The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Yearling
Book Review: Classic love story of the South (not "Gone With the Wind")
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite books ever written! Maybe it's one of those sentimental things, but I suppose the best books are sentimental. And let's face it, any person that dares roll their eyes at the love between a human and an animal clearly is not a pet owner. It's a bond, true and simple, and Ms. Rawlings does an excellent job of combining that fact with a powerful story of the rough world of the backwoods and the human relationship with nature.
The idea is pretty simple--a boy finds an abandoned fawn an raises it as a pet--sort of like a dog. Jody is an awkward kid in ways that modern teen angst writers will never quite capture, a boy trapped between childhood and manhood (yeah, it's coming-of-age, but it is a classic scenario that will never die!) living in poverty with a family he doesn't quite understand and who in return don't quite understand him. This deer, this yearling, is something of his refuge.
Beyond this basic story is a collage of subplots that intertwine themselves in a believable, honest manner that relies in equal parts on character, plot, and fate without ever feeling contrived.
Rawlings' writing might bother some people, but it's no different from what plenty of other authors have done in a magical attempt to capture the way people talk. It's quirky, enchanting, and absolutely descriptive in setting and emotion.
The story of a boy and his pet deer instead of a dog. Why not?
Book Review: Life knocks a man down
Summary: 5 Stars
An incomparable story of growth and survival in the most difficult conditions. The Yearling, set in the scrubland of northern Florida a couple of decades after the Civil War, is the story of the Baxter family: little "Penny" Baxter, the father, a saintly figure who is wise, understanding, kind, brave, dutiful, stoic; Ory, the mother, whose essential goodness has been buried to some degree by endless toil and the death of several babies; and Jody, who is about 12 when the story begins, a good-natured sprite for whom nature is benevolent and everything is to be explored.
The Baxters live some 15 miles from the nearest town and four miles from their nearest neighbors, the Forresters, a family of massive sons who are variously good hearted and murderous drunks. In this environment, the little Baxter family scratches out its existence.
Two themes predominate: the loss of childhood innocence and Implacable Nature. The latter is depicted in a variety of ways: a legendary maurauding bear that is seemingly impossible to kill; a pack of hungry wolves several dozen strong; a flood that destroys everything in its path and leaves the plague in its wake; a terrible poisonous snake that threatens the life of one of the characters. In this unforgiving environment, Penny forges ahead at all times, hunting and farming to provide for his little brood, rarely at a loss despite the continual setbacks that afflict "Baxter's Island," the small territory that the family owns.
It's not all harshness, however. Moments of beauty break through at intervals, particularly when father and son are off on a leisurely hunt. There is often a great reverence shown for flowers, trees, waterways, birds, animals, and the landscape as a whole. A lovely character named Fodder-wing (of the Forrester clan) has a whole backwoods menagerie, one that young Jody would duplicate were it not for opposition from his mother, who knows all too well the trouble that animals can cause once they have grown to maturity.
The consolation prize for Jody is Flag, a fawn that he claims after its mother has been killed. Jody loves Flag as much as any 12-year-old boy in the world today loves his dog--much more, really, since it is the only thing in the world that is exclusively his.
Over the course of a year, Jody lives through all the terrors that nature--and, sometimes, man--can inflict and prepares, unknowingly, to eventually take over Penny's role as provider for the family. In the opening chapter, Jody has a particularly fine time off on his own, in the woods, and when it is over he cannot sleep because "a mark was on him from the day's delight, so that all his life, when April was a thin green and the flavor of rain was on his tongue, an old wound would throb and a nostalgia would fill him for something he could not quite remember." It is the last full day of his childhood innocence.
By the end, when events have taken their difficult course, it is Penny who must counsel Jody and explain how he wanted to spare Jody as long as he could from the rigors of adulthood. He explains, "A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to git their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'." But, as he points out, life knocks you down, and when you get up, it knocks you down again. "What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on." And Jody understands and takes up his new responsbility, to himself and to his family.
I haven't conveyed in this short review the brilliance of the descriptions of the landscape and all it contains, the richness of the many characters who populate the book, or the excitement of the twists and turns that befall the characters--but it's all there. I will close by saying that although The Yearling is catgorized as a sort of children's book, it is one that adult lovers of literature would enjoy; moreover, it would be difficult to read for those under the age of 15, I would think.
Also, for those considering reading this book to their children, as I just did, keep in mind that it's not for the squeamish. As Penny says, and as the book reveals, "You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks. You've messed around with ol' Starvation. Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy."
Book Review: One my lifetime favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently re-read this book after many years, having first read it when I was only ten years old. So moved by this story, even at that age, I knew that I was destined to become a writer myself.
Set in the Florida backcountry during the Post Civil War years, it is essentially a coming of age story about a twelve year old boy whose family is struggling daily just to survive. The difficulty in tending their meager crops and few livestock against harsh weather and predacious bears seems alien in our world today, yet was very real not so long ago. For me, it is the wonderfully descriptive prose that captured my soul. Every smell, the warmth of the sun, the sound of pattering rain, even the thrill of the hunt are written in such vivid colorful imagery that one feels drawn into these pages. As so with Jody's loneliness and isolation. His only friend is Fodderwing, a crippled boy who lives miles away, and his only pet is the family dog, who is loyal to no one but Jody's father, yet is too old to romp like a pup anyway. With the fawn coming into his life, he has a changed perspective. Jody is a little boy with a new friend and something to be responsible for, but most of all, something to call his own. Unfortunately, and as in most cases, trying to tame a wild animal ends up in tragedy, and twice in this story the reader faces along with Jody, the inescapable heartbreak that comes from having lost someone or something near and dear. The final result is that we witness his transformation to manhood.
Miss Rawlings must also be commended for the way her characters are developed. Simple yet thorough, by the time she's finished with each, it is as if you have known that person your entire life.
Probably for me, what drew such a strong connection to this book was the fact that I could find many parallels to the difficult life of my own maternal grandparents. Although they lived in the forest and prairie of Central Illinois, their speech was similar, and they endured much of the same hardships. Fortunately, because of their grown children and a successful, adult grandchild, most of that was behind them by the time I came along. Still, I understood what they had gone through to raise three kids on a small plot of ground miles from town, with no running water or electricity. Like Jody in this story, his boyish behavior of running off to the woods all day to play and explore was much like how I remember my time visiting the grandparent's farm. The same with my brothers and cousins.
I suppose this is considered a children's book, but I recommend it for everyone. Take the time to enjoy this wonderful story. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
James Hart Isley
Author of The Bear Hunter
Book Review: Outstanding!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was blown away by Rawlings amazing writing, and beautiful voice. I being a 13 year old that hates to read, found myself enjoying this book. I was amazed by the way Rawlings captured your heart with her in-depth descriptions of the character's feelings.
The only critisism I have is that the middle became to be a bit dragged out, and boring. She seemed to repeat herself, and the hunting scenes were a bit redundant.
I would suggest this book to ANYONE that can read, no matter their age.
Book Review: The Yearling
Summary: 5 Stars
I am 15yo. It's a really good book, and you should read it. It's funny that the guys go around naked in the first quarter of the book. The mom wears her clothes all the time, but she is mean, and i wish she had been killed off at the end. I don't like what she did to Flag because he was eating all the crops. What she does will really make you mad. But I will read this book again [even though i don't like the mom].