Welcome to Litsy!

Following the recent death of this author I made a purchase request to the library for the audiobook hoping it would be my catalyst to read this book long on my TBR. It was! This is a long winded book (could easily edit out 2-300 pages) of the imagined musings of the long winded surviving 3rd son of John Brown. Owen contemplates his life as well as that of, might I add, his long-winded father. I appreciate this book and the writing style ↓

Sad to see he had passed.I have read a couple of his books , but not the tagged one often considered his masterpiece. https://apnews.com/article/russell-banks-dead-cloudsplitter-affliction-sweet-her...

Russell Banks passed away. Cloudsplitter has been sitting on my TBR shelf for years. I'll try to get to it this year, along with the Good Lord Bird, by James McBride. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/books/russell-banks-dead.html

Wonderful book, that I highly recommend

Day 7 - #Clouds #BloomingBibliophiles
#Cloudsplitter #RussellBanks

I enjoyed Cloudsplitter very much. Russell Banks made the key people of the antislavery movement come to life. The book is narrated by John Brown's son, Owen, and through him we learn the details of his father's passion to free the slaves and help them escape to Canada and the events leading up to his capture at Harper's Ferry and his hanging.

Day 11 - #cloud #springintoreading

I enjoyed Cloudsplitter. Banks made the key people of the antislavery movement come to life. Narrated by John Brown's son, Owen, we learn the details of his father's passion to free the slaves and his capture at Harper's Ferry and his hanging. Informative about 19th century American life. Recommend this book to those who are interested in the antislavery movement. John Brown changed the course of history.

This book was not at all whatI expected. My ancestors are from Kansas where the massacre occurred and I've heard all the stories and visited the site and museum many times. This book, although a fictionalized version, gave me a new perspective of John Brown the man and how he came to do the things he did.

"For even if we cannot know the ultimate consequences of our actions or inactions, we must nonetheless behave as if they do have ultimate consequences. No little thing in our lives is without meaning; never mind that we can never know it ourselves."

"If you yourself are not a victim, you cannot claim to see the world as the victim does."

"When you walk the very ground of the history you're investigating, when you sniff the air, check the light, glance sideways and over your shoulder, when you pick up a handful of dirt and crumble it between your fingers, you can learn things that no history book can ever teach."

So we donated six boxes of books to The Book Thing of Baltimore today, and came home with two boxes. The Book Thing is a place where all the books are entirely free. Yes, free. Take as many as you like. This is #bookhaul photo 1 of 4!

A gorgeous sky greets us as we close the library this evening ☺️, aahhh. Is it just me or does that cloud formation look like something? 😎 #LitsyLovesLibraries

My haul from the final day of our local Rotary book sale (yesterday). $20 for a reusable shopping bag filled with books since it was the last day. The husband got a stack too.

I've searched and searched, but can't find a trace of this cover version. So here it is.
Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks, Vintage/Random House, paperback first edition, United Kingdom, 1999.
See if this now turns up in on-line searches.

#cloudsplitter #russellbanks #vintage #randomhouse #uscivilwar #johnbrown #harpersferry #1859

I loved this book enough to buy it digitally and in paper, and to listen to the audio. Beautiful language for complicated characters--particularly Owen brown, son of John Brown, last of the terrorist abolitionists, in this telling, to survive the raid on Harper's Ferry that leads to America's civil war. It's not an easy read but well worth it

Times of heroism...are generally times of terror.