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Title: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns ISBN: 0-385-31258-X Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 01 July, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.97 (168 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Review of Cold Sassy Tree
Comment: Cold Sassy Tree is rich with emotion, humor, and tenderness. Olive Ann Burns creates a well written script for the characters to follow. I thought Burns did a great job throughout the whole novel with Will Tweedy. As a teenager myself, I could relate to him. Will is a fourteen year old teenager growing up in a small town. Burns doesn't portray Tweedy as a sophisticated adult, but not terribly immature either. He has his problems throughout the novel and he likes to bend the rules a little bit. On a day that Will is suppose to be mourning for his grandmother, he sneaks off to go fishing. He nearly gets killed by an oncoming train, but safely survives by leaping between the tracks. Will arrives back at the house with everyone in Cold Sassy there to greet him. He becomes somewhat of a celebrity.
Burns also does a good job enacting Rucker Blakeslee. She presents him as a grandfather and the owner of a general store in Cold Sassy. He is a free spirited southerner who loathes the gossip. He acts according to his own ways instead of the towns. He announces his intentions to marry Miss Love after his prior wife has only been dead three weeks.
The book revolves around the marriage between Rucker Blakeslee, and Miss Love Simpson. Will learns this marriage is one of convenience. Miss Love tells Will she married Rucker to obtain the deed to his house. Rucker is much older than Miss Love and his daughters are a little nervous to hear what the town gossips are going to think about this marriage. A turning point in their marriage is when Rucker takes Miss Love on a trip to New York. When they arrive back in Cold Sassy, Rucker has developed a greater love for Miss Love than before. He asks her for a real marriage, but she has something to confess. She tells him that her father raped her when she was a child and fears no man would want her. Eventually, the two fall deeply in love.
At this point, the mood of Cold Sassy Tree begins to darken. Will's uncle, Camp, commits suicide Rucker desperately needs someone to replace Camp's job at the store. He asks Will's enemy, Hosie Roach. Shortly after Hosie begins to work at the store, he marries Will's long lost love, Lightfoot McLendon. There is much turmoil. Another dark moment is when the store is robbed and Rucker is beat up. He survives but later catches pneumonia. He dies shortly after he becomes ill.
Cold Sassy Tree was written in the first person point of view. This was a good choice by Burns because it gives the book a better feel. The reader can imagine being right there in Cold Sassy. Burns also does an excellent job writing the language throughout the book. She provides a clear feeling of understanding in the novel. She uses apostrophes such as "I don't know'm" and "I s'pose." You can just hear them talking. I think Cold Sassy Tree is a good piece of literature. The dialect and the way the book is presented, really sets the tone and enables the reader to think and draw a mental picture of the novel.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Second look at Cold Sassy Tree
Comment: Critically looking at Cold Sassy Tree, we can discern that the author had experience with the book's setting and the people of the time. The southern dialect included in the book gives the reader the sense of actually conversing with Grandpa Rucker and Will Tweedy. Although this method of writing is not exceptionally difficult to interpret, it may prove to be incomprehensible for a northern reader. Will Tweedy's first person point of view was an interesting decision, but perhaps it was not the wisest one. Will Tweedy embellishes stories and shows a biased view towards certain characters, such as Campbell and Loma. This would have been avoided by the selection of a third person narrator. Had Will not been the main voice of the story, the imperfections of Rucker Blakeslee may have been more prominent. Hosie Roach would most likely look like a more honorable person.
Other characters in addition to Will Tweedy hold unreasonable and untested opinions. The people of Cold Sassy detest the mill town residents because they are than those who live in Cold Sassy. In this and many other aspects the characters presented in the book are quite believable. The vivid portrayal of Rucker Blakeslee, a successful, penny pinching store owner in a small town of Georgia, and the dynamics and intensity in which the rest of the characters are written add to the story's readability.
The book has artistic merit because it provokes the thought of internal desires and their value compared to the feelings of others. Rucker has a desire for the young Miss Love, but when he acts on his desire; his family is shamed by the scandal. The book's plot is a product of much time, thought, and creativity. It is intriguing and captivating. Even portions of the book focused on the everyday lives of the characters prove to be enjoyable reading. The story of growing up in a small southern town draws in the reader. It's formulated where it is impossible to stop reading. Imagining people still reading Cold Sassy Tree a century from now is not difficult.
Rating: 4
Summary: School Literature Review
Comment: Olive Ann Burns did a great job with Cold Sassy Tree and its southern style; although, it did have its substandard side. She put in a very southern dialect, which could bring about a good or bad situation. In Cold Sassy, Georgia, most everyone went by a strict moral code. Gossip was a strong factor, same with the world today! Stories and other events of every sort got around Cold Sassy very fast. So, when word got around about Rucker and Love Simpson getting engaged, the town began to judge Rucker and his "Yankee" fiance. Making matters worse, Rucker's wife, Mattie Lou, had just recently died 3 weeks prior to this affair. Will Tweedy, Rucker's 14-year- old grandson, is the only one who sees through Love's witty appearance.
Will is also the narrator of Cold Sassy Tree. You get to view most of the story's events through his perspective. This also brings back the idea of the good versus bad in Burns' writing. In one reader's point of view, this is good because the reader is able to put his/herself into Will's shoes and "walk around for a while." Another reader would disagree and say that you should get all different perspectives, especially with an eventful book as Cold Sassy.
The plot of this book is very controversial. Is it the maturation of a young boy, the obnoxious judgments humans can perceive of other people, or the wants and needs of adults when they are lonely and in need of love? This question most likely came to your mind after you read this book, and depending on what way you look at it, any of these topics could be correct! So it's up to you! Read this book and ask yourself these questions: (1) Was it right or wrong for Rucker to find a new love just 3 weeks after his wife's death? (2)Was it just or unjust the way the townspeople of Cold Sassy, Georgia judged Love Simpson just because she was a "Yankee?" and (3) What theme do you think best describes the plot of Cold Sassy Tree? Cold Sassy Tree was a fantastic book and I recommend it to all ages of readers. Cold Sassy Tree is the type of book you do not want to put down, it keeps ur mind wondering!
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Title: Leaving Cold Sassy: The Unfinished Sequel to Cold Sassy by Olive Ann Burns ISBN: 0385312202 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: March, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title:Cold Sassy Tree ASIN: 630158919X Publisher: Warner Studios Pub. Date: 15 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $14.95 |
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Title: The Bean Trees : A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver ISBN: 0061097314 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith ISBN: 006092988X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: A Gathering of Old Men (Vintage Contemporaries) by Ernest J. Gaines ISBN: 0679738908 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: July, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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