All God's Children

by Thomas Eidson

Book Overview

All the poor blind seamstress needs is a little money and a few honest breaks in order to raise four sons on her own whole holding on to the family farm. What she doesn't count on is a petty thief... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451190815
• ISBN13: 9780451190819
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Eidson at His Best

Tom Eidson knows how to tell a story. The mixture of nineteenthcentury misfits brought together under the mothering wing of a blindQuaker widow will make the reader deal with his own prejudices as the characters rise above the struggles of frontier America. This is one of Eidson's best offerings to date. It passes St. Agnes' Stand in character depth and dwarfs the plot of The Last Ride. The only one of Eidson's works that surpasses All God's Children in literary worth is Hannah's Gift which was never published in the US. Eidson is one of the hidden gems among American Literature. May his tribe increase.

A completely satisfying read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this narrative. It may never win any awards for great literature, but the author has a fertile imagination and comes up with fascinating characters. The events in the story kept me riveted. It's funny, too. But the thing I enjoyed the most was finally reading a novel in which the main characters were truly heroic in their actions. The bad guys are really, really bad dudes (rape, murder, torture - for starters), and you want to stand up, whistle, and clap for the good guys.

Storytelling at its best

Mr Eidson turns in a third well written and thoroughly engaging story which will transport you in time to the hard life of the frontier. I found the book both interesting and profoundly moving in parts - and always entertaining as well as informative. Great literature: well, no. A great read - and one which does not resort to mega-block-buster fantasy - yes! Perhaps the strongest recommendation for the book is the fact that the reviews at this site are rarely less than 4 stars. Can we all be wrong?

Refreshing

This was an enjoyable little book I chanched upon at the supermarket. Yes, it's predictable, (as Kirkus Review on its high horse spouts), quaint and all that. Most books are of this kind. So what, that doesn't diminish the fact that it's still good. I enjoyed the little garden tips, the description of the grassy plains, and the part about burnt toast coffe is interesting. There's a coffee roasting store near where I live and when I drive by I'm struck by the scent of burnt toast. Really! Go figure. This is a peaceful story and that rooster is something else.

Destined to become a classic

Eidson has another winner with "All God's Children." The characters are developed with great care to show the courage, backbone, and even the humanness of the downtrodden on the late nineteenth century frontier. Unlike his previous two novels, this new effort does not involve surviving against the vast wilderness on a long trek across the desert. "All God's Children" pits a small group of people facing hardship and with little or no outside support. The way the author addresses racial, cultural, and religious prejudice without haranguing his readers is a definite plus for the reader. If you enjoyed St. Agnes' Stand, and The Last Ride, All God's Children is a must read. You will fall in love with the blind Quaker widow who binds the family, the town, and the misfits together with her stubborn resolve and her faith in God