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Loading... The Runaway Quilt: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (Elm Creek Quilts Novels) (original 2002; edition 2010)by Jennifer Chiaverini
Work InformationThe Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini (2002)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The Runaway Quilt is a nice book about how a tattered quilt started a woman to search her ancestors belongings to find the roots of her heritage. The book takes into account the importance of quilts hung outside to slaves running north through the underground railroad to safety. Four stars were awarded to this book. Sylvia runs across some family quilts along with a journal of one of her ancestors all about the time period of the Underground Railroad. Sylvia is fearful that her ideas of who her family is might turn out to be false. Lots of interesting historical stuff - especially about how quilts were used to signal safety and danger to runaway slaves. Meh. Better than some. But LACK OF EDITING! It is such a shame to see a decent book ruined by laziness. Here we have Grace, again, still Sfrican American, but still with nothing except a few cryptic adjectives that might point the fact. The author seemed to tire by the end, and just raced through the final denouement. That’s Okay; I was tired of reading. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesElm Creek Quilts (4)
When Sylvia Compson discovers evidence of her ancestors' involvement with the Underground Railroad, it raises the historical issue of the use of quilts as a method of signalling fugitive slaves. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Number 4 in the series and the Elm Creek Quilters is up and running as a business. This book focuses on Sylvia, who finds a diary written just before the Civil War, along with several old and partially damaged quilts.
It is written by Gerda, who came over from Germany with her brother to found the house and business that Sylvia and her siblings inherited. The Runaway Quilt takes us through Sylvia reading through this journal and finding out things about her family and the community she joined during a very difficult period in American history.
The book does deal with escaped slaves on the road away from the southern states, but avoids the more brutal facts of the business, rather addressing it from a rather genteel 21st century viewpoint reading a 19th century gentle-woman's diary. I put "Beloved" by Toni Morrison on the back burner whilst reading this book, so it's interesting to see the two different approaches to writing about the same time from two different perspectives.
It was a pleasant read that took me just a few days to get through and is a nice addition to the series. The addition of a few quilt styles, with their possible historical inspiration is also a nice touch (but does anyone else wish there were example completed items included in the book?) ( )