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When I Crossed No-Bob
When I Crossed No-Bob
When I Crossed No-Bob
Ebook163 pages2 hours

When I Crossed No-Bob

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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This novel takes place 10 years after HOW I FOUND THE STRONG ended and deals with the reconstruction and race relations after the war. Told from the point of view of 13 year old Addy, who is abandoned by her redneck family and taken in by Shanks (from STRONG) and his new wife. There Addy learns she can make different decisions than those dictated by her own racist family. Vivid scenes involving the Ku Klux Klan, a school burning and attempted lynching add drama to this riveting coming of age historical novel.
Author, Margaret McMullen captures the hardship and hardscrabble feel of this post-Civil War time as well as the hopeful rebuilding of southern communities.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 6, 2009
ISBN9780547531199
When I Crossed No-Bob
Author

Margaret McMullan

Margaret McMullan is the acclaimed author of When I Crossed No-Bob and How I Found the Strong, as well as the adult novels In My Mother’s House and When Warhol Was Still Alive. Her work has appeared in such publications as Glamour, the Chicago Tribune, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She is a professor and the chair of the English department at the University of Evansville in Indiana.

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Rating: 3.763888888888889 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Addy's pappy left years ago for Texas. Then her mother decides to follow, leaving 12-year-old Addy alone. She is taken in by the local schoolteacher and his wife, and works hard to be seen as herself, and not as a no-good O'Donnell from No-Bob. Set 10 years after the civil war, this is a time of poverty, rebuilding and changing race relations in the South. When Addy's pappy shows up and tries to reclaim her, she needs to decide how her life should be.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    12 year old Addy is the youngest member of the locally deplored and infamous O’Donnell clan, a matter for both pride and shame. When she is finally abandoned by her mother, in the wake of her father’s leaving, Addy is taken in by the local schoolteacher. She struggles with feelings of loss and confusion at her torn loyalties, as the KKK not only gains a foothold in the area, but proves to have an uncomfortable tie to Addy’s own home life. McMullan allows Addy to narrate events and feelings in a wise and practical manner that breathes warmth throughout the story.I didn’t realise until about half-way through that this is a sequel to How I Found the Strong, which tells the story of Frank, a young boy caught up in the tumult of the war (and is, incidentally, biographical fiction, loosely based on the author’s family). Even without reading this first, it added a richness to the story to know there was a history to the character who takes in Addy.Definitely a young adult read, When I Crossed No-Bob deftly deals with racism, poverty and family loyalties in the American South just after the Civil War. McMullan has a lovely writing style that never intrudes on the story or her character’s ‘voice’ and the well-researched background manages to infuse atmosphere without suggesting an author with a list of proudly-learned facts to impart.I have made a note to get a copy of How I Found the Strong and catch up with the story that came before Addy’s.

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When I Crossed No-Bob - Margaret McMullan

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