A Good Place - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

The Wayfaring Stranger begins with the story of the pilgrimage of an Irish immigrant, sixteen-year old Joseph Moore. This journey, beginning in 1849, details his two-year trek from famine-stricken Ireland to the No Man's Land of western Louisiana. However, Joseph's journey covers much more than just two years and four thousand miles. It is more a journey of the soul a growth from bitterness into forgiveness, doubt into spiritual faith, and his search for a sense of belonging.Correspondingly, as we follow Joseph's ocean journey to New Orleans and eventually to the Louisiana piney woods, alternating chapters reveal the simple yet happy life of the book's other protagonist, Eliza Jane Clark. Eliza is a member of a mysterious people called Redbones. This mixed race, primarily of Indian heritage, lives in the piney woods and swamps of this isolated lawless area also known as No Man's Land or The Neutral Strip. While it is a land of hardship and violence, it is also a place of beauty and wisdom. Through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Eliza and her exuberant spirit, we learn of the birds, trees, rivers, and simple faith and traditions of the people who make up this unique area. Early in the story, it becomes evident that the lives of Joseph and Eliza will eventually intersect. The contrast and tension of the story is that Joseph has no roots or family while Eliza has a deep stability and faith due to her connection with the beloved woods where her family has lived for generations. This contrast is a key part and theme of the story.Joseph Moore's arrival by sea in New Orleans comes during a time of great upheaval and change in what was at that time one of America's largest cities. The city is being swept with changes brought on by several historical events. Joseph is thrown into the overwhelming flood of poor Irish immigrants pouring into New Orleans, the periodic Yellow Fever epidemics that decimate the city, and finally the historic New Orleans flood of 1849 which brings his sojourn there to an end. In every part of Joseph's journey he is met with cruel mistreatment as well as surprising friendship. This begins with his stowaway journey across the Atlantic and continues in New Orleans, his later journey up the Mississippi, and finally into Eliza's pioneer area of Louisiana. This prejudice and persecution is balanced with corresponding acts of kindness that create a crisis of belief in Joseph. Once again, his pilgrimage is one from cynicism to faith. A cast of characters, some cruel, but most kind and helpful, parade through his life. We are introduced to a series of likable characters who each force Joseph Moore to examine his life and beliefs: a kindly sailor; Father James Mullon; a wise old freed slave; and the Rev. Joseph Willis, an early pioneer pastor in the Neutral Strip. However the key event that shakes his world, while shaping his faith, is meeting Eliza Clark. Her friendship and simple faith quickly capture his heart and force him to reflect back on his life even as he looks ahead to the future. The story of this examination and its resulting choices is the true thread woven throughout The Wayfaring Stranger As Joseph and Eliza's lives bisect, it is at a crucial time in the history of western Louisiana as a powerful timber company seeks to drive out the isolated settlers. Entering Eliza's world Joseph encounters great prejudice, resistance, and challenge. Living among the Redbone people, Joseph quickly discovers that strangers are unwelcome, especially, if like him, they have a romantic interest. The culmination of this love story between Joseph and Eliza finds him facing a simple, yet complicated, choice: staying or running. His status as an outsider tests his relationship with Eliza and they both must decide if love can overcome the host of forces seeking to destroy it. The culmination of this story features the final conflict between the settlers and the timber company. Joseph's brave actions amid this conflict seal the bond between him and Eliza, as well as gain his acceptance into the lives of the Redbone community.

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