|
Showing 1 - 2 of
2 matches in All Departments
A Depression-era comic masterpiece, E. P. O'Donnell's The Great Big
Doorstep centers on the Crochets, a Cajun family who live in a
ramshackle house between the levee and the Mississippi River. The
Crochets dream of one day owning a stately plantation befitting the
magnificent cypress doorstep they have salvaged from the river and
proudly display outside their humble home. The memorable characters
in this novel have their own concerns: the patriarch, Commodo, is
full of wild bravado as he fluctuates between scheming, laboring,
and malingering; his wife reigns as the queen of retort, though
toughened by years of making do and doing without. The Crochet
children also cope with personal struggles: Topal, twenty,
restless, and moody, and recently dumped by her fiancA (c); Arthur,
eighteen, attempts to strike out on his own while dodging the
coddling of his mother and the fury of his father; Evvie, almost
fifteen, plans to join a religious order after renouncing a lover;
and twins Gussie and Paul, and baby T. J., provide an ongoing
chorus of laughter and tears. The Great Big Doorstep has remained a
literary and cultural classic since its publication in 1941. In an
1979 afterword, Eudora Welty praises O'Donnell's comic genius,
citing his ""supreme gift"" for dialogue, while Bryan Giemza's
introduction underscores the work's place in the tradition of comic
Southern novels.
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.