Lamb in His Bosom

Alice Walker and Margaret Mitchell were not the only Georgians to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. They were not even one of the first. The first Georgian to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature was Caroline Miller in the year 1934 for her first novel, Lamb in His Bosom. And only posthumously was she entered into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2007. I must take a moment and express my irritation that she was inducted after Jimmy Carter (2006). Nothing personal against Jimmy Carter and his works of fiction, but you would think that as the Pulitzer Prize the is greatest Literary award in existence, it would warrant induction first. Almost like a Speedy Pass at Six Flags. Miller was even the reason that Mitchell was indirectly responsible for Mitchell winning the award, and you would think, as a charter member, she would show her appreciation and admiration to a fellow writer from Georgia. But what do I know. Only upon beginning this journey did I even know that Caroline Miller was a writer from Georgia and winner of such a prestigious award.

I digress...

I must say out of all of the works I have read so far, this one has impacted me the most. Perhaps it is the fact that it takes place in a familiar region of Georgia. Perhaps it is because I come from a long line of farmers. Perhaps it is because I am a new mom and now know from where the main characters are coming. Whatever the reason, I feel especially connected to the characters. My heart rejoiced for them, my heart broke for them. I have always had the tendency to become too attached to the characters in the books that I read, even the bad ones with hardly a notable character within its pages.Growing up in the country, I had few friends to play with, so I found them wherever I could, usually within the dogeared pages of books.

But again, I digress...

The book jacket declares this as "The saga of a courageous young woman in the Old South," but it was so much more than that. Yes, Cean was the main character, but I found it to be more about the saga of a courageous family living in the Old South. When we talk about the Old South, most of us think of Plantation Farmers, cotton and slaves. We forget that not everyone lived with such "luxury" in the Old South. There were the poor country folk that worked the land with the strength of their backs and the sweat of their brows. That is the family we follow through a lifetime of joys and, more often than not, sorrows.

I have always had the misconception that I was a strong woman. I will haul limbs, clear away brush, and brandish a screwdriver just as good as the man I married. I will can vegetables and make jams and jellies ( a dying art, so I am told). But this book, Lamb in His Bosom, showed me how weak I really am. In one night, Cean gives birth to her third child by herself and then finds need to shoot a panther that has invaded her home, aiming to kill her two children and newborn asleep in the bed. After the birth of my one and only, I could barely walk across the room by myself; I don't think I would fair well if asked to kill an unwelcome predator.

Cean birthed around 15 children in her lifetime and lost several of them including her husband to accidents, sickness, childbirth or war. Lonzo, her husband, couldn't understand the want to go to war for slavery. Why should he fight a war for something he was too poor to have? His son, however, was ready to fight when the call came, only to have somewhere important to go.

I think the most difficult concept for me was outliving your children. That is not the natural order of things, but with the lack of antibiotics, hospitals, and antiseptics, it was a common occurrence. Even today, people can't afford the medicines that would easily mend their sick loved ones, or must choose between food and shelter. I take that for granted. How fortunate I am. It's something I think we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

"Seen would throw that promise back into God's eternal face in the weak song of her lips. He had promised, and repromised to bear her like a lamb in His bosom, never, no, never, no, never to forsake her."

Up next, Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, winner in 1948.

Happy reading...