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So Far Back
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So Far Back
Author: Pam Durban

Book Information
Publisher: Picador USA
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Rating:
3

ISBN-13: 9780312268695 - ISBN-10: 0312268696
Publication Date: 10/6/2000
Pages: 259


Other Versions of this Book: Paperback

Book Description:
Louisa Hilliard is the last descendent of one of Charleston's oldest and most prominent families. A sixty-year-old spinster, she has spent her life doing good works, volunteering, and, more recently, tending to the needs of her aging mother. But when a hurricane floods the city, Louisa's life is turned upside down. Trying to put her house back in order, she comes upon the worn diary of one of her ancestors. The diary describes Charleston in the 1830s, a vibrant port city of whites and blacks, and recounts the story of Diana, a 19th-century slave who worked for the Hilliards, but sought to improve her life and her means, and was severely punished.

As Louisa reads the diary and Diana's fate is gradually revealed, she begins to sense that a ghostly presence is roaming through her house-objects are missing, moved, dented, and seemingly handled. Louisa attempts to appease this presence and set right age-old wrongs, and in the process discovers how her own life is entangled in her family's haunted history. So Far Back is a nuanced and resonant portrait of two families-one white, one black- bound by an enduring past and an uneasy present.


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Top Member Book Reviews

Libby S. (Libratsie) wrote on 6/22/2006...

1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Southern literature, not necessarily in its finest but very close. The story of a white family once slave owners and a black family once their slaves. Although that is something of a cliche' these days, this story is isn't like any others of the sort I've read. Like the oral Southern repeating of a family story, it tends to take a while to get to the point, but each word is necessary and the rhythm is beautiful. I did get confused at times as to which character was speaking (probably my own fault). Louisa Hilliard's mother's death and a hurricane's wrath begins her journey to the truth of a wonderful baby's gown said to have been made by an anscestor. I really enjoyed all the references to needlework since I do it myself.


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