...by Rebecca Brown. Oddly, there was no publication date on the box, or any information about the publisher. Read while driving to Valdosta and back on Tuesday, meaning it was a boxed set of six Cds. Nearly perfect as far as the time it took to listen to the story while I was in the car for six hours on my one day road trip to south Georgia, leaving about seven in the morning, and returning in time to fall into bed, about 8:30 that same day.
I'd made a stop at the library on Monday afternoon aware of the necessity to keep my mind occupied on the road, without spending half the drive time twirling the dial looking for entertainment on the radio. Picked up three talking books, with the hope that at least one would be interesting enough to maintain my attention while I was driving. This was the first one I put in when I started out on my travels at 7 am on Tuesday morn., going to tend to the auntie.
The story is set in the depression era, between the two world wars, early 1930's in a small, probably fictitious town in Texas. Ella Barron runs a boarding house, inherited from her family, and runs it with the help of Margaret. Living with Ella is her son Solly, who has some obvious learning disabilities, though this descriptive term was unknown at that time. Solly is probably autistic, demonstrating what we now can identify as classic symptoms, not verbal, intense focus on items at hand, uncontrolled hand movements, not wanting to be touched. Solly is befriended by a new man who is introduced to Ella by the town physician, who hopes Ella will take Mr. Rainwater in. This new boarder takes an interest in Solly, as he has time to observe and begin to get to know this young boy.
Ella is understandably very protective of her son, and questions the strangers motives, doubting the idea that the child is capable of basic education, as well as fearful there will be attempts to institutionalize the boy. Mr. Rainwater seeks permission and begins to work with Solly, discovering his is in reality a savant, and more able than anyone realized. Ella is told by the doctor that Rainwater is dying, needs someone to care for him in his last days. As you might expect a relationship grows between these two people. living under the same roof, attempting to be circumspect as society expected in that age of proper dress and mannerism.
It is a sweet tale, with characters that begin to grow inside your heart and mind, described in such a way as they seem to be real. While reading I envisioned this story turning into a movie plot and began to choose the actors who might portray each individual as I followed the story. Recommended for light reading, and as you probably expect, a tear-jerker at the end.
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