God's Little Acre
by Erskine Caldwell
I really enjoyed the 1958 film God’s Little Acre, and when I got my hands on Erskine Caldwell’s original novel, I knew it would be significantly darker than the movie. After all, this is the fellow who wrote Tobacco Road! He certainly has the market cornered on writing about ignorant, poverty-stricken folks in the Deep South. Reading this book (or his other works) paints such a vivid picture, it’s as if you’re eavesdropping on people from that time and place, rather than just reading someone’s fictional account of them. If you do pick up this book, keep in mind the time it was written and the people that are being written about; there’s a healthy dose of racism that you’re just going to have to gloss over as you read the story.
While I was prepared for the bleak plot and characters who are unable to crawl out of their own messes, I wasn’t prepared for the intense sexual content. The patriarch of the family continually brags to everyone about the sensational figure of his daughter-in-law; she claims to be uncomfortable, but later it’s revealed that she really wants to be treated like that. One of the characters lusts after both his sisters-in-law, and when he gets any opportunity to molest them, he loses all semblance of self-control. He actually tears off the clothes of one of his sisters-in-law right in front of his wife! Infidelity is treated very differently in this book. The men are written to be pleasure-seeking fiends who aren’t responsible for their lust. The women band together, understanding that their bodies drive men crazy and that’s just the way life is.
God’s Little Acre isn’t for everyone. In the movie, it’s a charming story of a man who’s spent his life digging holes all over his farm searching for gold. In the book, it’s a hopeless account of a family with incestual and financial problems that won’t ever get solved. Read at your own risk. I appreciated the time capsule, but I did find the sex scenes upsetting.
While I was prepared for the bleak plot and characters who are unable to crawl out of their own messes, I wasn’t prepared for the intense sexual content. The patriarch of the family continually brags to everyone about the sensational figure of his daughter-in-law; she claims to be uncomfortable, but later it’s revealed that she really wants to be treated like that. One of the characters lusts after both his sisters-in-law, and when he gets any opportunity to molest them, he loses all semblance of self-control. He actually tears off the clothes of one of his sisters-in-law right in front of his wife! Infidelity is treated very differently in this book. The men are written to be pleasure-seeking fiends who aren’t responsible for their lust. The women band together, understanding that their bodies drive men crazy and that’s just the way life is.
God’s Little Acre isn’t for everyone. In the movie, it’s a charming story of a man who’s spent his life digging holes all over his farm searching for gold. In the book, it’s a hopeless account of a family with incestual and financial problems that won’t ever get solved. Read at your own risk. I appreciated the time capsule, but I did find the sex scenes upsetting.