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The time is 1923, the place a family-owned mill, and the people a motley collection made up of a manager from Pennsylvania, his brother the constable, poor white and black loggers, three women, Sicilians, and polyglot Cajuns. Byron, the constable, a golden boy before the war, eldest son and heir apparent to a timber fortune, returned from France a damaged man, no longer interested in family or future. He drifted away from home and lost contact. When the novel begins, he has been found in this Louisiana backwater and his brother, Randolph, is dispatched to manage the family mill until the cypress forest is cleared and to bring Byron home. What happens to them in this hermetically sealed redoubt is a story of intense and forgiving brotherly love, as Randolph struggles to reclaim Byron and to maintain decency against formidable odds. They must deal with the Sicilians who own the gambling, liquor and women and will do anything to hang onto this franchise; the loggers who work and fight in equal part; and each other, not as the boys they were, but as the men they are.
You might learn more about old-time logging than you ever wanted to know, but the story is as compelling as Cold Mountain or All the Pretty Horses and just as well written. --Valerie Ryan
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed. Seller Inventory # mon0000978803
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Good (ex-library). Trade Paperback. 374 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Hodder and Stoughton, UK, 2003. *** CONDITION: This book is in good (ex-library) condition. More specifically: Ex-library with usual marks, stamps, stickers. Covers have no creasing. Corners of covers are lightly bumped. Spine has minimal reading creases. . Cover is protected in clear, self-adhesive laminate. Remainder mark on page edges. Pages are reasonably tanned and lightly creased. First pahe has started to loosen. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: Before the Great War, Byron Aldridge had led a charmed life as heir apparent to a Pennsylvania timber empire, and as guide and idol to his younger brother. But he returned from France a different man, drifting away and finally disappearing altogether, until he is discovered working as a constable in a remote Louisiana sawmill. Here, surrounded by cypress swamps and snakes and alligators, men lead lives of backbreaking toil punctuated only by the brutal entertainments offered by the Sicilians who control the whiskey and card games and girls, and by the rough law meted out by Byron. His brother, assuming charge of the mill, struggles to understand him, even as their wives contend with their own hopes and disappointments, and the future grows fearsome for them all. "The Clearing" is a story of family, of what sustains people through loss, of establishing a community in the deepest wilderness and then defending it. Palpably atmospheric, with a remarkable range of characters and emotions, it displays Tim Gautreaux's masterly understanding of time, place, and human nature. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; Historical; ISBN: 0340832401. ISBN/EAN: 9780340832400. Inventory No: 18090094. The photo of this book is of the actual book for sale. Seller Inventory # 18090094