Strange Children, The

by Caroline Gordon

Written from the perspective of young Lucy Lewis, ten-year-old daughter of a novelist and his fractious Southern wife, Strange Children examines the lives of the Lewises and their friends.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Caroline Gordon was an American novelist and literary critic who, while still in her thirties, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932 and an O. Henry Award in 1934.

Reviews

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

"She was thinking of the water that ran beneath their feet, deep underground, water on whose waves no sun ever glinted, no human eye ever rested, and yet it flowed ceaselessly from one cavern to another, until the very earth over which they moved was borne upward on its dark flood."

While this novel is not the most satisfory on all levels, it does one thing well: it creates a world teeming with life and transcending realities, above and below the surface. The setting of the Tennessee country is plain, as are the events that make up the novel, yet Caroline Gordon fills the story with underground streams, myths that break into reality, history and fables that pop up here and there. All in all, she deftly shows the multilayered nature of our lives.