Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
When All the World Was Young
by
Ferrol Sams
The year is 1942 and Porter Osborne, Jr., is safely ensconced in medical school. He is physically safe, although taunted by the beckoning finger of Uncle Sam. Haunted by the family motto, "Remember who you are, " Porter wrestles with a flood of conflicting emotions. A year later, the conflicts still unresolved, he is an elisted man in the U.S. Army. In the face of incompre...more
Hardcover, 610 pages
Published
December 26th 2001
by Longstreet Press
(first published October 1st 1992)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
821)
Where to start? The third book about Porter Osborne, I believe was written with a gap between it and the first two. Its tone is quite different, dealing with Porter's experiences in med. school and during WWII. My daughter-in-law hated the first book but really enjoyed this one (I think she missed the second entirely); I enjoyed the portayal of rural life in Georgia in the first, enjoyed the character developing during the second book and still need to digest a lot of this one, as it is big book...more
This is one of those books you can’t put down. You know, one of those books you stay up late to read and get up early to read again. As a Southerner I can relate to some of the things he talks about and I’m familiar with many of the places he writes about in the parts of the book where he’s still in Georgia. Many things have changed since those times but I have heard stories that are so much like what he writes that I feel like I’m hearing stories from a beloved uncle or grandparent and not just...more
Apr 10, 2008
George Bradford
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to George Bradford by:
Scott
Shelves:
southern-man,
truth
When All the World Was Young opens with Porter Osborne, Jr. in Atlanta's Druid Hills. Before him stands Emory University's Gate and Glenn Memorial Methodist Church (a drawing of which is on the cover of the book).
It is June of 1942. Porter is starting at Emory's School of Medicine in pursuit of his life long ambition to be a physician in his hometown of Brewtonton, Georgia. But the war raging in Europe and the Pacific overwhelm his thoughts and emotions.
After a grueling first year of medical sc...more
It is June of 1942. Porter is starting at Emory's School of Medicine in pursuit of his life long ambition to be a physician in his hometown of Brewtonton, Georgia. But the war raging in Europe and the Pacific overwhelm his thoughts and emotions.
After a grueling first year of medical sc...more
1 like · like · see review
view all 3 comments
This trilogy is underrated. Porter Osbourne should go down as one of the classic characters not just in Southern Lit, but in literature in general.
The first book is as a good a rumination on adolescent male sexuality as Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint," and also examines race relations and generational distance in the agrarian early-20th century South. The second find Porter disillusioned with life and medical school, as well as losing his virginity to the unforgettable Vashti. The third sees him g...more
The first book is as a good a rumination on adolescent male sexuality as Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint," and also examines race relations and generational distance in the agrarian early-20th century South. The second find Porter disillusioned with life and medical school, as well as losing his virginity to the unforgettable Vashti. The third sees him g...more
This was my least favorite book of the trilogy (dealing, as it did, with more weighty topics than farm life, sex and education) but it still merited at least four stars. It took me quite a bit longer to get through this one--I put it down for a few months before picking it back up again in fact. In this book, Sambo goes to war and truly grows up. There are even more characters to try to track in this one, and in my opinion some loose ends that don't get resolved (c'est la guerre, right?)
The humo...more
The humo...more
This is for sure one of the most underrated books.It's a halarious and emotional journey of Porter Osbourne and his search for personal identity through a very tulmultious time in America. It is the beginning of WW11 and Porter has to decide between pleasing his dad, who is his hero, by staying in medical school, or pleasing himself and joining the army. The social presures of the times where joining the armed forces was the way to go and rejecting that was un-American weighed in on Porter as we...more
The last of his trilogy which is based on his life, but fiction. Porter purposedly flunks out of medical school so he can join the Army in WW II. He spends the war tending the wounded (and having adventures, of course) in Europe.
One of my very favorite books and authors. (Can't remember other titles right now.) Found out after I read his books he's a friend of my oldest friend. Don't know if he's still alive. Would love one more book!
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books about Porter Osborne but I got bogged down during the war stories in this 3rd book. Probably me and not the author-- or Porter.
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10305576
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10305576
Ferrol Sams is from Georgia... and so much of his writing resonates with me.... and will with anyone who grew up in the south.
Such a wonderful book (wonderful trilogy). I tried to savor this book as much as possible because I didn't want it to end. Sams is such an excellent writer, and his stories are compelling, hilarious, moving, and thought-provoking. I felt like I was getting little pearls of wisdom along the way, or thinking about things I had grown up hearing in a new way.
Extraordinary memoir! Not as hilarious as the first two books in the trilogy, but well worth the read!
Absolutely one of the most underated Southern novels. I have read the whole trilogy twice.
When All the World Was Young is the last and my favorite in the trilogy with Run with the Horsemen and The Whisper of the River. These are somewhat autobiographical.
A book of reverberating depth, hilarity, and greatness.
This was my favorite of the Porter Osbourne series.
Sweetness and light! Southern writing at its finest.
good writer and he was also my doctor
I finally broke down and decided to read the final book in teh Ferrol Sams trilogy. My mom has been praising it for years, but something made me shy away from it.
Well. I hated it. I couldn't even finished it. Maybe it's because I was primed to not like it as much as the first two, but it was so far from satisfying. The story dragged. I couldn't even finish it. Halfway through I had a terrible feeling that it would NEVER BE OVER. So I turned to the back and read the last sentence. Then - it was f...more
Well. I hated it. I couldn't even finished it. Maybe it's because I was primed to not like it as much as the first two, but it was so far from satisfying. The story dragged. I couldn't even finish it. Halfway through I had a terrible feeling that it would NEVER BE OVER. So I turned to the back and read the last sentence. Then - it was f...more
3rd in a trilogy
Lovely, funny book
Edit May 23rd, 2013: My sweet friend Honey passed away on April 21st. I was blessed to read with her on Fridays for about seven years and I will miss her very much. This was the last book we finished together and it was a very good read.
Reading this one to Miz Honey. I'll be sorry to finish this trilogy for the second time! It does such a good job of loving the South without ignoring its flaws or the way we were treated after the war.
Reading this one to Miz Honey. I'll be sorry to finish this trilogy for the second time! It does such a good job of loving the South without ignoring its flaws or the way we were treated after the war.
I'm not sure what this books rating will be yet. I like the characters, but the beginning is centered on war and medical school - two things I find yucky - so we'll have to see once I get past med school.
Finished the book. Sams is a great writer, extremely detailed. I don't like medicine or war so there are things I like and things I don't. Unless you are squeamish, you will probably enjoy Sams.
Finished the book. Sams is a great writer, extremely detailed. I don't like medicine or war so there are things I like and things I don't. Unless you are squeamish, you will probably enjoy Sams.
Still a disappointment compared to the first book in the trilogy. The third book was full of interesting, well-written anecdotes -- most of them likely remembered rather than invented by Sams -- but lacked passion. I never felt as though he let readers inside his thoughts and his ultimate decision to return to medical school and fulfill his goal of becoming a small-town physician.
Definitely the darkest of the three books, but I also found it to be the most real. We really get to see Porter Jr. grow up and confront the world while still managing to maintain an element of that mischievousness and innocence that we remember oh-so-well from the first two books.
Great series. I'm really glad I read them all at once.
Great series. I'm really glad I read them all at once.
The last of his special series and probably lacks some of the magic of the first two. Sams tries to convey a more difficult time and perhaps a more private time that doesn't have the universal connection that you can find in the first two -- but it's a necessary wrap up to one of the most special characters you will remember.
It took me almost 6 months to get through because I've been very busy. It's about a medical student who gets drafted during WWII, so semi-relevant. It was an interesting read and kept me entertained.
What a great series. I wish Sams had more novels. I will definitely be reading his other books. The Porter Osborn books are the most entertaining look at WWII era I have ever read.
Porter Osborne is one of my favorite characters ever. I don't typically re-read things (there is too much else to try), but this series is one that I find myself returning to.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
