On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon CS
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gibbons, Kaye, PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio, Like America in the mid-nineteenth century, Emma Garnet Tate is a woman at war with herself. Born to privilege on a James River plantation, she grows up increasingly aware that her family's prosperity is inextricably linked to the institution ong>ofong> slavery. As she tells her story in , she is still prey to her childhood, to the memories ong>ofong> a life that was made bearable in the main by the indomitable family servant Clarice. She secedes from the control ong>ofong> her overbearing father to marry Quincy Lowell, a member ong>ofong> the distinguished Boston family. Living in Raleigh on the eve ong>ofong> the Civil War, Emma Garnet and Quincy, with Clarice's constant help, create the ideal happy home. When war destroys the rhythm ong>ofong> their days, Emma Garnet works alongside Quincy, an accomplished surgeon. As she assists him in the treatment ong>ofong> wounded soldiers, she comes to see the war as a "conflict perpetrated by rich men and fought by poor boys against hungry women and babies." After Appomattox, Emma Garnet sets out to take the exhausted Quincy home to Boston, where she begins the journey ong>ofong> her own reconstruction. As in her five previous novels, Kaye Gibbons demonstrates her subtle mastery ong>ofong> detail and her unmistakable voice. Told in graceful cadences, "On the Occasion ong>ofong> My Last Afternoon"is a shimmering meditation on the divisions ong>ofong> the human heart.