Gracious Plenty - Softcover

Reynolds, Sheri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965841081 ISBN 13: 9780965841085

Publisher: Harmony Books, 1997

Synopsis

2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by Diane Ladd

In the lush and isolated cemetery of a small Southern town, Finch Nobles tends to the flowers and shrubs that surround the monuments of people who were not known to her while they lived but who in death have become her lifeline.

Badly burned in a household accident when she was just four, Finch grows into a courageous and feisty loner. She eschews the pity and stares of the people of her hometown and discovers that if she listens closely enough, she can hear the voices of those who have gone before telling their stories in a remarkable chorus of regrets, explanations, and insights. But the infant Marcus, son of the town's mayor, died before he learned to speak and can only wail away the hours. The roots of his anguish are revealed in a crescendo of lasting resonance that ties together the outcast Finch, her dead friends, and the living community outside the cemetery's gates.

Sheri Reynolds creates a vision of a world that is at once fantastic and palpably real. She teaches us that neither our capacity to suffer nor our ability to be healed ends with the grave--and that love is all we have. Beautifully read by three-time Academy Award-nominated actress Diane Ladd, A Gracious Plenty is a poetic and brilliantly inventive listening experience you will not soon forget.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Reynolds is a wonderful storyteller and master of pastoral Imagery."
--New York Times Book Review

"Mesmerizing . . . Reynolds's earthly insights make for a redemptive finale--but not before some satisfying storms of retribution."
--Entertainment Weekly

"A Gracious Plenty is a triumph of story, voice, and character. The afflicted and unforgettable Finch, whose longings inspire in equal measure love and awe and pity who seeks to understand the difference between the kind of suffering brought upon us and the kind we bring upon ourselves, defies mortality. Stunning and authentic . . . this is a beautiful book."
--Janet Peery, Author of The River Beyond

"--an imaginative tour de force--. Pushing beyond the boundaries of her earlier work, Ms. Reynolds has created a life-affirming novel that gathers the joy and pain of. living into a celebration of what it means to be
human."
--Richmond Times Dispatch

From the Inside Flap:

Badly burned in a household accident when she was a child, Finch Nobles grows into a courageous and feisty loner who eschews the pity of her hometown and discovers that she can hear the voices of the people buried in her father's cemetery. Finally, when she speaks to them, they answer, telling their stories in a remarkable chorus of regrets, expla-nations, and insights.  A Gracious Plenty is like an extraordinary amalgam of Steinbeck and Faulkner,  Spoon River Anthology and Our Town. It is a reading experience that you will not soon forget.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harmony Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0965841081
• ISBN 13: 9780965841085
• Binding: Paperback