A Land Remembered
by Patrick D. Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patrick D. SmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 1561641162
Number of pages: 403
Publisher: Pineapple Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781561641161
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of A Land Remembered
Book Review: Some Thoughts About "A Land Remembered"...
Summary: 5 Stars
I came to Florida from Tennessee in 1968, the very year that "A Land Remembered" ends. And yet upon reading it, I have been blessed enough to encounter enough of the "old folks," to see the vast lands stretching out west of Melbourne, the old-timey ways, and so forth, to know that it all rings utterly true, and that all of these things arose organically from all of those things that came before.
Written in rough-hewn elegance, with lots of dialogue, some genuinely funny places, and a big dose of "rural-ity" that is found, perhaps, in all southern rurals, this book touches deep places in those of us who have been here for over 40 years. Just as Sol MacIvey witnesses a drastic change to Florida during his life, I can say that even since 1968 I've seen dramatic changes--sandy dunes and sea walls transformed to upscale subdivisions, rough palmetto land transformed to apartments, miles of riding alongside the Atlantic (where you could just park the car alongside the empty highway and run down to the beach) now cluttered with houses and condos, leaving only a few designated places to access the beach.
If the MacIveys witnessed and wrote the first part of Florida's American history, then surely I have seen the second part...and my son will see the third part. Especially disheartening is the well-intentioned draining of the Everglades. While allowing us to grow vegetables and create subdivisions, it stole something precious.
As Zech MacIvey noted the animals freely sharing a waterhole, I hope that I am made to better realize that I am not just connected to the modern world, but to the wild world, as well. When I "hog" the water, that means other animals aren't getting it.
One look at Tampa, Florida, which used to be a place that married the wild and the modern pretty well, and we see that the unrelenting growth, the willingness to build, build, build anywhere and everywhere, has stolen that "Wild West Florida" atmosphere, even from some of the county's more remote areas.
My point in all this rambling is to say this: WE ARE STILL LOSING FLORIDA. When is enough enough? When will we have enough people here? When will we insist that no more new houses be built except on preexisting properties. What we have is nothing like that portrayed in "A Land Remembered," but it is still precious--all the more so because there is so little left of what makes Florida truly special.
If I have any criticism of the book, it is that I would have wanted it to end on a slightly more optimistic note, or perhaps with Sol MacIvey simply lost in his memories, and not with the dark foot of "progress" squashing the life out of the wild. But in any case, it ends well, makes it's point, and is an epic story of it all.
How do you know a book is good? When you don't want it to end. I didn't. And in a real manner of speaking, the story is not yet all written about what is to become of my beloved Florida. I hope that the latter chapters find us reclaiming some of our past.
Summary of A Land Remembered
In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of a swamp. But their most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. A Land Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel.Historical Books
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