The Light Here Kindled

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THE LIGHT tf1 HERE KINDLED Gladys Hasty Carroll In this wide-ranging new növel Gladys Hasty Carroll has made a trenchant and moving examination of today's America. Here are the young: the disillusioned newspaperman; the hippié in revolt against her family; the GI fighting a strange and frustrating war far from home. And the middle-aged: the New York City cop; the Midwestern clubwoman whose children seem alien to her; the psychologist who, for all his wisdom, is hard put to understand somé of the agonies that beset today's young. And here are the old: from the grandmother in the nursing home, no longer useful and lonely beyond imagination, to the self-sufficient Maine woman whose farm and work are all she needs. THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED features a large cast of characters; their stories touch and merge and intertwine. But by the end of the book all the stories are connected. And the book begins and ends in the same focal point: the old Maine farmhouse of Ellen Foye Dockham, who has... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE LIGHT tf1 HERE KINDLED Gladys Hasty Carroll In this wide-ranging new növel Gladys Hasty Carroll has made a trenchant and moving examination of today's America. Here are the young: the disillusioned newspaperman; the hippié in revolt against her family; the GI fighting a strange and frustrating war far from home. And the middle-aged: the New York City cop; the Midwestern clubwoman whose children seem alien to her; the psychologist who, for all his wisdom, is hard put to understand somé of the agonies that beset today's young. And here are the old: from the grandmother in the nursing home, no longer useful and lonely beyond imagination, to the self-sufficient Maine woman whose farm and work are all she needs. THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED features a large cast of characters; their stories touch and merge and intertwine. But by the end of the book all the stories are connected. And the book begins and ends in the same focal point: the old Maine farmhouse of Ellen Foye Dockham, who has lived and worked there for almost a century. The spirit that has informed Ellen's long and humble life and that fills the old house is the "light" of the title. The extraordinary impact of THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED arises from the author's complete - yet tender - comprehension of her characters: how they treat each other, and why, and what they think and fear and love. Theirs is the Continued on second flap
Continued from first flap contemporary context: the lonely crowd, isolation in conformity, the sameness of TV and plastic and motels and mechanization. The context of selfdeception in business, of cynicism in politics, of faddism in art, of self-aggrandizement in education. Against this background Mrs. Carroll's characters demonstrate the constant humán need of older but always essential values: honesty, independence, self-respect, idealism, the dignity of hard work and the stability that comes from the recognition and appreciation of small daily joys. But this book is more vitai than any mere comparison of the good old days with the present. The author is saying that new needs and changing goals cannot nullify or altér the permanent need of every individual to remain an individual and to develop in himself the strength of character with which to make his own way in his own world, whatever that world may be. In THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED the author shows how this still is and must always be possible if we are to have true and lasting progress, indeed if our civilization is to survive. Gladys Hasty Carroll thinks cogently, perceives acutely. She states her arguments in this book with inescapable force. But THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED is alsó alive with the qualities that have delighted readers of all Mrs. Carroll's books, over the years: the gentle humor, the love of beauty, the lucid awareness of what is most basic and most true in each humán spint. Jacket design by Carl Smith Vissza