Book Review/The Edge of Light
The Edge of Light
By Ann Shorey
First of a trilogy in the At Home in Beldon Grove Series
Revell Publishers
Quality Paperback $13.99
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
Sutherlin author Ann Shorey’s first novel, “The Edge of Light,” is a reader’s introduction to a slice-of-life series about the lives and times of people who lived in a corner of America before the Civil War. In her debut novel her heroine is a courageous woman named Molly McGarvie, a mother with three small children, who is widowed in the first chapter and left penniless by an unscrupulous brother-in-law.
With that gripping beginning, the reader is in for a fast moving historical novel populated with strong characters that lived during slave times in St. Lawrenceville, Missouri in the early 1800s. The reader is immediately engaged in the first few lines when Molly’s husband becomes ill for deadly cholera. Molly suspects right away the betrayal of Brody her husband’s Samuel’s bother, when he refuses to take in her three children while she nurses her sick husband, but she finds a neighboring family who open their home to the care of her children.
After Samuel’s death, the brother takes over his brick manufacturing business leaving Molly and her children without income. Thus the plot thickens as this incredibly strong character faces life in the unpredictable American frontier determined to keep her family together.
If this sounding board of a first novel is any indication, Shorey’s storytelling talents are off to an award-winning career, something already recognized by Glide author, Bonnie Leon, as “a marvelous gift for words and superior storytelling.”
The “At Home in Beldon Grove,” series is Shorey’s first venture into fiction, but for the last 15 years she has been a writing non-fiction essays and memoirs, including a published story in “Chicken Soup for Grandma’s Soul.” Her fiction manuscript was selected as a finalist in the 2205 Colorado Gold Writing Contest, which led to her being selected by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, to write the series.
In an interview, Shorey said the character Molly is based on one of her great, great aunts, however the character Molly will not necessarily continue throughout the series. Her second book is already at the publishers and is a continuation of the strength of frontier women in the 1800s.
The idea for writing the book began after her mother, Letha Matot died in 1994 and Shorey found manuscripts her mother had written about her own family migrating from Illinois via the Oregon Trail and ending up in the Dalles. She decided to finish the manuscript and publish it as a family memoir. “What I discovered was that all the stories at that time were based on a male point of view,” she said. “I wondered what women were experiencing during those years of pioneering the West.”
This led Shorey into extensive research. Much credit goes to the author for the authentic vernacular of Southern speech that she uses in the dialog. It is so well done that the reader can almost hear the words spoken in dialect of the era. She treats the slave era with authenticity, painting the slave characters with dignity, while explaining their longing for freedom. Betsy is one of those slave characters that is memorable. Betsy, is faithful in her love and loyalty to Molly and her family.
There is a poignant scene near the end of the book in which Betsy has a chance at freedom in Canada and Betsy tells Molly she wants to stay with her and the children, but also wants to be free. Molly lets her go in a dramatic separation where the reader can visualize Molly standing at the cabin door gazing north across unbroken prairie as “the tall grass rippled as though stroked by an unseen hand,” with Molly praying that Betsy would be safe – and free in Canada.
Shorey leaves the reader gripping the end of a cliff, wondering what will be next for the people of Beldon Grove.
(Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, Oregon 97470)