The Wake of Forgiveness...

A few days ago, I finished reading this book,

The Wake of Forgiveness,

by Bruce Machart.

Yet the words and images are with me still.

This is one of those books.

You know...

a book so beautifully written that you reread sentences

over and over and over.

Machart's first novel is set in and around Shiner, Texas,

in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

It is a story of struggle...

with the surroundings,

in the bonds of family,

and within one's self.

Want to read a review?

Go HERE or HERE.

Want to know more about this talented author?

Go HERE.

As I was reading and rereading this novel,

some sentences or phrases were so wonderfully descriptive

that I had to write them down and share them.

"When his partner came back in the door, he carried a smallish box that looked, for all its varnish and shine, like a coffin built for a rich man's tomcat."

"...and when the carriage clears a thick stand of mesquite trees with arthritic branches and thorns long enough to skewer a foot in a way only careless barefoot boys and Jesus might fully appreciate..."

"To be a Czech farmer in south Texas was to always be thirsty, and it was a well-known joke among the women of Lavaca County that if their men were made to choose between their pints of pilsner and their peckers, there'd be a premium on good sharp knives and coagulant salts at the general store in Dalton."

"You could rub a dry turd with a whole can of linseed oil, after all, and all you'd end up with was a mess of shiny shit."