Helpful Score: 2
From the day Maggie Drum turned 16, she knew what she wanted and how to get it, a husband. Gillon Forbes Cameron never had a chance once the beautiful Maggie Drum picked him out to be the father of her children and raise their family from doonies to uppies in their coal mining town of Pitmungo. This story grabs you on the first page and continues to hold you fast until the end. I loved it, the hardships the families endure in the coal mining town are heart breaking. I wish the author had finished the sequel, it would have been wonderful.
Brenda of BrendasBooks
Brenda of BrendasBooks
Helpful Score: 1
From Amazon.com:
The book haunts me. It has been weeded out of my library, and I can't find it anywhere.
It seems to be such a true thing. Gillan and Meggie, so far apart in nature, are equally compelling characters, and each of their children's personalities have been developed well.
Remembering my Great Uncle's accent, I was moved by even the language and syntax. In my childhood in Southern Illinois, we lived in a coal town. Classmate's fathers died in the mines sometimes, bazarr crafts involved shining chips of black coal. We burned it in the basement furnace for fuel, and I pulled many a glowing klinker from the flames to drop into a washtub until they cooled and were used to augment the sparse gravel in our driveway. So the story interested me greatly.
Since reading it, we have moved twice, and amidst the laughter of my family, I made sure we had a dark and handsome man as our "first-footer", for good luck. And I cannot read MacBeth without remembering the line where Gillan,reading it for the 3rd time underground, suddenly found Shakespeare to be beautiful....
I want this book again, to read again and to pass on to my boys.
The book haunts me. It has been weeded out of my library, and I can't find it anywhere.
It seems to be such a true thing. Gillan and Meggie, so far apart in nature, are equally compelling characters, and each of their children's personalities have been developed well.
Remembering my Great Uncle's accent, I was moved by even the language and syntax. In my childhood in Southern Illinois, we lived in a coal town. Classmate's fathers died in the mines sometimes, bazarr crafts involved shining chips of black coal. We burned it in the basement furnace for fuel, and I pulled many a glowing klinker from the flames to drop into a washtub until they cooled and were used to augment the sparse gravel in our driveway. So the story interested me greatly.
Since reading it, we have moved twice, and amidst the laughter of my family, I made sure we had a dark and handsome man as our "first-footer", for good luck. And I cannot read MacBeth without remembering the line where Gillan,reading it for the 3rd time underground, suddenly found Shakespeare to be beautiful....
I want this book again, to read again and to pass on to my boys.
Old fashioned novel about a family in Scotland. The young daughter of a coal miner travels to a resort town on the coast to look for a husband. She marries the man she selects, and they move to her family home and he becomes a coal miner. They have several children, and work to save enough money to move up the social ladder and have a better life. Good descriptions of life in a coal town and working in the mines.
I read this book because I'm fascinated with the history of Scotland and its people and I had heard of the author before. It's a compelling story about a hard life working in the mines in order to feed your family, and the dreams of something better. Of love lost and found again, family lost and rebuilt, of loyalty and pride. A good book, definately worth reading. Very well written.
Very interesting story of a family's struggle to leave Scotland for America.
