Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
University of Georgia Press (1995), Edition: Reissue, 224 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:In the Depression-era Deep South, a destitute farmer struggles to raise a family on his own: The bestselling classic by the author of Tobacco Road. Single father and poor Southern farmer Ty Ty Walden has a plan to save his farm and his family: He will tear his fields apart until he finds gold. While Ty Ty obsesses over his fool's quest, his sons and daughters search in vain for their own dreams of instant happiness�whether from money, violence, or sex. God's Little Acre is a classic dark comedy, a satire that lampoons a broken South while holding a light to the toll that poverty takes on the hopes and dreams of the poor themselves. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Book Report: First published in 1933, when the author was a mere slip of a thirty-year-old, this novel starts in a hole and keeps digging deeper and deeper. Literally, not metaphorically. Well, literally AND metaphorically.
Ty Ty and his sons are poor white Southern
Since the land's being dug up for gold instead of farmed for food, the boys go off to work in the textile mills. Yes Virginia, there once was a textile industry in the USA. Now it's all in Pakistan, where a couple dollars a month is a (barely) living wage. Mill owners naturally want to keep their costs down to maximize profits, and families are going hungry to make sure the rich get richer (is this sounding familiar?), until the unions come to town. With predictable results.
There's death, there's misery, there's hard work followed by failure, there's more misery, the end.
My Review: And what an end! What a beautiful piece of writing this is, and how very grim the picture it paints in its simple shapes and clear colors. There is nothing unclear or muddy about the book, except the minds of the characters, and that is by the author's design.
The search for gold isn't as stupid as it sounds. The Georgia north was Cherokee country until white folks found gold in them thar hills and booted the native inhabitants off the land. In the novel, some few flakes are found, but never enough to do what Ty Ty wants, which is free him and his family from want and dependence on others. It works well as a metaphor for the frayed and threadbare Murrikin dream, too: Keep working keep working keep working and the rewards will (not) come! Or if they come, at what cost, and ultimately to what end?
The title, God's Little Acre, refers to Ty Ty's gift of one acre of his farmland to God to support the church. But because Ty Ty wants gold for himself and his family, he moves the location of the acre at will, so he'll be sure not to give his gold away. Not so unfamiliar here, either, is it?
Murder, betrayal, lust, rage, and that's all before we get to the workplace! Is it any wonder this book was called obscene by the forces of reaction? It *was* obscene! The horrible exploitive relationships in every single nook and cranny of the world the characters inhabit is obscene. The dreadful ignorance, the grinding and maliciously intentional poverty, all of it obscene!
Sadly, with the slow withering of liberalism, the story's outlines are rapidly recrudescing in the modern Murrika being carved from the living flesh of the unwashed masses too drugged on the crack of an American Dream they will never, ever attain by Lotto or hard work or virtue rewarded. The horror is we've been here before, and a few brave and good men tried to steer us away from this hideous abyss. And here we are, back again.
Sick-making, isn't it? Read the book, and use it as a cautionary tale.
The Book Report: First published in 1933, when the author was a mere slip of a thirty-year-old, this novel starts in a hole and keeps digging deeper and deeper. Literally, not metaphorically. Well, literally AND metaphorically.
Ty Ty and his sons are poor white Southern
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Americans in the grimmest economic times of the 20th century. There was revolution brewing because of the depth of the economic crisis, and the complete absence of any safety net for anyone at all. Ty Ty and his boys, like modern-day conservatives, are digging for gold in their unpromising Georgia home's unyielding land, and finding lots of dirt and not much else. The womenfolk are trying to keep food on the table and as many rapists as possible outside. The ones at home, well, we all have our crosses to bear, don't we?Since the land's being dug up for gold instead of farmed for food, the boys go off to work in the textile mills. Yes Virginia, there once was a textile industry in the USA. Now it's all in Pakistan, where a couple dollars a month is a (barely) living wage. Mill owners naturally want to keep their costs down to maximize profits, and families are going hungry to make sure the rich get richer (is this sounding familiar?), until the unions come to town. With predictable results.
There's death, there's misery, there's hard work followed by failure, there's more misery, the end.
My Review: And what an end! What a beautiful piece of writing this is, and how very grim the picture it paints in its simple shapes and clear colors. There is nothing unclear or muddy about the book, except the minds of the characters, and that is by the author's design.
The search for gold isn't as stupid as it sounds. The Georgia north was Cherokee country until white folks found gold in them thar hills and booted the native inhabitants off the land. In the novel, some few flakes are found, but never enough to do what Ty Ty wants, which is free him and his family from want and dependence on others. It works well as a metaphor for the frayed and threadbare Murrikin dream, too: Keep working keep working keep working and the rewards will (not) come! Or if they come, at what cost, and ultimately to what end?
The title, God's Little Acre, refers to Ty Ty's gift of one acre of his farmland to God to support the church. But because Ty Ty wants gold for himself and his family, he moves the location of the acre at will, so he'll be sure not to give his gold away. Not so unfamiliar here, either, is it?
Murder, betrayal, lust, rage, and that's all before we get to the workplace! Is it any wonder this book was called obscene by the forces of reaction? It *was* obscene! The horrible exploitive relationships in every single nook and cranny of the world the characters inhabit is obscene. The dreadful ignorance, the grinding and maliciously intentional poverty, all of it obscene!
Sadly, with the slow withering of liberalism, the story's outlines are rapidly recrudescing in the modern Murrika being carved from the living flesh of the unwashed masses too drugged on the crack of an American Dream they will never, ever attain by Lotto or hard work or virtue rewarded. The horror is we've been here before, and a few brave and good men tried to steer us away from this hideous abyss. And here we are, back again.
Sick-making, isn't it? Read the book, and use it as a cautionary tale.
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LibraryThing member tonyshaw14
There's a similar obsession with casual (and voyeuristic) sex here to Tobacco Road, although like that earlier book, very strong for the time, is it of course tame today. But there's a much stonger emphasis on land waste and mind waste, of people obsessed with futility as well as trivia. And
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there's more humanity, things aren't play out cartoonishly. Show Less
LibraryThing member ffortsa
The story of a family in rural Georgia, and in the mill towns nearby. The patriarch is so smitten with gold fever that he is sure there is gold on his farmland, and digs holes all over, but he reserves an acre pledged to God. If he wants to dig on God's acre, he conveniently moves it somewhere
His daughter Darlin' Jill is a runaround, his oldest son has left the family and will have nothing to do with the gold fever, becoming instead a prosperous businessman. Another daughter has married a mill worker with great sexual charisma and a burning desire to make things right for the working people at the mill, which is currently undergoing a strike and lockout. And his son Carl is married to Griselda, the epitome of womanhood, whom every man wants as soon as he sees her.
Aside from rich characterizations, this novel is set at the fulcrum of time between the farm economy and the mill economy in the south during the Depression. Caldwell uses the sexuality of the family members, the gold fever, the mill work, an even Darlin' Jill's long suffering suitor, to balance nature versus the mechanical age, various kinds of power (sexual, electrical, obsessional), and the inevitability of change versus the determination to live in the old mold.
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else, just in case.His daughter Darlin' Jill is a runaround, his oldest son has left the family and will have nothing to do with the gold fever, becoming instead a prosperous businessman. Another daughter has married a mill worker with great sexual charisma and a burning desire to make things right for the working people at the mill, which is currently undergoing a strike and lockout. And his son Carl is married to Griselda, the epitome of womanhood, whom every man wants as soon as he sees her.
Aside from rich characterizations, this novel is set at the fulcrum of time between the farm economy and the mill economy in the south during the Depression. Caldwell uses the sexuality of the family members, the gold fever, the mill work, an even Darlin' Jill's long suffering suitor, to balance nature versus the mechanical age, various kinds of power (sexual, electrical, obsessional), and the inevitability of change versus the determination to live in the old mold.
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LibraryThing member hardlyhardy
The Penguin paperback copy of "God's Little Acre" I just finished reading was printed in February 1948 and was Penguin's 18th printing of Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel. It's first printing was in March 1946, meaning the publisher had been printing new copies of the book almost monthly. That gives
That had a lot to do with the New York obscenity case brought against Viking when it first published the book in 1933. The court determined the novel had literary merit and was not pornographic, but afterward everybody wanted to read it to see what all the fuss was about.
The sexuality in the story is not at all explicit, yet even today, more than 80 years after its original publication, "God's Little Acre" seems shocking. Caldwell writes about a Depression-era family in the rural South whose patriarch, Ty Ty, is obsessed with finding gold on his land. His soil is rich and he could make a good living farming his land, but instead he and his grown sons, Buck and Shaw, dig great holes in their search for the gold Ty Ty remains convinced lies somewhere on his land.
God's little acre is that small portion of his land, significantly less than an acre, Ty Ty has set aside for God. He swears he will give to the church any income produced from this little acre, but he makes it a point to move God's land somewhere else on his property whenever he decides to dig there. Also living on the farm are Darling Jill, Ty Ty's promiscuous youngest daughter, and Griselda, Buck's beautiful wife. Darling Jill expects to someday to marry Pluto, the plump and stupid candidate for sheriff, but in the meantime has sex with just about any man except him. As for Griselda, her beauty drives men crazy. This includes Ty Ty, her father-in-law, and especially Will, married to another of Ty Ty's daughters, and Jim Leslie, another of his sons, who wants little to do with his embarrassing family, that is until he sees Griselda.
Caldwell clearly had great literature as his goal when he wrote "God's Little Acre." The novel deals with such themes as the plight of the South's non-union laborers, the neglect of the land and the hypocrisy of those whose lives fall far short of the religious ideals they espouse. The author may, in fact, have tried to say too much in his relatively short novel, allowing his portrayal of a lusty Southern family to become the center of his story.
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some idea of just how popular Caldwell's novel was at the time. Few people read it today, but from the Thirties to the Sixties it created a sensation.That had a lot to do with the New York obscenity case brought against Viking when it first published the book in 1933. The court determined the novel had literary merit and was not pornographic, but afterward everybody wanted to read it to see what all the fuss was about.
The sexuality in the story is not at all explicit, yet even today, more than 80 years after its original publication, "God's Little Acre" seems shocking. Caldwell writes about a Depression-era family in the rural South whose patriarch, Ty Ty, is obsessed with finding gold on his land. His soil is rich and he could make a good living farming his land, but instead he and his grown sons, Buck and Shaw, dig great holes in their search for the gold Ty Ty remains convinced lies somewhere on his land.
God's little acre is that small portion of his land, significantly less than an acre, Ty Ty has set aside for God. He swears he will give to the church any income produced from this little acre, but he makes it a point to move God's land somewhere else on his property whenever he decides to dig there. Also living on the farm are Darling Jill, Ty Ty's promiscuous youngest daughter, and Griselda, Buck's beautiful wife. Darling Jill expects to someday to marry Pluto, the plump and stupid candidate for sheriff, but in the meantime has sex with just about any man except him. As for Griselda, her beauty drives men crazy. This includes Ty Ty, her father-in-law, and especially Will, married to another of Ty Ty's daughters, and Jim Leslie, another of his sons, who wants little to do with his embarrassing family, that is until he sees Griselda.
Caldwell clearly had great literature as his goal when he wrote "God's Little Acre." The novel deals with such themes as the plight of the South's non-union laborers, the neglect of the land and the hypocrisy of those whose lives fall far short of the religious ideals they espouse. The author may, in fact, have tried to say too much in his relatively short novel, allowing his portrayal of a lusty Southern family to become the center of his story.
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LibraryThing member jpporter
It is very hard to rate a good book when it flies in the face of one's principles. In God's Little Acre, author Erskine Caldwell expresses an attitude towards sex, marriage and women that I find offensive, but he does it so well that while I may disagree with pretty much all of what he says, I have
The bulk of the story would seem to focus on Georgia farmer Ty Ty Walden, his sons (Buck, Shaw and the estranged John Leslie) and his daughters (Rosamund and Darling Jill). Also central to the story are Buck's wife, Griselda, and Rosamund's husband, Will Thompson.
Ty Ty is has gold fever, and is determined to dig up gold on his farm - determined enough, in fact, to almost cease any meaningful farming to devote himself (along with sons Buck and Shaw) to digging deep holes all over his farm in an effort to find gold. He does this his entire life, and does so even though a man familiar with gold mining tells him he will never find gold by digging holes in the ground.
Will Thompson works in a cotton mill, although the mill has been shuttered by the company that owns it. The company wants the union to accept a lower hourly wage, while the union refuses to do so. Will is determined to lead his fellow workers back to the mill, take the mill over and start operating it themselves.
Underneath the two story lines is a much more complex theme involving the relationship between men and women, and the proper role of women. There is no doubt that Caldwell treats women as objects, in every sense of the word. Buck's wife, Griselda, is portrayed as an extremely beautiful woman. Ty Ty talks to every man who sees Griselda, telling them how beautiful she is, how sexual she is - all of this in front of Griselda, who protests mildly, but seems to accept the "praise." For Caldwell, women are made to cook and serve as a repository for semen; it is up to a real man to properly take possession of a woman (even if she is someone else's wife), and real women expect this. And if women get a bit uppity about things, it is apparently acceptable to smack them around.
Griselda is, apparently, a real woman, and Will Thompson is a real man. This is made pointedly clear when Will rips the clothes off Griselda (in front of his wife, Rosamund, and Darling Jill), and then takes Griselda to his bed for the night. All three women seem quite fine with this, making sure to fix Will a good breakfast the next morning. When Ty Ty finds out, he apologizes to Griselda for the fact that Buck isn't quite the man that Will is, but says he hopes Buck will mature to be such a man.
The title of the book refers to Ty Ty's practice of keeping one acre of land set aside for growing crops (when possible, I guess) as a duty to god. As luck would have it, god's little acre gets shifted around a bit to make way for another attempt at mining gold. The symbolism here is fairly straight forward.
Would I recommend this book? I really don't know. It is written in regional dialect, and text is kept to a minimum. Sort of like Cormac McCarthy without any substance. There seems to be so much wrong with the themes developed in this book that it almost negates the fact that - as an example of stylistic writing - God's Little Acre is a great piece of literature.
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to admit it is an excellent book. The bulk of the story would seem to focus on Georgia farmer Ty Ty Walden, his sons (Buck, Shaw and the estranged John Leslie) and his daughters (Rosamund and Darling Jill). Also central to the story are Buck's wife, Griselda, and Rosamund's husband, Will Thompson.
Ty Ty is has gold fever, and is determined to dig up gold on his farm - determined enough, in fact, to almost cease any meaningful farming to devote himself (along with sons Buck and Shaw) to digging deep holes all over his farm in an effort to find gold. He does this his entire life, and does so even though a man familiar with gold mining tells him he will never find gold by digging holes in the ground.
Will Thompson works in a cotton mill, although the mill has been shuttered by the company that owns it. The company wants the union to accept a lower hourly wage, while the union refuses to do so. Will is determined to lead his fellow workers back to the mill, take the mill over and start operating it themselves.
Underneath the two story lines is a much more complex theme involving the relationship between men and women, and the proper role of women. There is no doubt that Caldwell treats women as objects, in every sense of the word. Buck's wife, Griselda, is portrayed as an extremely beautiful woman. Ty Ty talks to every man who sees Griselda, telling them how beautiful she is, how sexual she is - all of this in front of Griselda, who protests mildly, but seems to accept the "praise." For Caldwell, women are made to cook and serve as a repository for semen; it is up to a real man to properly take possession of a woman (even if she is someone else's wife), and real women expect this. And if women get a bit uppity about things, it is apparently acceptable to smack them around.
Griselda is, apparently, a real woman, and Will Thompson is a real man. This is made pointedly clear when Will rips the clothes off Griselda (in front of his wife, Rosamund, and Darling Jill), and then takes Griselda to his bed for the night. All three women seem quite fine with this, making sure to fix Will a good breakfast the next morning. When Ty Ty finds out, he apologizes to Griselda for the fact that Buck isn't quite the man that Will is, but says he hopes Buck will mature to be such a man.
The title of the book refers to Ty Ty's practice of keeping one acre of land set aside for growing crops (when possible, I guess) as a duty to god. As luck would have it, god's little acre gets shifted around a bit to make way for another attempt at mining gold. The symbolism here is fairly straight forward.
Would I recommend this book? I really don't know. It is written in regional dialect, and text is kept to a minimum. Sort of like Cormac McCarthy without any substance. There seems to be so much wrong with the themes developed in this book that it almost negates the fact that - as an example of stylistic writing - God's Little Acre is a great piece of literature.
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LibraryThing member JVioland
One man's obsession ruins a Southern rural family. Not too good - highly overrated.
LibraryThing member LGCullens
It must have been in the 1960s that I read this book, but I don't remember it very well. I recall the movie (even Robert Ryan in the starring role) more clearly, which makes my memory of the book less reliable. I seem to remember enjoying the book.
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 1998)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1933
Physical description
224 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
0820316636 / 9780820316635