Throughout a single day in 1892, John Shawnessy recalls the great moments of his life--from the love affairs of his youth in Indiana, to the battles of the Civil War, to the politics of the Gilded Age, to his homecoming as schoolteacher, husband, and father. Shawnessy is the epitome of the place and period in which he lives, a rural land of springlike women, shady gamblers, wandering vagabonds, and soapbox orators. Yet here on the banks of the Shawmucky River, which weaves its primitive course through Raintree County, Indiana, he also feels and obeys ancient rhythms. A number-one bestseller when it was first published in 1948, this powerful novel is a compelling vision of 19th-century America with timeless resonance today.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
NOT the great american Novel:
Maybe to that limited set of writers who thinak they are the Homers of today. But a great american novel would be read by many people with differing levels of appreciation and determined to refelct the CURRENT and essence of America (oh what about south america) not just the mythical past. THe words may flow as a poem, and cover or expound cleary or lyrically the points of life in this country but that alone does not make it a great story. Or a timeless one.
Genius!:
In preface to my review, I have to say that my favorite writers are Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Boll, Arthur Rimbaud, etc.
Many of the reviews here have bandied about the name of Thomas Wolfe (whose "Look Homeward, Angel" was brilliant); and the comparison is richly deserved; but the most insightful comparison came from the person who said it reminded him of an American version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace".
I've actually read "War and Peace".... more info
A Most Beautiful Suicide Note:
Raintree County is the anatomy of a fall from Paradise-with all the Edenic metaphors placed in a fictional county in Indiana-and the process by which it is regained. The structure and scope of the book are extraordinary, a system of telling and suspension that turns one day into a hundred years, all hinged upon the American Civil War (and the allegorical death of the principal character). Like another great contemporary American novel, All The King's Men, Raintree County was built upon the wreckage of a... more info
One of the Best Ever Written:
You may have once wandered through an art gallery and while walking between images both beautiful and banal happened upon a painting unlike few you have ever seen before. It was found placed in a more remote part of the exhibit and poorly lit thus causing you to give it a brief glimpse. At first glance, the quaint simplicity caused you to smile yet upon a second look you noticed the unmistakable quality, the rich shadings, the subtleties, the emotion upon the faces of the... more info
