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Cargando... Places of Gracepor David H. Elias
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In a sheltered valley paradise in southern Manitoba, a community of Mennonites have tried to insulate themselves from the rest of the world, following the strictest traditions of culture and religion. But they cannot entirely escape the pressures of the outside world. It's the 1950's and there are polio epidemics, the Korean war, and the massive installation of nuclear warheads just across the border in the US. In Places of Grace, David Elias lets us see into the heart of this community, through the eyes of his young central characters, Stephen and Trudy Zacharias. It's an intimate, compassionate, and often humorous vision. The collection is rooted in one aspect of Mennonite culture in Canada, the first wave of immigrants who arrived in the 19th Century. But its characters and its themes are universal; they speak of the desperate rules of adulthood and the hopeful questioning heart of the child in all of us. "In Places of Grace, Elias continues what he started (in his first book), capturing a time and a place with a simplicity of language that allows his characters to come through clearly and memorably."-Armin Wiebe No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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The time is the 1950s, the setting is a rural valley in Manitoba and the people in the stories are farmers. Other than the location of the valley, which is the Pembina Valley in southern Manitoba, this book could be my own story. Actually, that's not true because the people in the valley are all Mennonites which is a far more restrictive religion than the United Church in which I grew up. That religion colours the life of Stephen and Trudy Zacharias as they grow up. Work is never done on Sundays and married couples use Sunday afternoons for their "maddach schlope", an afternoon nap which may perhaps involve using their bed for more than napping. The children, unsupervised, often get up to mischief on Sunday afternoons (and other days of the week). When Stephen goes across the US border to pick potatoes he doesn't work on Sundays but his religion would probably frown on his activity that day. He hears black gospel music coming from the supervisor's room and he is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Back home he teaches one of the songs to his best friend and they try to teach it to their Sunday School class, causing the preacher to punish them by strapping. Physical punishment was often meted out by parents and schoolteachers and others in authority. One school teacher seemed to get a sadistic pleasure out of bringing a wooden ruler down on the hands of transgressors. But despite the strictness and the hard work there are moments of beauty and places of grace for the inhabitants of the valley. David Elias has done a remarkable job of showing these as well as the harsher realities. ( )