Rusty Reeves
New Member
Caution - Words used are circa 1951 - may offend some
Tell me similar novels in this same genre. i.e. Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. - I'm sending queries to literary agents.
Synopsis – THE LIGHTNING TREE
Nathan, an 18-year old farm boy comes of age in 1951 on a rural Mississippi farm. A brief affair with a 26-year-old colored girl changes him in ways he cannot comprehend until his father's death. A derelict moon shiner saves the boy from self-destruction the night his father dies. They forge a friendship based on trust and void of racial tension. A racist uncle returns for the reading of the will and tries to exert his influence over the boy but ultimately comes to find out his nephew has a mind of his own. Their combative relationship escalates to a shouting match the day of the funeral. Words are exchanged during a shoving match as Nathan reminds his uncle that Whitebread McCune is also a man despite his skin color and is welcome at his father's wake. His uncle is beside himself with anger that the boy would choose a Nigra over his own kin.
Nathan eventually finds love with Emma, a young girl visiting from Memphis. Emma is pregnant but later loses the baby due to a miscarriage. Nathan reaches out to his uncle in an attempt to mend fences selling him 50 acres of the farm. It is a move he later regrets. Nathan and Emma marry and have a boy named Sonny.
Sadie returns from Atlanta pregnant with Nathan's baby and penniless. She names him Homer and leaves the child with her mother seeking employment in nearby Louisiana. Eight years pass.
An 8 year old mulatto child starts to stray from his grandmother's shack. Homer has one brown eye and one green one. He befriends a local storeowner named Big Momma Teal. She allows him take the store's dog for long runs in the country. The boy and the dog soon make friends with a local girl named Lilly. She wears a wooden prosthesis due to a birth defect that gave her only a partial right leg. She defends Homer against her two sorry brothers as they threaten him with harm.
Sonny meets Homer in the woods of Crow's Ridge and after a misunderstanding; helps pull the mulatto child from the river. Not knowing they are half-brothers, they bond together in friendship.
Two out-of-work Nigras disguised as Klan members plot to burn down Whitebread's shack and steal his moonshine money. The local police arrest one and the other is badly burned during the incident. Nathan comes to the aid of Whitebread offering him shelter at his home up on the ridge. Word of the Klan impersonation reaches Angus and he goes to the jail seeking answers. Percy, the surviving impersonator caves in and confesses numerous crimes to the Klan leader. He also inadvertently mentions Homer and his unique eyes. Angus has those same eyes. Angus goes in search of the truth and the boy. Nathan learns of the boy's existence purely by accident and now has to race to find the child before his monstrous uncle. Nathan is aided by Hollis and Whitebread in an attempt to find his son. A brutal showdown between the uncle and his nephew takes place at Bell Creek Swamp. After Angus' wife suddenly dies of heart failure, he mentally plunges over the edge. The mulatto child is discovered and the parent is finally revealed. Hollis is hanged from THE LIGHTNING TREE by Angus for helping Nathan. In a driving thunderstorm, Angus beats and shoots Nathan, tossing him into the swamp. From the shore, Whitebread shoots Angus but cannot locate Nathan or his body. Near sunrise, he goes to town to report the matter. Police drag the swamp and discover Angus' body. Hours later, they retrieve Nathan's body from a flatboat in the reeds. Badly beaten and shot in the hip he survives.
Sadie returns from New Orleans to collect Homer. She is educated, married and wealthy and wants a better life for her son. Homer agrees to be schooled in Louisiana but pleads for the summers with his newfound brother and father on Crow's Ridge. Many interesting secondary charters support the main cast. THE LIGHTNING TREE is a poignant and thoughtful book that shows the reader the humanity in both races—and the inhumanity in some.
Tell me similar novels in this same genre. i.e. Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. - I'm sending queries to literary agents.
Synopsis – THE LIGHTNING TREE
Nathan, an 18-year old farm boy comes of age in 1951 on a rural Mississippi farm. A brief affair with a 26-year-old colored girl changes him in ways he cannot comprehend until his father's death. A derelict moon shiner saves the boy from self-destruction the night his father dies. They forge a friendship based on trust and void of racial tension. A racist uncle returns for the reading of the will and tries to exert his influence over the boy but ultimately comes to find out his nephew has a mind of his own. Their combative relationship escalates to a shouting match the day of the funeral. Words are exchanged during a shoving match as Nathan reminds his uncle that Whitebread McCune is also a man despite his skin color and is welcome at his father's wake. His uncle is beside himself with anger that the boy would choose a Nigra over his own kin.
Nathan eventually finds love with Emma, a young girl visiting from Memphis. Emma is pregnant but later loses the baby due to a miscarriage. Nathan reaches out to his uncle in an attempt to mend fences selling him 50 acres of the farm. It is a move he later regrets. Nathan and Emma marry and have a boy named Sonny.
Sadie returns from Atlanta pregnant with Nathan's baby and penniless. She names him Homer and leaves the child with her mother seeking employment in nearby Louisiana. Eight years pass.
An 8 year old mulatto child starts to stray from his grandmother's shack. Homer has one brown eye and one green one. He befriends a local storeowner named Big Momma Teal. She allows him take the store's dog for long runs in the country. The boy and the dog soon make friends with a local girl named Lilly. She wears a wooden prosthesis due to a birth defect that gave her only a partial right leg. She defends Homer against her two sorry brothers as they threaten him with harm.
Sonny meets Homer in the woods of Crow's Ridge and after a misunderstanding; helps pull the mulatto child from the river. Not knowing they are half-brothers, they bond together in friendship.
Two out-of-work Nigras disguised as Klan members plot to burn down Whitebread's shack and steal his moonshine money. The local police arrest one and the other is badly burned during the incident. Nathan comes to the aid of Whitebread offering him shelter at his home up on the ridge. Word of the Klan impersonation reaches Angus and he goes to the jail seeking answers. Percy, the surviving impersonator caves in and confesses numerous crimes to the Klan leader. He also inadvertently mentions Homer and his unique eyes. Angus has those same eyes. Angus goes in search of the truth and the boy. Nathan learns of the boy's existence purely by accident and now has to race to find the child before his monstrous uncle. Nathan is aided by Hollis and Whitebread in an attempt to find his son. A brutal showdown between the uncle and his nephew takes place at Bell Creek Swamp. After Angus' wife suddenly dies of heart failure, he mentally plunges over the edge. The mulatto child is discovered and the parent is finally revealed. Hollis is hanged from THE LIGHTNING TREE by Angus for helping Nathan. In a driving thunderstorm, Angus beats and shoots Nathan, tossing him into the swamp. From the shore, Whitebread shoots Angus but cannot locate Nathan or his body. Near sunrise, he goes to town to report the matter. Police drag the swamp and discover Angus' body. Hours later, they retrieve Nathan's body from a flatboat in the reeds. Badly beaten and shot in the hip he survives.
Sadie returns from New Orleans to collect Homer. She is educated, married and wealthy and wants a better life for her son. Homer agrees to be schooled in Louisiana but pleads for the summers with his newfound brother and father on Crow's Ridge. Many interesting secondary charters support the main cast. THE LIGHTNING TREE is a poignant and thoughtful book that shows the reader the humanity in both races—and the inhumanity in some.