Historical novel ‘Oh! Susannah’ is heartfelt tribute | Book Talk
An opening note in Gary Beckley’s historical novel “Oh! Susannah” invites readers to “choose to ‘pass over the boring bits’ and just stick to the storyline.”
It’s not boring, and readers should not be daunted by the book’s length; more than a third is notes of Beckley’s exhaustive research of his third great-grandmother Susannah Beckley and her life in Carroll County in the mid-19th century.
Susannah knows little of anything beyond her immediate circumstances. She grows flax and weaves cloth to earn the family some extra money, as her husband John’s drinking depletes their resources. John is harsh and demanding, and Susannah is so intimidated by him that she dare not wake him when she goes into labor. Caught in the endless circle of pregnancy and nursing, she has six children by the time she is 30, and more to come.
Beckley hits his goal of describing the hardships of farm women around the time of the Civil War. Susannah works constantly for her unappreciative husband and their children. There is little sign of relief from the drudgery, but the family does manage to get to a circus and an agricultural fair, and Susannah gives John an ultimatum about being allowed to visit her family.
Susannah confides in her generous friend Druscilla that she wants a divorce, and the two women talk frankly about sex. Druscilla tells Susannah about John Brown and his activities, giving her specifics on nearby Underground Railroad stops.
Between chapters, Beckley includes essays about relevant topics like infant mortality, Christmas and the military draft. Susannah’s brothers write to her from their Army postings, describing the harsh life in training camp. Hospital conditions, the temperance movement and the Lincoln assassination are topics of discussion.
Some of the dialogue is expository and stilted, but the characters are well developed and this heartfelt tribute to this overburdened woman is worth reading. There are no boring bits.
“Oh, Susannah!” (703 pages, softcover) costs $36.95 from online retailers.
‘On Freedom Road’
“On Freedom Road: Bicycle Explorations and Reckonings on the Underground Railroad” by David Goodrich is less about bicycling and more about tracing the routes used by people escaping from enslavement, primarily Harriet Tubman, “quietest of our national heroes.”
The author says his English ancestor John Goodrich was the captain of a ship carrying enslaved people; David Goodrich says: “I’m neither the first nor the last to discover a monster in my family’s past,” and he sets out to discover the history of people who led and traveled on the Underground Railroad.
Goodrich was accompanied by two friends who cycled several routes of the Underground Railroad, visiting stations and historic sites like the grave of Frederick Douglass; others are only tangential, like the homes of blues musicians and Ulysses S. Grant’s campaigns.
From the Rankin House Ripley on the Ohio River, Goodrich heads to Oberlin. He doesn’t explain why he bypassed Hudson on his route from Oberlin to John Brown’s resting place in New York.
“On Freedom Road” (246 pages, hardcover) costs $27.95 from Pegasus. Goodrich lives in Maryland.
‘Ohio Ice Cream’
Who invented the ice cream cone? The matter is not settled, but there is fair evidence for Ohio’s Menches Brothers, whose descendants also claim the men also created the hamburger. Food writer Renee Casteel Cook talks about Ohio’s role in the ice cream business in “Ohio Ice Cream: A Scoop of History.”
The drumstick cone was invented in Texas, but it was Ohio State scientists who figured out how to coat the inside of the cone with chocolate (the chocolate had been on the outside before) to prevent sogginess. Ohio’s ice cream consumption jumped about 40% in the 1920s as Prohibition caused drinkers to look elsewhere for their indulgences.
Isaly’s, home of the Klondike Bar and the skyscraper ice cream cone, was founded in Mansfield, and the Good Humor company in Youngstown. Besides the big outfits like Graeter’s and Handel’s, Casteel Cook features small-town heritage shops, including Zanesville’s great Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl and Green Township’s Zip Dip. Soft-serve and custard aren’t excluded.
“Ohio Ice Cream” (143 pages, softcover) costs $21.99 from American Palate.
Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Historical novel ‘Oh! Susannah’ is heartfelt tribute | Book Talk
