Ann Weisgarber
Autor(a) de The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Obras de Ann Weisgarber
A promessa (Seleções - The Promise) 1 exemplar(es)
Associated Works
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 20th century
- Sexo
- female
- Local de nascimento
- Kettering, Ohio, USA
Membros
Resenhas
Listas
Prêmios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 5
- Also by
- 3
- Membros
- 712
- Popularidade
- #35,611
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Resenhas
- 72
- ISBNs
- 49
- Idiomas
- 4
- Favorito
- 1
The book is set in winter, 1888, in the Mormon community of Junction in the canyonlands of Utah Territory. Junction is quite remote, and the small number of families that live there do so without all the strict rules of their faith. However, the two main characters - Deborah Tyler and Nels Anderson - as well as Deborah's husband and Nels' stepbrother, Samuel - do help polygamists trying to escape federal deputies. Adding tension to the story is that Samuel is overdue returning home from his travels to other Utah communities in his work as a wheelwright. Nels believes a rockslide on the mountainous road home has forced Samuel to take a longer route.
A polygamist comes to Deborah's door seeking aid, and Deborah feeds him and lets him sleep in her barn overnight, before sending him on to Nels, who will take him to a sanctuary. Later, despite the terrible weather, a man identifying himself as a marshal from Missouri - not a deputy from Utah - arrives at Deborah's home pursuing the man. Later, this marshal is seriously injured, and Deborah and Nels must make decisions that test their beliefs and futures. These tensions form the heart of the story.
Junction was a real place - later called Fruita (for all the orchards planted there by early settlers), and now part of Capitol Reef National Park. Weisgarber's visit there for a vacation inspired the book. She even made a research trip there in the winter, "so I could experience the climate and terrain as my characters do." Indeed, in reading her words, I could really feel the bitter cold as Deborah and Nels went about their daily chores, as well as the tasks made necessary by the visits of the two strangers.
I e-mailed Weisgarber and asked her what inspired her to make the character of Deborah a glovemaker. She responded, "Brigham Young encouraged LDS [Mormon] women to have occupations so they could support their families if their husbands died or were injured. I pondered this and decided that since Deborah’s father was a tanner, she had access to small scraps of hide. Gloves were essential not only because of the cold weather but to protect hands from blisters and cuts while driving horses, working with crops, gripping handles of plows, on and on. Hands also say much about us – our age, if we do labor, if our nails are dirty and ragged -- but gloves cover this information. For me, gloves were symbolic of the people in Junction not talking about the men who sought help. Gloves also represented all the secrets the church leaders kept about scandals." She did say that the book's title was not her choice - which I know is often the case in the publishing world.… (mais)