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Ernest Hebert

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Spoonwood (The Darby Chronicles) Kindle Edition

by Ernest Hebert (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 7 ratings

Book 6 of 7: Darby Chronicles

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Life, love, death, and laughs in a small American town

After almost fifteen years, Hebert has returned to this rich literary landscape for a new novel of the changing economic and social character of New England. Hebert's previous Darby book, Live Free or Die, recounted the ill-fated love between Freddie Elman, son of the town trash collector, and Lilith Salmon, child of Upper Darby gentility. At its conclusion, Lilith died giving birth to their son. As Spoonwood opens, Freddie, consumed by grief and anger and struggling with alcoholism, is not prepared to be a father to Birch. But as both his family and Lilith's begin to maneuver for custody of the child, Freddie embarks on a course of action that satisfies none of them.

Once again, Hebert masterfully conveys the natural and social landscape of contemporary rural New England. Grounded in complex, fully realized characters, Spoonwood offers Hebert's most optimistic vision yet of acceptance and accommodation across class lines.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

ERNEST HEBERT, retired professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College, resides near Keene, New Hampshire, with his wife Medora and two cats that meditate on Hebert's Franco-American roots and rural New England sensibility. For more about author Ernest Hebert and the Darby Chronicles: https://sites.google.com/view/ernesthebertdarby/ --This text refers to the paperback edition.

From Booklist

Picking up where Live Free or Die (1990)left off, the sixth installment in Hebert's Darby cycle returns to the ordinary lives of the residents of a small New Hampshire town. Trash collector Freddie Elman's love affair with upper-class Lilith Salmon ends when she dies giving birth to their son, Birch. Freddie's doubts about Lilith's fidelity cause him to reject Birch and turn to drink. Eventually, though, Freddie and Birch form a bond, living on the road while Freddie supports them carving spoons he sells to a New York boutique. As in the earlier Darby novels, Hebert uses his characters, particularly Birch in this installment, to explore classic New England themes: the landscape and its relation to individual lives, familial and social grudges, the eternal tension between traditional values and contemporary encroachments. Pair the Darby novels with the New England fiction of Richard Russo; both authors bring the same warmth and wry humor to their stories. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“[A] vigorous saga . . . One is reminded of William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or Robertson Davies’ Deptford.” —New York Times Book Review

"Pair the Darby novels with the New England fiction of Richard Russo; both authors bring the same warmth and wry humor to their stories."
—Booklist

“Like William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County and Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Darby is not just a setting but an embodiment of the universal ways family and land tie the fates of individuals together. And like his literary predecessors, Hebert—a professor of English at Dartmouth—exhibits a fine-tuned awareness of his region and its people. In Spoonwood, Hebert shapes the New Hampshire woods into creatures and trees with histories of their own that intersect importantly with his human characters' lives. He also makes Darby's social and economic class conflicts exemplary, if perhaps somewhat exaggerated, of many contemporary New England communities.”—Valley News

“A meaningful book… I couldn't put the book down… 'Spoonwood' is an intimate story of both the kind of life we dream of and the kind of life we are happy to have been able to avoid. This is the reason, perhaps, why I read the book with such fascination.”—The Cabinet --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Publisher

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 trim. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“Ernie Hebert's novels don't just capture New England; they've become a part of it...and his latest is a spectacular addition to an already impressive canon. With surprising narrators and a fond nod to the power of a good story, Spoonwood chronicles how the birth of a son can lead to the rebirth of a father; and how the raw material of an ordinary man might be carved down, over
time, to reveal an extraordinary heart. Don't miss this one." (Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper and Vanishing Acts)

“Robert Frost said, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Ernest Hebert is still right at home in Darby, and Spoonwood will take you in if you go there.” (Tom Bodett) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BPXKM5SH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wesleyan University Press (August 2, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 2, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3029 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,784,690 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3,043 in Christian Church History (Kindle Store)
- #3,992 in Social Issues & Christianity
- #6,568 in Christian Church & Bible History (Kindle Store)

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4.4 7 ratings

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Ernest Hebert

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I have two identities as a writer. Part of me is a realist. I want my novels to be truthful to the real world as I have experienced it. But I'm also a dreamer. I believe in the life of the imagination.

My interest in novel writing is the interior world of the characters. Everyone has two dramas in their lives, the drama on the outside--how we relate to our loved ones, our jobs, our friends, our enemies--and the drama on the inside--how we relate to that steamy, dreamy on-going nut-case story in our heads. When the story in the head comes into conflict with the story in the outside, well, that's a problem for this novelist.

I've published eleven novels in all and won several prizes along the way.

I am grateful to you, dear readers. You can catch me on Facebook, on my blog erniehebert.com, Twitter @erniehebert, or email at erniehebert@yahoo.com.

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Kindle CustomPeter Steele

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

A wonderful and unique addition to the Darby Chronicles.

Helpful

Tara D.

This book stands on its own

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2006

If you haven't read the prequels, don't let that keep you away--I hadn't, but Hebert is so confident in the world he writes about that the reader doesn't feel lost for a second. The mental workings of Spoonwood's characters, from a telepathic infant with total recall to the alcoholic, spoonmaking father who nurses him (literally!) into a premature adulthood, are mesmerizing, and Hebert's ability to use language to evoke place and mood are not to be missed. It's funny too.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

deep New England cozy

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2005

In 1985 on a mountain ledge near Upper Darby, New Hampshire, Freddie Elman reaches his beloved Lilith Salmon only to find her dying from blood loss caused by giving birth all aloneat this isolated wilderness spot. She dies, but leaves behind a son Birch. Bitter and filled with self loathing and guilt for failing and doubting his Lilith, Freddie ignores his infant son turning to drink to dull his pains while his mother cares for her grandson.

Freddie becomes concerned when his parents and Lilith's family decide he is unfit and begin making separate cases for custody of Birch as he realizes the child is his only connection to his deceased beloved. He takes Birch with him and flees into the woods and beyond starting a nomadic existence for father and son on the run while those left behind pursue them.

It has been about ten years since Ernest Hebert wrote his last Darby novel LIVE FREE OR DIE that included Freddie the trash man's son and Lilith the late Squire's daughter seeing one another. Their relationship as a subplot of that novel devastated the social hierarchy of this New England town. The direct sequel, SPOONWOOD takes the audience further by following the escapades of Freddie, their son Birch and those chasing them. The cozy story line digs deep into New England life from two social strata those with and those without as Mr. Hebert once again entertains yet tells the relevance of the most seemingly minor aspect of the tale including that of a small stone.

Harriet Klausner

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