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In the Midst of Innocence
"An endearing ballad of the struggle for existence and understanding." –Booklist
Ten-year-old Pearl Wallace is living in the mountains of rural Tennessee in the depths of the Great Depression and several years into Prohibition.
Pearl struggles with her moral What can she do to protect her best friend Darlene from an abusive stepfather? And, especially, how much does she need to tithe on the money she has earned from stealing her daddy’s moonshine and selling it?
Meanwhile, Emily Weston, a missionary, has come to “lift the poor hillbillies of the region out of their ignorance and misery.” Coming from a place of affluence and privilege, she is quickly overwhelmed by the social and racial issues facing her students and their families.
When murder, fire, and heartbreak threaten those they love, Pearl and Emily must confront the hate and bigotry of their neighbors. Emily’s time in the mountains will be one not of saving souls, but of personal reckoning.
Ten-year-old Pearl Wallace is living in the mountains of rural Tennessee in the depths of the Great Depression and several years into Prohibition.
Pearl struggles with her moral What can she do to protect her best friend Darlene from an abusive stepfather? And, especially, how much does she need to tithe on the money she has earned from stealing her daddy’s moonshine and selling it?
Meanwhile, Emily Weston, a missionary, has come to “lift the poor hillbillies of the region out of their ignorance and misery.” Coming from a place of affluence and privilege, she is quickly overwhelmed by the social and racial issues facing her students and their families.
When murder, fire, and heartbreak threaten those they love, Pearl and Emily must confront the hate and bigotry of their neighbors. Emily’s time in the mountains will be one not of saving souls, but of personal reckoning.
300 pages, Paperback
Published April 17, 2018
7 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Hining
6 books26 followersDeborah Hining believes that life is pretty much perfect as long as it holds a sense of destiny. Her destiny has led her to be many things: wife, mother, and grandmother, and also actress, award-winning playwright, theatrical director, college instructor, and Certified Financial Planner (or as she calls it, "Financial Fairy Godmother"). Now she is a farmer and author. Deborah lives at Corinne's Orchard, a farm in Durham County, North Carolina, with her husband, architect Michael Hining, daughter Mary Elizabeth, an artist, and son-in-law, Nick, a chef. Her son, George, daughter-in-law, Julie, and granddaughter, Corinne, live just a few miles away. You can find her most days working in one of the gardens, writing, being Grandma, and generally giving thanks for her abundant life.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 10, 2018
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'Jake Hatton came by today, looking for a pint of whiskey. I told him never to come to the house, but to hide out in the woods by the creek and wait until he sees me out in the yard. He can whistle a hooty-owl call to me, and I will meet him down by the big sycamore.'
It is the Great Depression, 10-year-old Pearl Wallace lives in the mountains of rural Tennessee. In this holler, she makes money by skimming off her daddy’s homemade whiskey, in a time when prohibition is in effect, this dabbling in criminal activity is a bit of a worry for her, after all Al Capone has the law after him and he bootlegs, and it’s a sin but going without nice shoes and being unable to give much-needed to gifts to her loved ones makes it a sort of necessity, if you will. Her best friend Darlene is a ‘white Negro’, whose step daddy is a mean bully, beating on her and her mamma. She fears for her daily, even if she is a catholic!
Emily Weston is a missionary come to save the hillbillies from their savage ignorance, to be a holy guiding light to the boys and girls of the holler so they can one day become God faring young men and women. She has led a privileged life in the city among the elite, and while heart is in the right place, she is the one blinded by ignorance. She will be shocked by their sins of drunkenness and humming, Halloween celebrations. The charm of this novel is that the telling alternates between both Pearl and Emily. Pearl makes is delightfully humorous and tender. Emily’s perspective is given through letters to her parents, much more reserved than the letters to her sister, and letters to Jonathan whom is in love with her. Pearl’s voice is heard through her journal entries for class (Miss Emily’s idea) and her own private, grittier version that she writes for herself. Her childlike innocence in not understanding why ‘kilts’ would scare ‘colored folks’ perfectly expresses childish naiveté. Emily will come off her high horse as she begins to see just how knowledgable these ‘hillbillies’ really are, their godliness is evident in their community, brotherhood. Some speak French, teach it to their children, not so uneducated as Emily thinks. Just like anywhere else, you have the good, bad and the ugly.
Emily is much more likable as the teacher becomes the student. Young herself, her heart is lost in confusion and she is all mixed up, with her feelings toward Jonathan in particular. Pearl wants so bad to be good herself, and is ashamed of her anger and sins (stealing and selling his moonshine), especially when she thinks life would be easier without her daddy and his drinking. To say times are lean is an enormous understatement, but the people of this community pull together to survive. Not everyone has someone to protect them, and sometimes standing up for someone who is different can endanger your own family. Pearl and her family have courage, even with the threat of violence, Pearl cannot allow fear to stand in the way of solving Darlene and her mamma’s troubles. Emily will be a changed woman, fall in love with the very people she once held in scorn, set out to save. There is a murder, and sometimes lies are necessary to save others.
Beautifully written, I felt like I was in the holler myself. I have a tender spot for mountain fiction, I’ve likely mentioned that so often that people are sick of hearing it. This book is a delight, but isn’t as light as it seems, it deals with some weighty topics of bygone days. Most people will love Pearl, she is a fierce little thing!
Publication Date: April 17, 2018
Light Messages Publishing
'Jake Hatton came by today, looking for a pint of whiskey. I told him never to come to the house, but to hide out in the woods by the creek and wait until he sees me out in the yard. He can whistle a hooty-owl call to me, and I will meet him down by the big sycamore.'
It is the Great Depression, 10-year-old Pearl Wallace lives in the mountains of rural Tennessee. In this holler, she makes money by skimming off her daddy’s homemade whiskey, in a time when prohibition is in effect, this dabbling in criminal activity is a bit of a worry for her, after all Al Capone has the law after him and he bootlegs, and it’s a sin but going without nice shoes and being unable to give much-needed to gifts to her loved ones makes it a sort of necessity, if you will. Her best friend Darlene is a ‘white Negro’, whose step daddy is a mean bully, beating on her and her mamma. She fears for her daily, even if she is a catholic!
Emily Weston is a missionary come to save the hillbillies from their savage ignorance, to be a holy guiding light to the boys and girls of the holler so they can one day become God faring young men and women. She has led a privileged life in the city among the elite, and while heart is in the right place, she is the one blinded by ignorance. She will be shocked by their sins of drunkenness and humming, Halloween celebrations. The charm of this novel is that the telling alternates between both Pearl and Emily. Pearl makes is delightfully humorous and tender. Emily’s perspective is given through letters to her parents, much more reserved than the letters to her sister, and letters to Jonathan whom is in love with her. Pearl’s voice is heard through her journal entries for class (Miss Emily’s idea) and her own private, grittier version that she writes for herself. Her childlike innocence in not understanding why ‘kilts’ would scare ‘colored folks’ perfectly expresses childish naiveté. Emily will come off her high horse as she begins to see just how knowledgable these ‘hillbillies’ really are, their godliness is evident in their community, brotherhood. Some speak French, teach it to their children, not so uneducated as Emily thinks. Just like anywhere else, you have the good, bad and the ugly.
Emily is much more likable as the teacher becomes the student. Young herself, her heart is lost in confusion and she is all mixed up, with her feelings toward Jonathan in particular. Pearl wants so bad to be good herself, and is ashamed of her anger and sins (stealing and selling his moonshine), especially when she thinks life would be easier without her daddy and his drinking. To say times are lean is an enormous understatement, but the people of this community pull together to survive. Not everyone has someone to protect them, and sometimes standing up for someone who is different can endanger your own family. Pearl and her family have courage, even with the threat of violence, Pearl cannot allow fear to stand in the way of solving Darlene and her mamma’s troubles. Emily will be a changed woman, fall in love with the very people she once held in scorn, set out to save. There is a murder, and sometimes lies are necessary to save others.
Beautifully written, I felt like I was in the holler myself. I have a tender spot for mountain fiction, I’ve likely mentioned that so often that people are sick of hearing it. This book is a delight, but isn’t as light as it seems, it deals with some weighty topics of bygone days. Most people will love Pearl, she is a fierce little thing!
Publication Date: April 17, 2018
Light Messages Publishing
June 4, 2018
Pearl is a 10 year old girl born and raised in a small and rather isolated rural area in the mountains of Tennessee where the Depression-era extreme poverty in which her family lives is rather common; what makes the Wallaces somewhat unique is their mother's love of education and art. The farming, fishing, and hunting they do to keep their bodies alive is hard work but as far as Mrs. Wallace is concerned that's no reason to starve their brains. Pearl, bright and resourceful, uses her brains in many different ways, including a clever side hustle that involves selling moonshine skimmed from her alcoholic dad.
Pearl is great. She is charming, intelligent, loving, loyal, hard-working, thoughtful, and utterly delightful in a way that never feels forced or fantastical. The only real quibble I have with her character is a bit of inconsistency. It makes total sense that even an exceptionally smart 10 year old girl cut off from the larger world would be ignorant about things beyond her ken but it defies reason that this same girl who has spent her entire life in a bubble where conformity is a feature, not a bug, would be so naive that she plain and simple doesn't understand the very idea of bigotry. Pearl's inability to predict the tragic consequences of a rash decision made with the best of intentions would have been no less resonant without this incredulity-stretching trait. Despite everything, Pearl remains great.
Less great is Emily Weston, the missionary from an affluent family in the big city who has come to Pearl's hometown to serve as a schoolteacher with the aim of saving the souls of the simple folk of these backwards backwoods only to discover that they neither need nor want the sort of "help" she wants to give them. While Pearl's story is told in the first person as it happens and through entries to both her private and public journals, idealistic and fiercely independent Emily speaks solely through letters to her sister and her semi-estranged boyfriend. Hining does a masterful job of making Emily so much more than simply the symbol of privilege-blindness that makes up most of her role, but, truthfully I quickly found her segments to be rather tiresome. Her struggle to find herself might have been much more interesting in another book but in this one it mostly felt like an unnecessary distraction from the story that really mattered - Pearl's. As observant as Pearl is and as skilled as Hining is at telling a tale through subtext, I think it would have only helped the book to find ways to let Pearl find out the few pieces of information that Emily has that she does not.
Quibbles aside, I thought this was a great read.
Pearl is great. She is charming, intelligent, loving, loyal, hard-working, thoughtful, and utterly delightful in a way that never feels forced or fantastical. The only real quibble I have with her character is a bit of inconsistency. It makes total sense that even an exceptionally smart 10 year old girl cut off from the larger world would be ignorant about things beyond her ken but it defies reason that this same girl who has spent her entire life in a bubble where conformity is a feature, not a bug, would be so naive that she plain and simple doesn't understand the very idea of bigotry. Pearl's inability to predict the tragic consequences of a rash decision made with the best of intentions would have been no less resonant without this incredulity-stretching trait. Despite everything, Pearl remains great.
Less great is Emily Weston, the missionary from an affluent family in the big city who has come to Pearl's hometown to serve as a schoolteacher with the aim of saving the souls of the simple folk of these backwards backwoods only to discover that they neither need nor want the sort of "help" she wants to give them. While Pearl's story is told in the first person as it happens and through entries to both her private and public journals, idealistic and fiercely independent Emily speaks solely through letters to her sister and her semi-estranged boyfriend. Hining does a masterful job of making Emily so much more than simply the symbol of privilege-blindness that makes up most of her role, but, truthfully I quickly found her segments to be rather tiresome. Her struggle to find herself might have been much more interesting in another book but in this one it mostly felt like an unnecessary distraction from the story that really mattered - Pearl's. As observant as Pearl is and as skilled as Hining is at telling a tale through subtext, I think it would have only helped the book to find ways to let Pearl find out the few pieces of information that Emily has that she does not.
Quibbles aside, I thought this was a great read.
September 2, 2018
In the Midst of Innocence, by Deborah Hining
Two perspectives convey the story line in this novel, set in the Depression era hill country of Tennessee. Hining transports the reader to an environment including pure sunrises over the mountains and a community that lives off of the land, striking a compelling balance between the beauty and brutality of nature, and the complexity of right and wrong in the experience of a family that must survive. Told through the letters of a sophisticated, affluent young teacher from Chicago and the journal entries of a ten year-old girl who is her student, the reader is hard-pressed to decide who is less experienced. As the characters learn and grow, so does the reader, provoking self-examination without sacrificing the joy of a good read. The themes are at once past and present, and Hining’s intermittent poetry gives the novel a thread of foreshadowing and mystery, adding an almost musical dimension to the book. The time period separates the reader enough to create a sense of escape (which can be part of the pleasure of a good read), but the themes of prejudice, the interpretation of religion, flawed humanity and the ever-present struggle for survival bring the story and characters into vivid focus. The detailed descriptions of the sacrifices and pride of a family living in this small, rural mountain community, include shared shoes, hand-sewn clothing, choices between food and education, and stereotype-defying intellect. Hining’s central family characters accept toil as a way of life, maintaining an understanding and respect for the land and what it has to offer. Their seasonal routines of planting, harvesting, canning, hunting, fishing and even making liquor are carefully constructed patterns of survival. The reader may marvel at the appreciation these characters have for the smallest token, thoughtful gesture or moment’s leisure, as they balance on the precipice of poverty. The dignity with which they endure and ultimately triumph over the flaws of mankind and the harshness of nature makes this story well worth reading.
Two perspectives convey the story line in this novel, set in the Depression era hill country of Tennessee. Hining transports the reader to an environment including pure sunrises over the mountains and a community that lives off of the land, striking a compelling balance between the beauty and brutality of nature, and the complexity of right and wrong in the experience of a family that must survive. Told through the letters of a sophisticated, affluent young teacher from Chicago and the journal entries of a ten year-old girl who is her student, the reader is hard-pressed to decide who is less experienced. As the characters learn and grow, so does the reader, provoking self-examination without sacrificing the joy of a good read. The themes are at once past and present, and Hining’s intermittent poetry gives the novel a thread of foreshadowing and mystery, adding an almost musical dimension to the book. The time period separates the reader enough to create a sense of escape (which can be part of the pleasure of a good read), but the themes of prejudice, the interpretation of religion, flawed humanity and the ever-present struggle for survival bring the story and characters into vivid focus. The detailed descriptions of the sacrifices and pride of a family living in this small, rural mountain community, include shared shoes, hand-sewn clothing, choices between food and education, and stereotype-defying intellect. Hining’s central family characters accept toil as a way of life, maintaining an understanding and respect for the land and what it has to offer. Their seasonal routines of planting, harvesting, canning, hunting, fishing and even making liquor are carefully constructed patterns of survival. The reader may marvel at the appreciation these characters have for the smallest token, thoughtful gesture or moment’s leisure, as they balance on the precipice of poverty. The dignity with which they endure and ultimately triumph over the flaws of mankind and the harshness of nature makes this story well worth reading.
April 4, 2018
*I received a copy for review from the publisher through Booklist.
December 31, 2022
This book was somewhat spoiled by a preachy ending and bizarre poetry throughout. The story was interesting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews