The Age of Reason
Описание книги
The Worcester Tornado of June 9, 1953 blew seven-year-old Edith Brynn out of her bedroom window and began a year of upheaval and change. All around her, things were happening that first-grade had not equipped her to understand. Her mother, Kitt, was having a nervous breakdown brought on by a third pregnancy, extramarital intrigues, and the conflicts between her career as a translator of Russian poetry, and motherhood. Edith's father, Arthur, a devoted Communist, and veteran of the Lincoln Brigade, was caught up in the McCarthy-era Red Scare and in danger of losing his job as a college professor. Edith, who idealized both parents and treasured the stories, books, music, and culture that they took time out of their busy lives to share with her, both did and did not want to understand why neither parent had much time or attention for her or her little brothers. Though she was a keen observer, she often preferred to retreat to a rich world of make-believe and to her beloved books. Finally, the devastating and preventable death of her baby brother hurtles her into 'The Age of Reason' the stage of life when a child knows and can no longer ignore the difference between what is true and what they wish to be true.
Оглавление
Marian Birch. The Age of Reason
CHAPTER 1. A MIGHTY WIND
CHAPTER 2. LIFE AFTER BIRTH
CHAPTER 3. THE CRYING ROCK
CHAPTER 4. A BIRTHDAY PARTY
CHAPTER 5. HUNTING SEASON
CHAPTER 6. NATIVITY
CHAPTER 7. ARMISTICE
CHAPTER 8. HARVEST
CHAPTER 9. FIRST SNOW
CHAPTER 10. ADVENT
CHAPTER 11. I DO BELIEVE IN FAIRIES
CHAPTER 12. EASTER IN NEW YORK
CHAPTER 13. DIES IRAE
Отрывок из книги
If Edith woke up before her parents on Sunday mornings, she was allowed to go to Mass with her friend Daniel’s family, the DeMelos, who lived on the other side of Buck Hill Road. On a chilly May morning the month before the tornado, previous, Edith dressed in her flannel-lined jeans, her red sneakers, and a green hand-knit cardigan that Kitt had made for her. She crept down two flights of uneven stairs from her bedroom in the attic. Opening and closing the creaking south door carefully behind her, she trotted downhill on the gravel drive and crossed Buck Hill Road to the DeMelos’ ranch house.
It puzzled her a little that Kitt and Arthur let her go to Mass. They didn’t like churches. When Arthur read her the story of Spartacus last winter, where all the slaves who rebelled against their masters were crucified, she asked him if Jesus was also a revolutionary like Spartacus.
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“I know, dear, but he’s such a darling. He’s a wonderful father and he’d protect Peter no matter what, don’t you agree?”
“Where in heaven’s name do you get ideas like that?” Mr. DeMelo took the left turn onto Buck Hill Road so fast that Edith and Daniel slid to the right end of their seat.
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