No Reck'Ning Made - Softcover

Greenberg, Joanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805038493 ISBN 13: 9780805038491

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1995

Synopsis

Raised in the poverty-stricken world of rural Colorado, Clara Coleman finds salvation in education, striving to become a respected teacher, principal, wife, and mother who could offer hope to other children whose background matches her own. 12,500 first printing.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Greenberg is at her storytelling, hortatory best when involving her characters in isolating circumstances-- ``abnormalities'' of birth (the plight of the blind and deaf in the moving Of Such Small Differences, 1988) or, as now, of poverty and also an ideological stance that goes against the tide. Here, a dedicated elementary-school teacher in a Colorado mountain town- -after nearly five decades of work--is subject to humiliation and defeat. Clara Coleman, born a poor ``Gulch'' child in an old mining town, of a cruel and doomed mother, works hard to get an education, then finds her dream of teaching answered when, after WW II, she's appointed to a rural one-room school in the mountain town of Gold Flume. Clara's fiery enthusiasm for learning reaches into the class-ridden community, the parents, and children--``Town,'' ``Ranch,'' and the poor ``Gulch'' children with their sores and bruises, their own argot, their stunted lives. Then the town grows; Clara becomes the principal of a new, large school while Gold Flume becomes a tourist ski area. Wealthier, demanding outsiders move in, and the climate of public education changes: Parents want soccer, not poetry, and insist on computer training for fourth-graders who ``can't sing the national anthem [and don't] know where Europe is.'' Moreover, Clara's young teachers (who never memorized the Preamble to the Constitution or anything else) declare ``there's not much interest in outer space'' when Clara suggests a program to mark a total eclipse. Clara married a good man (who had his own awful childhood); they have three children; and good friends (and enemies) are made. But the battle over public education finally takes center stage in Clara's public defeat and personal triumph. The villains are heavy, heavy, but, still: an accessible tale offering plenty of ammo for the many presently grumbling about the state of our schools. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

A shrewd observer of human nature and of societal differences, Greenberg has written 10 novels and four short fiction collections that present quiet, sensitive and poignant stories of individual lives and the cultural climates in which they unfold. In this novel, Clara Coleman surmounts her miserable beginnings in an isolated, dying Colorado mountain community by way of intellectual effort and a courageous spirit. Clara escapes her abusive father and works in the defense industry during WW II to finance her way through college. Newly married, she becomes principal-teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Gold Flume, another mining town fallen into desperate days. A gifted educator, Clara inspires the poor children she teaches and helps some of them to transcend their squalid backgrounds. The rebirth of Gold Flume through industry and ski development brings with it satisfactions and more responsibilities--a larger school, a staff of teachers--and also heartache, as supercilious yuppie newcomers look down on the area's natives and make unreasonable demands of the educational system and of Clara. Finally, falsely accused of sexual abuse by vindictive parents, Clara stands to lose her lifetime's work and her good reputation. In conveying the distinct social orders and the harsh codes of values that divide the town, gulch and ranching communities, Greenberg creates a clear demographic picture to complement her map of the heart. Her unflinching eye and sense of irony prevent a facile or sentimental solution to Clara's and the community's problems. The lure of a good story, artfully told, is augmented here by the empathy and wisdom of the storyteller.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0805038493
• ISBN 13: 9780805038491
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296