In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden (Wheeler Large Print Book Series (Cloth))

Rating:
Summary: Just OK
Review: As a history prof, I see lots of other historical novels that put this one to shame.

Rating:
Summary: Life before an epic catastrophe...
Review: At the end of the 19th Century, America is a nation of vast opportunity and evolving values, certainly obsessed with the vast fortunes amassed by the likes of Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon. Their private resort above the industrialized town of Johnstown, PA, is a jewel in the crown of the vast wealth of these Robber Barons. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Lodge features a man-made lake braced by an ill-repaired dam that ultimately imperils the town resting at its valley floor.

Using personal detail to humanize this disaster, Cambor introduces complex characters from Johnstown as well as one family who summers for a brief two weeks each year at South Fork, albeit a family not of the highest level of that very particular pecking order. In Johnstown we meet Julia of the broken spirit and her husband Frank, helpless against life's random cruelties, their proud son Daniel, and Grace, a runaway from an unbearably lonely life. Representing South Fork is the idealistic Nora, a child of fortune who reaches beyond her personal limitations before everything changes forever.

The novel actually ends with the flood, a vast surge of water from the ruptured dam, unleashing death and devastation that Memorial Day, May 30, 1889, obliterating Johnstown in minutes. I confess I wanted more detail about the actual flood and its physical consequences, who survived and who took responsibility. This is but a small complaint in a rich novel of American life on the cusp of a new century, a time when the American Dream still twinkles in the eye of the working man and when hard work promises a guarantee, security for a man's family after a life of labor. Detail is crafted into every page, days lived in hope and reason, pride and dignity. But, lest I wax too nostalgic, their time is cut short by nature's wrath and the enormous cost of privilege for the few. The novel opens with this quote, setting the tone for the quiet unfolding of catastrophe: "I have been watching you; you were there, unconcerned perhaps, but with the strange distraught air of someone forever expecting a great misfortune, in sunlight, in a beautiful garden" (Maurice Maeterlinck). Indeed, such disasters do create a sense of vigilance, of dreams discarded and the sad loss of innocence.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: I don't recall ever hearing much about the Johnstown Flood in 1889 and I am embarrassed to say so. However, I am glad that I had an opportunity to read this beautifully written book. And I was able to get a small glimpse of what the flood was about over 200 years ago.

Kathleen Cambor writes with prose on a select few characters whose lives are entertwined with the Club and Johnstown. She also writes with passion ~~ diviluging subtle sides to the rich men involved in this tragedy as well as men who protested against the building of the lake which ended up overflowing and killing almost 2,000 people during a Memorial Day rainstorm. There is Nora, the daughter of one of the lawyers who protested for the repairs on the dam ~~ whose life became entangled with Daniel Fallon, who lost his whole family in the flood. There is Andrew Mellon pining away for his dead financee; Andrew Carnegie entrapped by his mother's rule; Henry Clay Frick whose main concern is his comfort and prosperity. Cambor brings them all to life within this novel.

If you are a fan of historical fiction like I am ~~ I highly recommend reading this book. It will spark an interest in a tragedy that happened long ago and it was a tragedy that could have been prevented ~~ if men weren't so obstinate in denying that there was a problem. Even today, one cannot still imagine the depth of human lives lost ~~ it's too much to comprehend. But Cambor gave some of the victims voices in which they could share their lives, dreams, goals and aspirations. You can hear their voices haunting you as you read this book.

I think this is a must-read. It's not slow-paced like I feared ~~ it was very moving and the story sweeps you along with the voices and soon, you realize the tragedy is not just in the fact that the dam failed ~~ but in the fact that men simply don't care.

4-6-02

Rating:
Summary: Sepia-toned slice of life
Review: Late in the nineteenth century, an earthen dam dissolves under a torrential Memorial Day deluge; the resultant seventy-foot wave of water, indifferent as to what it would efface, destroys much of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Kathleen Cambor's brilliant "In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden" succeeds on numerous levels in providing physical, sociological and psyhcological understandings of this catastrophy cavalierly caused by the greed, arrogance and brutal indifference of America's new industrial titans, the very captains of industry revered in the heady capitalistic period following the Civil War. Written with uncommon precision, compassion and insight, the novel completely captures the reader's imagination, trasporting one to Johnstown, an industrial city that houses a steel factory that devours its workers, and an aristrocratic summer resort, home of Pittsburgh's wealthy seeking escape from the inferno-like conditions of that steel city. Ms. Cambor's characters are fully realized people; their conflicts express universal themes. The writing is unfailing in its descriptions of the setting; eloquent and soaring in places, the novel is evidence of a writer who truly works for her readers.

There can be no mistaking the author's anger at the appalling indifference and disdain the wealthy plutocrats express towards the working men and women of Johnstown. Safely ensconced in the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, eerily icy men such as Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon enjoy the trappings of summer idylls while maintaining an absolute indifference to the consequences of their ease. The wealthy who summer at the club, with few exceptions, are symbolically as corrupt and insubstantial as the dam which provides the artificial lake around which their affairs are planned. Cambor captures the evil of social invisbility persuasively; one of the hidden delights of "In Sunlight..." is its subtle class consciousness and bitter recognition that even when "natural" disasters strike, the poor invariably get hit harder.

As cogent as Ms. Cambor's sociological observations are, her psychological explorations are even more profound. In parallel stories, "In Sunlight..." examines the causes and consequences of dissolving marriages. Frank and Julia Fallon bring divergent backgrounds to their union, and the catastrophic stresses wrought by a diptheria outbreak (exquisitely detailed through the eyes of the distraught Julia) led to a slow, painful loss of love and connection. James and Evelyn Talbot contrast vividly. Repressed and lonely, aggressive in their pursuit of status, their marriage disintegrates as the husband discovers conscience. That their offspring, the proud, inquisitive and introspective Daniel and the quietly inisitent Nora become attracted to each other is one of the delights of the novel.

Delicate, compelling and lyrical, "In Sunlight..." firmly establishes Kathleen Cambor's reputation. This work is nothing less than astounding.

Rating:
Summary: Money begets tragedy, and gets away with it
Review: On Memorial Day in 1889, above the town of Johnstown, Pa, the South Fork dam burst nearly wiping out the town itself and many smaller towns downriver. Thousands were killed, livestock decimated and the township's buildings, homes and infrastructure were literally wiped off the face of the earth. Those that survived the initial assault were tested furthur as the cold night bore down on them. Shivering, injured, separated from loved ones, thirsty from the lack of potable water, left without food, desperate for medicine, bandages and clothes, they huddled together praying to make it until morning. While waters swirled around them, the structures they managed to seek refuge in threatened to collapse, casting off the survivors into black, raging waters. Even worse were those trapped inside structures and wedged downstream against the low bridge. Fires had ignited from the still burning stoves of homes knocked off their foundations. Massed in a huge jam, people burned to death and their screams could be heard throughout what was remaining of the town. This was a tragedy of immense proportions.

The real tragedy is that the wealthy men who were ultimately responsible for the maintainance of the dam failed to make the dam safe. The luxury of having a recreational and fishing lake were granted only to those rich enough to afford to vacation at the "club", and the area was strictly denied to any trespassers not registered with the fishing and hunting club. Little to no consideration was given to the THOUSANDS of people below the dam, nor their homes, their animals and their livlihoods. It is inconceivable that such callous disregard existed and that these "important" men got away with such transgressions!!

I guess I should not be surprised, as the foundation was set, and the same kind of disregard exists today as the corporate rich rob and plunder their companies at the expense of the working people.

Skillfully revealed, the author makes no mistake as to who is responsible. Delightfully entertaining, there are intriguing characters to lighten the impact of such a horrific event.

Rating:
Summary: A story of people, not disasters
Review: One reviewer above notes that a book about the Johnstown Flood has the flood as the focal point. Actually, that's not true. The book's title is subtly accurate and avoids naming the flood--which is smart because the book isn't really about the flood. This is a book about relationships: mothers and children, fathers and children, husbands and wives. It's also about the relationships between the social classes, the haves and have-nots. Finally, it's a novel about the relationship between an individual's dreams and the culture in which s/he lives. Looming in the background is the flood, casting a shadow over all of these relationships. This novel would succeed even without the flood. Definitely worth reading and certainly appropriate for book groups (and I'll be recommending it to my group). By the way, it's ok to consider me a Top 100 reviewer; I do!

Rating:
Summary: An elegant, beautifully crafted achievement.
Review: Since 1889, many novels have been written that have used the 1889 Johnstown Flood as a historical backdrop...the first being written just a few months after the disaster. Quite simply, this is one of the best.

I have been professionally studying the Johnstown Flood for almost a decade, and I am quite impressed with the research the author did, and the excellent effort to present the results of that research in a most compelling way.

She has created characters that you end up caring about a great deal. In fact, you'll likely be thinking about those characters long after you finish the book. She has almost perfectly captured the emotions and anguish that affected so many in the valley before and after the Flood. Quite importantly, you realize that there is indeed more to this story than most history books will tell you.

You will also be refreshed at the beautifully crafted writing...something that is so rare these days in the world of fiction.

Just remember, this is a piece of fiction. I encourage you to also read David McCullough's masterful 1968 book, 'The Johnstown Flood' for an excellent treatment of the Flood story.

Rating:
Summary: Tragedy
Review: The attention of many of the professionals of the state of Johnstown is being attracted to the Dam of Johnstown, near a very large lake. One of the professionals of the state, a lawyer, James Talbot, tells his business manager that the dam is very weak and should be closed down until it undergoes restructuring, for the safety of the people. However, his business manager disagrees with him, justifying himself with the point that, under the Dam are the town's most wealthy people, vacationing in the Clubhouse. He did not want to inconvenience those people due to their wealth and power. Thus, the Dam remained open, to James' disgust.
In Boston, this drew the attention of one young engineer, Mr. Morris, and he began professionally restructuring the dam, strengthening it. Yet, there was a danger and risk involved. If the water reached a certain level inside the dam, it would flood and burst, endangering the lives of the people of Johnstown. After about fifty years, in 1879, the Dam once again began failing, and fell, once again, into very poor condition. Many contractors bought the Dam, to the delight of the Dam's previous owners. All the previous owners wanted most was to get the Dam out of their hands, to be free from responsibility of it, they saw it as a bother. Therefore, when one man went to buy it off of another owner, that owner would be very happy to be free of it. Unfortunately, though contractors bought the Dam, none ever took the responsibility of maintaining it. Instead, they poured out all their energies and money into providing more comfort for the already wealthy environment of the Clubhouse, for the enjoyment of the people. That money could have been invested into repairing the dangerous Dam that was in very faulty condition. No one knew what dangers this Dam could have brought to the people below, monumental dangers.
In the times of the rains, all of Johnstown was flooding. The lake underneath the Dam was flooding as well. Therefore, there was not enough room for the water released from the Dam to fall into, and instead, it would flood into the rest of the town. This is exactly what happened. In 1889, the Dam reached its maximum height, and burst, throwing millions of tons of water into Johnstown, and washing the town away, covering it with water. Everything was lost, and this was the end of Johnstown, due to the flooding of the neglected Dam.
None of the main characters that were described in the novel had a specific role in the plot of the story. Instead, they were all submerged into equal roles in the plot. There was a love story surrounding the main event of the bursting of the Dam and flooding of Johnstown. And the novel described many of the relationships the people of Johnstown had with each other. They seemed to be all united into one family. Every one knew each other. I think this bond within the people contributed greatly to the tragedy of the event. For we felt like we were a part of that union, and to see it completely diminished by the flooding is very emotional. Especially regarding the story of the young love between Nora Talbot, a scientist, and daughter of the lawyer who first took part in the Dam, James Talbot, and Daniel Fallon, a son of one of the characters, a veteran, Frank Fallon.
This novel is more like the telling of a historical event. Although it involves tragedy and romance, the story is centered on the historical event of the flooding of Johnstown due to a neglected Dam, because Nora and Daniel's romance was just beginning to flourish after many years of shy and distant encounters, when their lives were unexpectedly ended due to this flooding. Yet, it is good, because it is the combination of a regular novel, because it includes romance, yet involves historical facts, such as this event of the Dam of Johnstown. Therefore, I could recommend it to anyone who likes reading novels, specifically to a more mature audience, since it also has educational aspects to it. It is a novel centered on a historical event. Yet, if one is easily depressed, reading this book may not be a good idea, for it is very tragic to be sentimentally bonded to a relationship in the book, and then see it all diminish so rapidly. Yet, this was to be expected since the beginning of the novel.