, the two discover that their 3-year-old daughter and dog have disappeared. Annie believes that her daughter was taken by Amos one-eyed vagabond who was raised near her home and as has recently returned to the area. Annie and her daughter had encountered Amos in their field that afternoon and he had taken a fancy to her daughter. Soon a search party has been formed to search for Amos, and hopefully Annie’s daughter.Although I enjoyed Amy Greene’s previous novel, Bloodroot, set in a similar locale, Long Man is better. Ms. Greene evocative prose reflects the fact that she grew up in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains. Her portrayal of Yuneetah, its residents and environs have such authenticity that the reader are no longer strangers to these people or the community. I believe Ms. Greene’s literary novels will eventually be considered classics alongside the likes of William Faulkner and Sinclair Lewis.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
The story is set in 1936 when unemployment and rising water levels get even worse in Depression-era Tennessee. The town has started to evacuate it’s residents...and they all know that this is the end of the line…. rock bottom for most of them including the parents of the 3-year-old child who
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has disappeared. It’s an often familiar tale about the sacrifices people are expected and forced to make in the name of progress. Mystery...family saga...backwoods romance…it’s unforgettable. What lost it half a star for me was that after the author set the stage with the child’s disappearance the story moved forward at a snails pace. This will be fine with some readers but I found it a bit annoying...but nevertheless a good story. Show Less
LibraryThing member JRobinW
This is a beautifully written story. It really captures how hard Appalachian families had it. There were times it was so sad I had to take a break to read something else.
Awards
Orion Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2014)
Language
ISBN
9781410468420