David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-marsh"
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens was a renowned nature writer, winning several awards, before she wrote WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. In other words she was writing about what she knows, and she hit the jackpot on her first outing. It has been at the top of the New York Times best-seller list for at least six months.
Kya Clark is the “Marsh Girl”. She has several brothers and sisters, but they all leave her because of their drunken abusive father. When her mother leaves also, she is all alone with him. Surprisingly she begins to get along with him until her mother writers a letter; she can't read, and she makes the mistake of giving it to him. He tears it up and reverts to his old behavior. Eventually he disappears as well and she's left alone with her friends the gulls and the owner of a small gas station, a black man named Jumper who trades gas for her boat her father left behind in return for mussels she collects. She also meets a boy in the estuary. She's just a little girl, around seven, and he helps her find her way back to her shack. He leaves rare feathers for her on a stump in the clearing, and they become more than friends. But he leaves her, too, going to college where he doesn't see her fitting in, although she's very smart. He teaches her how to read and do arithmetic.
Then she meets the wrong guy, Chase Andrews, who's a lady killer. He promises marriage, but he eventually marries another girl. He still won't leave her alone. When he turns up dead, falling from a fire tower, Kya is the principal suspect. Two witnesses see her racing toward the fire tower. But there is no evidence. All the foot prints and finger prints have been wiped away. He could've accidentally fallen from the tower. She also has an alibi.
You will cheer for Kya. Nobody's mother leaves a seven-year old girl with an abusive drunk. Her boyfriend Tate is a decent guy, who realizes he made a mistake, but she has trouble forgiving him. Later on she says, “We don't need to get married; we're like geese.”
The ending is a shock to the system. Never in a thousand years would I have believed who really killed Chase.
Kya Clark is the “Marsh Girl”. She has several brothers and sisters, but they all leave her because of their drunken abusive father. When her mother leaves also, she is all alone with him. Surprisingly she begins to get along with him until her mother writers a letter; she can't read, and she makes the mistake of giving it to him. He tears it up and reverts to his old behavior. Eventually he disappears as well and she's left alone with her friends the gulls and the owner of a small gas station, a black man named Jumper who trades gas for her boat her father left behind in return for mussels she collects. She also meets a boy in the estuary. She's just a little girl, around seven, and he helps her find her way back to her shack. He leaves rare feathers for her on a stump in the clearing, and they become more than friends. But he leaves her, too, going to college where he doesn't see her fitting in, although she's very smart. He teaches her how to read and do arithmetic.
Then she meets the wrong guy, Chase Andrews, who's a lady killer. He promises marriage, but he eventually marries another girl. He still won't leave her alone. When he turns up dead, falling from a fire tower, Kya is the principal suspect. Two witnesses see her racing toward the fire tower. But there is no evidence. All the foot prints and finger prints have been wiped away. He could've accidentally fallen from the tower. She also has an alibi.
You will cheer for Kya. Nobody's mother leaves a seven-year old girl with an abusive drunk. Her boyfriend Tate is a decent guy, who realizes he made a mistake, but she has trouble forgiving him. Later on she says, “We don't need to get married; we're like geese.”
The ending is a shock to the system. Never in a thousand years would I have believed who really killed Chase.
