The Morning and the Evening

by Joan Williams

Finalist for the National Book Award: Joan Williams’s unforgettable first novel is the story of a small Southern town struggling to care for one of its own

In a rundown farmhouse in Mississippi, Jake Darby wakes up one morning to find his world forever changed. His long-suffering mother has died overnight, abandoning forty-year-old Jake, who is mute and, according to his neighbors, not quite right in the head. With no family to take him in, it is up to the townspeople of Marigold to take care of Jake, a grave responsibility that brings out the best—and the worst—of a community in which painful truths are usually hidden from sight. In such a place, even the kindest of acts can lead to the most tragic of outcomes.
 
Heralded as the debut of a major new talent when it was first published in 1961, The Morning and the Evening won the John P. Marquand First Novel Award from the Book-of-the-Month Club and established Joan Williams as a leading voice in Southern literature. Elegant, compassionate, and deeply unsettling, it is a portrait of the human spirit in all of its flawed and intricate beauty, and a tale firmly grounded in reality yet told with all the power of myth.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Classics

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

JOAN WILLIAMS is the author of five novels, including The Morning and the Evening, which won the John P. Marquand First Novel Award, and a collection of short stories.

Ms Williams received her B.A. from Bard College and M.A. from Fairfield University, where she taught creative writing. She is the recipient of a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is an incredibly sad story of a forty year old mute man who is left alone when his brother leaves and his mother dies. Jake does not speak but yet there are times when we know he understands what is happening around him. “One thing at a time he could know. Some things he had learned: repeated things. And some things he knew instinctively, animal-like: tones, touches, whether they were kind or not."

I did find it that it was difficult to really know Jake but yet I could not help but care for this man and hope that the town’s people would rise to the occasion and help him. I also found that the people we meet in this small town of Marigold, Mississippi are difficult to connect with. But yet, I got a sense of those that are good and kind vs the sense of those who are not, those who want to help Jake and those who see him as a menace to the community.

This was reminiscent in some ways of Lottery but I while I found that book very predictable, the ending of this one was not predictable for me and was heartbreaking.


Thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and Net Galley.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful novel is just about perfect in every way and I really hope this new publication will bring it to the wide readership it deserves. It’s the haunting and moving story of Jake Darby, a developmentally disabled and mute man living in a small backward and fairly ignorant rural community in the deep south of America. With vivid and evocative descriptions of the southern landscape, empathetic and realistic characterisation and an acute ear for authentic dialogue, the book is a delight from beginning to end, beautifully written, perfectly paced and expertly plotted. A quiet, gentle and tender story, heart-breaking and quite simply unforgettable.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jake Darby was different. Born a mute, he is unable to communicate and is taken for an idiot. He is self-contained, separate, regimented. His brother has already fled their small Southern town leaving Jake and his mother to struggle alone. When Jake's mother passes the town folk feel pity and Jake becomes theirs to care for. They bring him meals and mend his shirts. Forty-three years old Jake is dependent on their good will.


But one day a lonely misfit reaches for Jake in a desperate need to connect and Jake goes running and screaming into the night. A mad dog has been reported in a neighboring town and people's pity turns to fear.

I finished this book just before Thanksgiving and have contemplated what to say over the past week. What you need to know is that the book has haunted me, lingering past the family gathering and the visitors, the cleaning up, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday buying sprees. What better thing can I say?

Jake becomes a litmus test for the town folk, showing their true colors. Except the color is inconclusive. They have a capacity for altruism, and a self-interested reaction to put away those things perceived as a threat. People seek companionship and love--often in the wrong places. They desire things, often small things, and justify actions that bring about an outcome far from what was expected.

Kirkus Reviews stated that the subject matter may turn people away from this book. There is discomfort and sadness. The hardest part is how it mirrors humanity back to itself, so we are confronted with our many failings and sins but also with our capacity for good.

The Morning and The Evening by Joan Williams was first published as a story in 1952 with a sequel Mademoiselle published four years later. In 1961 Atheneum published the two stories combined as a novel. William Styron wrote that it "is a haunting and beautiful tale, richly infused with humor and sharp insights into the human predicament." The book was a finalist for the National Book Award, which that year went to Walker Percy's The Movie Goer and was up against now classic books including Joseph Heller's Catch 22, J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zoey, and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba1962.h...

I thank NetGalley and Open Road Media for access to the e-book for my unbiased review.

[Mary Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1961, this is a re-release of a Williams classic. Joan Williams was fascinated with her mother's southern upbringing and used Marigold, Mississippi as the books setting.

Jake Darby is a forty year old man living life as a mute. When his mother dies suddenly, Jake is left to fend for himself. The townsfolk have always considered Jake an "idiot". There are few people willing to tend to Jake and most are certain he doesn't belong in their small, rural community. When a friendly incident occurs that Jake is unable to understand, he appears to go temporarily insane, acting out in the middle of town. Everyone is witness to Jake's outburst and from here on out things will never quite be the same in Marigold.

The Morning and the Evening is a heartbreaking account of what happens when mental illness is misunderstood and feared. Ignorance abounds in most of Marigolds small minded citizens and left in their shallow care, Jake finds his life upended and changed forever.

This book is intelligently written and all of Williams descriptions are vivid and abundant. However, the pace can best be described as slow as a hot, lazy southern afternoon. If you're not from the south, let me translate: a hot, lazy southern afternoon, although beautiful, can sometimes feel like forever.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1961, this short novel is classic Southern writing comparable to William Faulkner, Harper Lee etc. Deeply rich characters that will break your heart with the beauty of the writing. Jake will be with me for awhile I suspect.

[Debbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very few, if any, redeeming qualities I can think of about this book. Words I would use to describe it; sad, depressing, cruel, heartbreaking, selfish, and loneliness. Jake, the mentally challenged man doesn't belong to anyone. What's a small 1950's town to do?

[Jerre Wynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jake

Jake was a man h


ad an effect on a town and it's people. It was hard to put it down,the book.it really made me think .about those we know and don't know.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know this is a very old book but I just didn’t like the writing Story about Jake and the complete misunderstanding of him by the people in his town.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the holidays have just passed and we’re in the glum of winter, I was feeling somewhat nostalgic and in the mood to read something older so I decided upon this new Open Road reprint of Southern-writer Joan Williams’ 1961 novel “The Morning and the Evening.” Set in the small town of Marigold, Mississippi, it centres primarily around mentally disabled 40 year-old Jake who is abruptly left living alone to fend for himself. Moreover, it’s a portrait of the town focusing on different characters’ perspectives chapter by chapter. Jake, who is a mute, gets a few chapters devoted solely to him and, unsurprisingly, Williams’ narrates these sections in a more “poetic” voice which is nonetheless effective and moving: “he felt words inside him the way he felt music.” The novel captures the feel of small-town Southern life with evocative descriptions and distinctive characters such as an older woman quietly addicted to a (legal-at-the-time) form of liquid opium or a black man named Little T whose lifelong ambition is to catch a legendary elusive catfish. The book’s great power is the way in which it explores the tension people feel between being both an integral part of their community while also remaining essentially isolated.

Read my full review on LonesomeReader review of The Morning and the Evening by Joan Williams

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story tells the life of Jake, whose life in the southern United States is not an easy one, he is considered an idiot and after the death of the mother is also hospitalized. The author still has the ability to tell a story without getting too dramatic or emphasize sad things, as it seems to us that all things considered, at least at times, Jake is also happy. However, even if it is beautiful written, the story is tragic and heartbreaking.

Questa storia racconta la vita di Jake, la cui vita nel sud degli Stati Uniti non é certo facile, lui é considerato un idiota e dopo la morte della madre viene anche ospedalizzato. L'autrice ha comunque la capacitá di raccontare senza diventare troppo drammatica o enfatizzare le cose piú tristi, quasi ci sembra che tutto sommato, almeno a tratti, Jake sia anche felice. Comunque sia, per quanto bella, la storia resta drammatica e straziante.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the new trend of re releasing older books again. I believe most of us tend to stroll through the New Release section of the book store or online and do most of our shopping there. Gems like this one are often overlooked.

This is an exceptionally well written book with the power and feeling you get from To Kill A Mockingbird and similar Southern Fiction. Only a few today come close to recreating the atmosphere and character depth of these older novels.

While centrally a story about a man struggling with his limitations, it is also about a town struggling with acceptance. There are so many moments when you feel the main character will break through only to meet with a wall of outside forces.

This is a solely character driven story and they are rendered in amazing drama and detail.

I'm glad this one is getting a new chance with readers.

[E.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Williams's compelling story of a mentally challenged man left in the care of ambivalent townspeople is an excellent read and deserving of greater attention. Her prose is elegant while her subjects are not; the universal nature of her characters is shaming in its familiarity -- how often do we struggle to address a wrong when the act will cost us the esteem of our peers. It seems we are destined to choose ourselves, our own survival, over the survival of another, even when that other cannot fend for him or herself. It's Williams's brutally honest look at human nature, and her light touch in the harshest moments of her story, that make this a book well worth picking up.

[Norma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jake, a 40 year old child-like mute with a limited understanding of the world around him, is at the mercy of the townspeople after his mother dies. Apart from one couple, there is limited compassion for his fate and even less desire to assume responsibility for his welfare.

[Gena DeBardelaben · Rating 4 out of 5]

eARC: Netgalley

What an eye opener about how the mentally challenged were treated in the early 1960's. That is until you realize that not that much has changed. People may disguise their prejudices more these days, but they often still linger just below the surface of polite society. Very thought provoking.

[Beth Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Between

sombre story of a life lived in quietness and lost from carelessness. leaving readers with a sense of missing...something missing.But,well,that's the way of life...