Against The Tornado - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Against The Tornado is Rosser A Rudolph's first and only novel, written in 1954. It was recently rediscovered and edited by his family and published in 2016, and tells the story of a year in the hard scrabble life of a farming ranch family in the West Texas Panhandle around 1914, when cotton and cattle were the cash crops and farming was done with horse-drawn implements. Filled with rich characters and vivid descriptions of living off the land and the cycles of nature in that time and place, we are drawn deeply into the past and become engrossed in the family struggles. From little Ladybug as the young daughter who loves birds and animals to Uncle Shorty as the old hired hand from a bygone era of cowpokes and Civil War escapades, we long for the success of of the family as the matriarch Della and her husband Scotty face the tough realities of drought, hail, failing crops, a tough economy and limited prospects. The reader is drawn into fascinating side plots involving older son Buddy and his quest to escape the farm and enter pre-medical school at the University of Texas and the matriarch's sister Allie, a local school teacher who lives with the family and supports them through her portion of the two sister's inheritance, and is engaged with the local doctor, a transplant from Boston. Younger son Jakey, a seven year old rootin' tootin' bundle of energy, rounds out the close-knit family unit, along with their dog Wart, cats, pigs, cattle, horses and chickens. Yet the root of the story focuses around Della and Scotty, the homesteaders. Della, a transplant from Illinois, sometimes regrets her choice to move West with handsome, good-natured Scotty. His upbeat attitude grates on her delicate nerves at a time in history when depression and anxiety were not recognised in the modern way. Della's hard work to patch things together -- growing a big garden, tending many chickens, overseeing the putting up of hogs and other foods, and taking care of the family thinly stretched finances -- balances Scotty's compulsion to help all neighbors regardless of true need and to be unconditionally optimistic in the face of overwhelming odds against the family's success. Will they be able to pay the mortgage and stay on the land? Or do the hardships of farming life on the West Texas plains splinter the family into pieces with the ferocity of an all too common tornado? We are riveted to the story until the last page is turned!

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