YAY! I finally finished the review for Tinsie's Story - Both BENNY & PATTY are JPiC Members and I was excited about getting the novel! It came signed and exquisitely packaged - now the book is kinda beat up and has folded pages from me marking my most favorite passages LOL - Incidently - I've read it 3 times! It is a very nice historical fiction novel and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes that genre and even to those who don't particularly care about historical fiction. Truly I do believe this is a very IMPORTANT novel, for the lesson it teaches is wonderful.
At anyrate there is an excerpt posted
HERE - so enjoy.
ALSO to BENNY & PATTY - apologies for the procrastination! Looking forward to the next novel = Fantabulous job with Tinsies Story
Jacquii.
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Tinsie’s Story (A Quilt’s Reflections)
Benny & Patty Morton
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Tinsie’s Story, a collaborative effort by BENNY & PATTY MORTON, has really set the bar high for other novels in the genre historical fiction. This quaint story tells the story of the Morton family through several generations and the passing down of the family heirloom quilt. There are several novel ideas within this novel that are sure to please any fan of historical fiction.
Though the storyline focuses mainly on the Morton family persevering through rough times in the mountains of Kentucky, the family heirloom quilt has an enormous voice. It’s my understanding that BENNY MORTON wrote the “meat” of the story and PATTY MORTON writes as the quilt’s voice. To give voice to such an inanimate object as an heirloom quilt is a decidedly risky endeavor when writing historical fiction. Right from the prologue though you will recognize that PATTY MORTON has written a wonderfully diverse & caring and immensely true character:
Quote:
[pg. 7]
Cas was hot as fire. It was not the summer’s heat, but the heat of a sudden fever. He held me close to him, as if he were cold, and I could feel myself burning along with him.
Tinsie could barely see for her tears, her feet covering the length of the dirt road swiftly. Her cries were loud, but there was no one to hear them. She ran toward Mrs. Liddy’s store, clutching me as I held Cas firm. I knew long before she reached the store that little Cas had gone to live with the angels.
I held him first and I held him last.
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“If these walls could talk,” is the cliché that clearly comes to mind. Tinsie’s Story evocatively suggests that the walls indeed do have a voice and in this case, so does the family heirloom quilt. And the quilt as an integral part of the storyline just accentuates how very important and precious such family heirlooms are.
Almost midway through Tinsie’s Story is a poignant moment about Mammy – an older Black woman who’d earned her freedom by helping Tinsie set up house for one year. Mammy actually becomes part of the Morton family and is respected as such, but after the passing of many years Mammy falls ill with pneumonia:
Quote:
[pg. 62]
Mammy was buried in the family plot, against the wishes of many townspeople. It was Tildy who set three gentlemen straight who came to complain about Mammy being buried next to “white folk.”
“Mammy has always been family. She always will be,” she told the men as she opened the door for them to leave. “I’d advise you gentlemen to watch out while you are walking home. The Lord himself may come down and club your fool heads for being such bigots! I’d do it if I felt better…” No one ever mentioned Mammy’s resting place again - at least not aloud.
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This came at a really pivotal moment in the novel. The emotions had reached a high and it was so refreshing to read the passage about Mammy and how the family truly felt about such loyalty.
As a reader – I am really impressed by this freshman novel from BENNY & PATTY MORTON. There is some really excellent writing in this novel and a lot of it exquisitely poetic. But the message that one takes away after reading Tinsie’s Story is that the important things in life are often free, as well as the lesson that perseverance in the face of turmoil is indeed a beautiful thing.
4 stars – Novel ideas & excellent presentation.
Highly recommended!
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