Master of the Delta
by Thomas H. Cook
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas H. CookEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-02
ISBN: 0151012547
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Book Reviews of Master of the Delta
Book Review: (3.5 stars) "The whole room suffused with light, as dark beginnings almost always are."
Summary: 3 Stars
The power of teaching is heady for Jack Branch, a privileged young man who grew up motherless on a plantation with his scholarly father. Missing his long-dead wife, the elder Branch has remained isolated at Great Oaks since "the incident", the result of a profound depression that has plagued the man for years. Returning after his pricey education to teach at Lakeland High School, Jack is following in his father's footsteps, returning to the landscape of his youth to share his vision with his unlucky students, limited by means and education. In fact, the class he is lecturing on evil in literature has little to recommend the future, most from poverty-riddled backgrounds, many from a rough area known as the Bridges, one lonely student, Eddie Miller, more profoundly separated from the rest by virtue of his history as the son of a local murderer, the Coed Killer.
Giving the students an assignment to write a paper on an evil person, Branch takes a special interest in the skinny, shy Eddie. Thinking to mentor Eddie in his progress, Branch becomes embroiled in a psychological drama that holds unseen dangers the more involved he becomes with the boy. Cook peoples his dark, gothic story with eccentrics: the elder Branch, surrounded by the former glory of his old life and an impressive library; the beautiful student, Sheila Longstreet, the object of her boyfriend's obsessive affection; the angry boyfriend's sidekick, a menacing shadow; Eddie Miller, the unfortunate son of the local murderer, a boy of few ambitions who appeals to his mentor, Branch, but later develops an independent spirit; and the well-intentioned, if class-conscious Jack Branch, who assigns only noble motives to himself until his baser nature is revealed.
Contrasting the many benefits of entitlement with the hardscrabble lives of students with limited futures, Cook's novel is shrouded in the gloom of centuries past, the fanciful assumptions of a lonely teacher who aspires to a largesse of spirit he learns is stunted by false pride and hurt. The exalted halls of learning do little to protect the protagonist from the insidious flaws of human nature, his grand pretensions proved shallow as events unfold. But Branch remains an observer, secure in his ivory tower as the pawns of fate tumble to the ground in a final act of violence. While the concept is compelling, the journey is often tedious. Given the quality of writing, I might have responded a bit more favorably with fewer pages. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
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