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Darby Chronicles #5
Live Free or Die
Forced to drive the town's garbage truck to keep his family afloat while his father recovers from a broken leg, ambitious Frederick Elman finds romance with Lilith, whose wealthy father has died, but unscrupulous townspeople conspire against them and Lilith's fortune
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 30, 2008
The final in the Darby series. Those of us who live in the towns of which he writes appreciate the local references and flavor. However, the books really show us the hierarchy of small town life and how family legacies can cripple the next generation.
February 11, 2023
The fifth (but not final!) book in Ernest Hebert's Darby series about a changing New Hampshire town delivers more of what made the earlier books great while delving more firmly into class divides. Frederick Elman, son of the town trash collector (Howard Elman from the Dogs of March), becomes involved with Lilith Salmon from one of the old upper-class Darby families, and the young couple faces enormous pressures on both sides that threaten to pull them apart.
As in the previous novels, Hebert's writing shines best at those moments when he explores how working- and lower-class people live and feel about the world -- and in that respect, the wandering, class-conscious adult Frederick is one of his greatest creations. Smart novels about issues between people of different classes (rather than smart novels simply about lower-class people) are all too rare in American literature, and through the voice of Frederick, Hebert voices concerns that belong right up there with British classics like Lady Chatterley's Lover and Howards End. The passage on fishing, and which people of Darby go after which fish, ranks among his shining moments as a writer.
While there's so much here to place the novel alongside Hebert's best work, he can be forgiven for delving too frequently into whispered town gossip that slows the novel down, as well as the complicated subplot involving control of the Salmon Trust. Still, fans of the Darby series will be comforted in finding out what happens to so many of the familiar characters from earlier books as they move forward through the changing times.
As in the previous novels, Hebert's writing shines best at those moments when he explores how working- and lower-class people live and feel about the world -- and in that respect, the wandering, class-conscious adult Frederick is one of his greatest creations. Smart novels about issues between people of different classes (rather than smart novels simply about lower-class people) are all too rare in American literature, and through the voice of Frederick, Hebert voices concerns that belong right up there with British classics like Lady Chatterley's Lover and Howards End. The passage on fishing, and which people of Darby go after which fish, ranks among his shining moments as a writer.
While there's so much here to place the novel alongside Hebert's best work, he can be forgiven for delving too frequently into whispered town gossip that slows the novel down, as well as the complicated subplot involving control of the Salmon Trust. Still, fans of the Darby series will be comforted in finding out what happens to so many of the familiar characters from earlier books as they move forward through the changing times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews