California Time (Western Literature Series) - Hardcover

Finney, Ernest J.

3.73

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780874173116: California Time (Western Literature Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0874173116 ISBN 13: 9780874173116

Publisher: University of Nevada Press, 1998

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The vast, fertile expanses of California's Great Central Valley form the setting of this novel by Ernest J. Finney. This is a world where life and time itself are determined by the rhythms of the crops, and where each of the myriad ethnic groups who have settled here has contributed its own skills and traditions to the heady mix of Valley life. Finney's story traces the Valley's history from the late 1920s until the end of World War II through the lives of three families who work neighboring farms along one of the Valley's nameless roads - the Palestinis, Italian immigrants who grow grapes for raisins; the Brazils, Portuguese dairymen; and the Japanese Hamadas, who raise chickens and strawberries. As the families struggle to make their farms prosper against the challenges of nature and a fickle marketplace, their children grow up together, moving from childhood into adolescence, falling in and out of love, then into the uneasy tensions of young adulthood. And if the patterns of the seasons seem unchanging, life itself is not. The Depression brings starving refugees from the Dust Bowl and further incursions from the greedy Land Company; new crops and technologies are introduced; and cultivation spreads in every direction across the flat expanses of the Valley. Then all familiar life ends with the shattering onset of war. The Hamadas are confined to a relocation camp with other Japanese Americans, and the gentle Julian Palestini, who wishes only to till the soil of his parents' farm, finds himself a soldier in the midst of the brutal Italian campaign.

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From the Publisher:

Review from Library Journal
"With California's Great Central Valley as backdrop, this novel opens in 1928 and follows the lives and times of three farming families through the Great Depression and up until WWII. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, revealing the viewpoints of the many cultural groups that lived and farmed in the area. The principals include Hortense Brazil, the daughter of Portuguese dairy farmers; Grayson Hamada, the son of Japanese strawberry farmers; Fred Leeds, an orphan who ended up in the valley after fleeing the dust bowl of Oklahoma; and Julian Palestini, the youngest son of Italian grape growers. The narratives follow the characters as they grow up, fall in love with one another, and suffer the indignities that the outbreak of war forces on their community, with Julian's account of his service in Italy particularly gripping and unforgettable. Finney, whose inspiration for the story came from an old school photo found in a second-hand store, pulls together these multicultural characters to present a moving and thoughtful account of their struggles and pleasures. Highly recommended."--Library Journal

Synopsis:

Finney's story traces the Great Central Valley's history from the late 1920s until the end of World War II, through the lives of three families who work neighbouring farms along one of the valley's nameless roads.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.