THE RIDDLE OF GENESIS COUNTY

by Lynne C. Doyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 4, 1958

There's an ingrowing sense in this record of the people of an Indiana mining area for its narrator, 16 year old Myra, recalls and retells and searches through the stories -- of the ghosts that dwell in their house, of the neighbors and friends whose life stories weave patterns that make a whole picture. There is George Dillon Hawroth whose Johnny Appleseed book is Myra's treasured possession and who first collected tales about the county and whose Genesis Tree became the treasured possession of Myra's mother. So many want shoots of the tree that it is hard to keep it alive but Myra's mother can never be selfish for ""Living in giving"". There is the busy- body Miss Cosey Walters, the scandal of Preacher Gorby and Miss Rosie-Addie Wakefield, the memories of the Fiddlin' Man, Pete Miller, Myra's great-grandfather, and many more whose stories interlock in Myra's years of growing. And with her mother's failing health, and the reprieve, there is the awakening to the need to share, to grow up and to seek for further clues. By an 18 year old, this has acknowledged its debt to Raintree County and is a sensitive mirroring of not only a place and a people but of an awareness of the hidden strengths and weaknesses of others' lives. To be watched.

Pub Date: March 4, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION