Christy

Christy is a historical, inspirational novel that is, in part, biographical, based on the experiences of author Catherine Marshall’s mother, who taught school in a mountain community in the Appalachians in the early 20th century. Mrs. Marshall was quoted as saying that the book is roughly 75% fact, but there were at least two characters and certain situations that were fictionalized. The story follows our title character nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston through approximately one year of her life. She’s a well-educated, city girl from a fairly well-off family in Asheville, North Carolina. After hearing a doctor, who is the founder of a missions organization, speak at her church about the desperate need for a teacher in the show more Appalachian region of eastern Tennessee where his mission is starting a new school, Christy is inspired to volunteer. At first, her parents are reluctant to let her go, but her persistence wins the day, and she’s soon off to the rural mountain community of Cutter Gap. During her first few weeks at the mission, she feels out of her element while also experiencing culture shock. She’s expected to educate over sixty students of all ages and ability levels in a single-room schoolhouse that doubles as a church building on Sundays. To make things even more difficult, she finds herself butting up against strange customs and superstitions that are hard for her to understand. However, the abject poverty of her students and their families tug at her heartstrings, inspiring her to seek outside help from wealthy donors, which doesn’t always go quite as planned. She’s also faced with the reality of blockaders who are running moonshine, secretly using her school and some of the older children in their operation, long-standing mountain feuds that sometimes end in murder, and an epidemic of typhoid fever. Through it all, Christy’s mentor, Miss Alice Henderson, a Quaker who runs the mission, encourages her to look for the beauty in both the mountains and the people who live there. As she struggles with her faith and builds friendships with some of the mountain women, Christy is also romantically drawn to both the minister, David Grantland, and the doctor, Neil McNeill, and trying to discern which man might be the best for her, if either.

Christy, the first-person narrator of the story, is both an idealist and an adventurer with a heart for helping people. She’s just finished her first semester of college when she finds herself instantly inspired by the message of Dr. Ferrand, when he comes to speak at her church and doesn’t hesitate to volunteer her services to teach the children of Cutter Gap. However, she didn’t entirely know what she was in for when she accepted the position. She travels by rail to the nearest train station, which is still seven miles away from Cutter Gap, and it has just snowed a great deal. When no one meets her at the station like she expected, she puts her ingenuity and determination to use, convincing the mailman to lead her to the community and walking those miles through the cold and snow. Her first experience there is witnessing the doctor performing an operation on a man who’s fallen into a coma after being hit on the head by a falling tree branch. She immediately feels out of her depth in so many ways, but she, once again, proves tenacious in her mission to do her best to help both her students and their families. Her work isn’t without its frustrations, though, as she finds herself up against the mountain people’s stubbornness and ignorance. But she still manages to find the beauty and exceptionalism around her. She also reaches out to companies seeking donations and is surprised by their generosity, but sometimes it causes a bit of trouble and friction. Later, she learns how to refine her message and take it directly to wealthy potential donors, which proves even more helpful. Ultimately Christy develops a love, compassion and enthusiasm for her newfound family, and also finds herself romantically confused by her feelings for both David and Neil. I really appreciated Christy for her unflagging determination to help others even when she’s running herself into the ground and risking her life, trying to nurse typhoid patients. She has so many great qualities that are needed in any era, but at the same time, she isn’t perfect and can sometimes be a little headstrong. All this in my estimation, though, made her a very relatable and realistic character.

There are many supporting characters who help Christy as she acclimates to her new job. Miss Alice runs the mission at Cutter Gap, as well as having started schools in two other nearby communities, which she travels between on a regular basis. She’s a Quaker who believes the Light lives in everyone and is very kind and compassionate toward all the people she meets. She becomes Christy’s mentor, guiding her spiritually, as well as in her work. David is a young minister fresh out of seminary who was assigned to the mission. He was there before Christy but is almost as out of his element as she is. Because he, too, is an outsider from the city, the people are a little distrustful of him at times. Much like Christy, he struggles with many of the mountain people’s traditions, particularly running moonshine, which causes all sorts of trouble in the community. He also grapples with whether or not he really was meant to become a minister, especially when he has trouble reaching his parishioners. Neil is a widower who lost his wife and the baby she birthed prematurely, which has in part left him agnostic. He is himself a mountain man, born and raised in the area. However, he left to attend medical school, then chose to return to help his people. Because he grew up in Cutter Gap, he understands and has a degree of compassion for their ways that Christy and David don’t. He ends up educating them in more ways than one. All of these characters, along with a plethora of mountain people, both adults and children, create a lively cast.

This was actually my second reading of Christy. However, the first was probably at least thirty or more years ago, so I barely remembered anything about it beyond enjoying it. Over the years since, my faith views have altered significantly, so I wasn’t sure if I would still like it as well. I also tend to have a complicated relationship with inspirational literature, which I oftentimes feel is too pithy, lacking in depth, and depicting a version of faith that seems naive at best or arrogant in its certainties at worst. I’m happy to report, though, that this book stood the test of time and my altering beliefs. All the characters are complex and nuanced. The “good” characters don’t always do the right thing but they learn from their mistakes, while the “bad” characters aren’t all bad, sometimes showing that they can choose the right path. I related to Christy’s and David’s frustrations with many of the mountain people’s superstitions and ignorance, but at the same time, I could also understand Miss Alice’s and Neil’s views, which tended to give them some leeway. There were characters that I maybe didn’t particularly like, but I appreciated that the book never truly demonized anyone. I also liked that the story showed a woman, Miss Alice, as a ministry leader. She basically runs multiple missions and is even mentioned to have preached in the community before David came.

Rather than taking a Pollyanna approach to its faith message, I found a great deal of profundity and sensitivity in it. All of the characters wrestle with their beliefs, whether in the past or the present, which in my experience is the way it usually is in real life. No one chides or browbeats anyone else for their questions, uncertainties, or lack of belief. The author doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of life either. While not graphic in any way, she grapples with topics not often seen in inspirational stories, such as feuding, murder, grooming and sexual assault, death, and poverty. Because of these things the story showed the kind of depth and dimension that I often find lacking in the genre. All of these elements put together is why I still enjoyed Christy after so many years and so many changes in my own life and faith. It was a great story that I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who likes historical novels centering around a Christian faith message. I’m very much looking forward to revisiting the television series that was based on it as well. show less

This warm and heartfelt novel is Catherine Marshall's loving tribute to her mother Lenora Woods' journey to Cutter Gap, in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, to teach its children shortly after the turn of the century. The effect it had on her mother's life and faith is captured with warmth and beauty in this fine audio book. It is made all the more special because it is read by Kellie Martin, who starred in the two-hour television adaptation, and the series that followed.

It is rare when an audio book is this good. Though nothing is ever a substitute for reading the book, having both read this fine novel in the traditional manner, and listened to this audio reading, I can honestly say that if you loved the television series, you will show more love this. Just as she did in the series, Kellie Martin perfectly captures the great beauty of these mountains and the poverty of its people. Occasional and brief interludes of banjo music frame this heartwarming — and sometimes heartbreaking — thinly disguised biography of a young and exuberant 19 year old girl who falls in love with the children of Cutter gap.

This seems more like a telling of a story than a reading, and that in itself separates it from many other audio books. Martin captures the joy and humor of Christy's time in Cutter Gap, as well as the conflict and resentment as the school and church butted heads over moonshine. She captures the romance that begins to blossom and her divided heart, as her inner emotions are torn between two very different men.

This may be warm family entertainment but it has substance as well. Those who are fans of the beloved bestseller and/or the fine television series it spawned will not be disappointed. The emotions of Christy and her resolve to stay in this place and teach are lovingly brought to life in Kellie Martin’s voice as she reads the wonderful words of Catherine Marshall. Particularly moving is the relationship between Christy and Fairlight Spencer, a strong but delicate woman who offers her friendship. The sadness these mountains could bring upon such a fine and delicate soul is movingly rendered by Kellie Martin. As Fairlight's inner flame begins to grow dim from the blowing winds of hardship and shadows of poverty, we are deeply moved.

I highly recommend this one, even if, like me, you've read it already. It is a loving tribute to Catherine Marshall's mother and the life she chose to live. Filled with love and joy, this is one audio book read by Kellie Martin that you'll savor and enjoy over and over. show less

Confession time: I had never read the best-selling classic Christy by Catherine Marshall before I opened its pages last week. I know! I have been missing something very special for a very long time. This book made Christianity Today‘s most influential book list for a good reason. This 50 year-old classic tells the story of young Christy Huddleston, an earnest young woman who sets out to teach the children of Cutter Gap in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Idealistic and enthusiastic, Christy finds herself in a poverty-stricken area where superstitions run deep, literacy is rare, and disease often brings heartache to an already hard existence. And while Christy brings considerable energy and talent to the job, she ends up learning more show more than her pupils. The insights she gleans from her friends are ones that the reader can cherish as well. I loved, loved, loved this book! If you haven’t read it yet, you must! If its been awhile since you’ve visited the community of Cutter Gap, what are you waiting for? And if you are looking for a Christmas gift for that special someone (especially older teen girls), Christy is the perfect choice.

Christy is set in the backwoods of a time-gone-by Tennessee. Based on the real life adventures of Catherine Marshall’s mother, this book opens up a window on what mountain people had to combat in the early 1900s — an isolated area fraught with hygiene problems, ignorance, and suspicion of outside influences. The story is told in Christy Huddleston’s first person voice, giving fresh eyes to the world of Cutter Gap. I loved how Christy grew as a person as she came to love and minister to the children and women. Teacher was of great influence, yet Christy learned more from her interactions with mentor Miss Alice, friends Fairlight and Opal, and pupils like Little Burl, Ruby Mae, and Lundy. She learned to overlook the smells and dirt and the sometimes backward ways of men and women, as her view became colored by the love she grew to have for the people. The book itself is filled with flowing prose that captures the beauty of the mountains, the nobility (and meanness) of the people, and the work of God in nature and man. All the characters have a complexity that makes them so very real. And if you think that a book that was written 50 years ago about a place and time now remote to the modern reader, then you will be pleasantly surprised. Christy may tell of a time 100 years in the past, but has a relevance for 2017. God’s love is the prevailing theme of the novel, and many of the characters struggle to accept it or live it out in real and meaningful ways. Miss Alice’s character is the plumb line for all others, and she brought a wisdom to the book when others were struggling.

Christy set my imagination aflame! Cutter Gap is a place I know I will visit again.

Very Highly Recommended!

Audience: older teens to adults.

(Thanks to Gilead Publishing and LitFuse for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) show less

As evidenced by the dilapidated condition of my copy, I was wistfully, passionately in love with [b:Christy|229123|Christy|Catherine Marshall|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389406901s/229123.jpg|3158544] throughout my adolescence. Reading it for the first time in a decade or more, I was surprised how well it holds up. The characters were still well drawn and the dialogue believable, as is Christy's personal growth and struggle with faith over the course of the book. Fairlight's death and Christy's own nearly succumbing to the typhoid epidemic brought me close to tears, just as before. And as before, I hated to see the book come to an end.

Only a couple of things struck me more forcefully than they did when I was younger. First, I love show more when David gets schooled by Aunt Polly Teague, though I find it sadly believable that a seminarian dispatched from the heart of the modernist controversy would be ill-equipped to offer real pastoral care under those circumstances. Second, when I was 11 and encountering Miss Alice's backstory for the first time, I had mercifully little idea what I was reading. What a shocking account of abuse -- though again, horribly plausible.

I would like to understand more of Christy's and Neil's dynamic, as that thread cuts off way too abruptly for me. And I don't feel worshipful toward Miss Alice any longer, though she's still a pretty great character. On the whole, I'm pleased to discover how much I still love this book. show less

A book that has been on my to-read list since a librarian suggested it to me when I was around 9 years old, I'm sorry to admit it has taken me 18 years to read this powerful tale. Impoverished seems like such an inadequate word for the world encountered by Christy, the heroine of this at times heart-breaking story. There are heartwarming moments sprinkled in among the sadness as Christy finds her faith and her place in the world.

I've read this book several times and it holds up every time. A girl takes a leap of faith having no idea what she is getting herself into, and finds God in the middle of everything. She leaves the city and a life of plenty to teach school in a rural mountain community. Many times she is tempted to quit; life is harder than she expected, but instead, she learns that love changes everything. And God changes everything.

I am always inspired after immersing myself in this almost true story. The thing is, this book is slow, episodic perhaps, and it takes the reader along on a journey. My wrestling with God is different than Christy's, and yet I feel as though we would have been good friends. And I am thankful for stories like these that show more remind me God is closer than we realize. show less

I picked up Christy at a used bookstore on a family road trip when I was about eleven years old. Why I was drawn to the worn, musky smelling book I don't know, but I read it cover to cover and loved it.

Christy is a flawed character, which makes her relatable. In many stories where a character arrives to "change the world", they are flawless with all the skills and knowledge needed to turn a problem around. Christy isn't. She starts as unprepared and naive. She battles through the obstacles she faces in Cutter Gap and the hardships of poverty that she sees. As Christy interacts with the different families in the Smoky Mountains, you will begin to fall in love with each little story within the story, all while watching Christy expand her show more world, learning more about herself and what she is capable of. show less