Augusta

by Celia Ryker

Raised on a hard-knock farm in Arkansas and married off to the father of one of her classmates at the age of thirteen, Augusta was not set up for a life of bliss. Then, abandoned by her second husband in 1920s Detroit, with four children to provide for, she is forced into a decision that will haunt her forever.

From the author of "Walking Home: Trail Stories," Celia Ryker's AUGUSTA is historical fiction based on the true story of her grandmother, a woman who lived on a lake and taught her how to catch snakes; a woman who fled the hardships of the Ozarks at the turn of the twentieth century for a new city, and a chance at a better life.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

228 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked The Four Winds, read this!

Augusta starts with a 13-year-old girl named Augusta who is married off to her best friend's father. After some hardships, the couple moves to Detroit in the 1920's. How will Augusta manage the crushing economic hardships in a land without family, without friends?

Personally, this book was interesting because I live in Metro-Detroit. A few years ago I was in Detroit for a Garths Brooks concert, and I dined at a restaurant called The Monarch Club where the building was designed in the 1920's. It is one of the most lavish places that I have ever been. Reading this book and comparing it to the opulence was an eye-opening experience.

Augusta is a historical fiction-Augusta is actually the author's grandmother. Ryker based the book on information that she gleaned from her family members and family memorabilia.

This story is important. What do you know about the Roaring 20's? Speakeasies, flappers, and jazz come to mind, a good time with lots of smiles, fun, and laughter. Is there more to that picture?

Overall, I am glad that I read this book; however, I felt that the characters were underdeveloped, and, I have never said this before, but the book should have been longer. I created a list of 17 questions that I still have at the end of the book.

For example, Augusta's best friend Cookie appears early in the book, but we hear very little of her throughout the rest of the book. What does Augusta do for fun other than complain about the hospital? What are Augusta's hopes and fears? Did she ever write Simon for help? What does her family think about her relationships? Did Augusta ever turn to the church for assistance? What was it like standing on her feet all day while pregnant?

The ending also felt unsatisfying--I wanted more of a conclusion on some of the other characters.

A worthwhile book but expect some plot holes.

*Thanks, Rootstock Publishing, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Augusta is a historical fiction novel based on the life of the author's grandmother. Her grandmother was a tenacious women who faced hardships during in her life in the early part of the twentieth century. The author's love of her grandmother and her family in general shines through in every page. It's a short book but leaves the reader with respect for Augusta and the life she lived.

August was born in the Ozarks in the early part of the century. She and her family worked on a farm and she was thrilled that she was able to stay in school long enough to graduate from the 8th grade. Her brothers all had to drop out of school much younger so that they could work on the farm. Not only did Augusta get to graduate but she also got her first store bought dress for the graduation ceremony. Soon after, her best friend's mother died and Augusta's parents decided that she should marry her best friend's father even though she was only 13. She made the best of her life and had several children before their farm went bankrupt and her husband decided that they should move north to Detroit where he knew that he could get a factory job. It didn't take long before he left Augusta with 2 small children to marry another woman. She went to work as a waitress and met another man who loved her and her children. They got married and had 2 more children. When he started drinking and then just disappeared she had to make some heart wrenching decisions to take care of her family and keep them fed and protected. No matter how difficult the decisions she had to make were, they were always done to help her family.

Take a bit of time and read this story. It will leave you with admiration for this woman who had such hardship in her life and how hard she worked to provide a better life for her family.

[thewanderingjew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Augusta: A Novel, Celia Ryker, Author
This story is written with such tenderness, it reflects the warmth and affection the author has for her background and her family, since the novel is based on the life of her grandmother who had an indomitable spirit. The author has presented the story of her grandmother’s life, which began in the Ozarks, with so much compassion, as she benignly and bravely dealt with the obstacles in her path, making her ability to surmount them routine, that it became a bit difficult to imagine the actual hardship of the life she faced.
Augusta, somewhat naïve and only thirteen, was married to a much older man, Simon, the father of her best friend. They moved away from Arkansas to a tenement in Detroit, which although not luxurious, was a step above the farm. They had indoor plumbing! After two children were born, Thelma and Ivon, her life went from almost idyllic for her, to a life of absolute poverty without enough money to feed her family adequately. Simon said he fell in love with another woman, Gloria, and he left “Gus” stranded, without any support from him. He went back to Arkansas and sued for divorce. Helped by friends, she worked in a restaurant for Mel, and she tried to raise the children as best she could.
Soon, a charming, blue-eyed, man came into the restaurant. His name was Ottis. He pursued her. He was a successful businessman who courted her and the children, and so she eventually married him, as well. She was still so young, but seemed to have finally achieved a normal lifestyle. She had a real home with modern appliances, a garden, and a husband who seemed to be truly devoted to her and her children. She had two more children with him, during which time his success turned into failure, and like most men in her life, he turned to drinking. When his behavior was discovered by the authorities, her two oldest children, who had confessed to being afraid of him, were removed from the home and placed in foster care. Devastated, she was able to arrange to send the eldest to her parent’s farm, where she would work like an animal, and the other to an orphanage, where she would yearn for her sister. For some reason, they did not know about the two youngest children, Lottie and Buddy, and so they remained with her.
Ottis continued to drink and became more abusive. He got involved with the wrong kind of people, and one night he simply left the house and never returned home. She was alone and defenseless. Friends came to her rescue again, and they watched her children, enabling her to continue to work for Mel in the restaurant, but she was unable to really make ends meet. As life became more difficult, Augusta chose to basically “sell” her youngest child to a childless couple that could provide not only for Lottie, but for Augusta and her remaining children, as well. How else would she be able to keep most of the family intact? It is difficult to even judge her for what she did, because she was so helpless in the situation she found herself. She did what she thought she had to do to survive and keep the rest of her children with her.
The author has used her own grandmother as the model for Augusta, and although this story might at times be hard to believe, especially with the fairytale like ending, the fact that it is based on the stories the author was told about her own family, makes it more credible and an interesting read.

[Deanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction based on the grandmother's life. Poor thing had to marry a much older widower when she was 13, fortunately one of his kids was her best friend. How awkward is that? They were 'happy' for a little while then things got tough, he lost his farm and couldn't find work to support the family. He packed everybody up and moved them to Detroit. Traded one hell for another. The rest as they say is history.

The thing that really bugged me about this, I know it happened frequently is this CHILD was forced to marry a grown man with children, even her parents pushed her into it. No one seemed to find anything wrong with this...

[Erin Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the authors grandmother Augusta, this story tells of a tenacious woman and a life hard fought for and won. Augusta was born on a hardscrapple farm in Arkansas at the turn of the twentieth century. When her best friends mother dies her parents and the father of her friend, Simon reach a deal to marry her off at the age of thirteen to Simon. Despite the horrific age difference and the fact that she has married her best friends father, the first few years are good for Augusta. She has two children before the farm fails and Simon moves them to a tenement in Detroit. Things go south from there when Augusta is abandoned by her husband for another woman. She manages to raise her children on a waitressing job with the help of friends. She meets and marries another man, Ottis and has two more children with him. Things are good in the beginning of the relationship but when Ottis starts drinking heavily and loses his job life becomes unbearable for the family. Ottis disappears and is believed to be dead. This is actually a relief for Augusta as child social services have been sniffing around and threatening to take her children. Augusta is a strong resilient woman who manages despite extremely adverse circumstances to raise her children and have a healthy home life for them. I would be proud to have a grandmother of her caliber. Highly recommended.

[Edisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Augusta. I have to admit I made the mistake of reading the back and I was somewhat stressed out about what was coming… but Augusta was strong beyond her years, as are her children. Her resiliency & the community she created for herself allowed her to keep on going no matter life threw her way! I encourage you to read it & Definitely read the authors note, brings it closer to home. @rootstockpublishing

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unflinching look at the life of an American woman in the early 20th Century. Augusta makes her way from the austere struggle of her childhood on a hardscrabble farm in Arkansas, to marriage at 13, a move to Detroit, marriage to two drunks and the birth and upbringing of four children. This is a common enough sort of tale, but the author takes us into the heart of it through the perceptions and thoughts of Augusta and it seems epic in its voyage through the changes sof the early century.
Ryker's narrative is riveting and keeps us focused on this domestic drama in its twists and turns.

I would recommend this to the common reader and especially anyone wanting to understand the feel of the early 20th Century in the U.S. and a woman's position in it. I think this is a good book for Young Adults as well, bringing clear images of Augusta and her environment.

[Dive Into A Good Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brings to light the hardships of the past. How people had to survive in order to make it through. No matter what life threw at them, they had to overcome or not survive. When you have children, this challenge is heightened to an insane level. Leaving you to make impossible decisions that no mother should have to make. I loved that Celia Ryker based this book on her grandmother, Augusta. I wish I had sat down with both sets of my grandparents to have a bit of them once they passed on. You know each and every one of them had a fascinating tale, much like Augusta.

Augusta grew up on a farm in Arkansas. Both of her parents were no nonsense, hardworking people. Augusta was able to graduate from the eighth grade before she had to leave school to work full-time helping her mother. She was married off to her best friend's father at the mere age of thirteen. It is crazy to think that a girl of thirteen could be married to a widower, who is older than her father. They moved to Detroit for factory work. Augusta is astonished at how lonely and closed off she feels from other people. No one is friendly, and there are no wide-open spaces or green. Just concrete and garbage. From this point on her life plummets, her first husband leaves her. She is left to find work in order to provide for her children. She is a loving, hardworking woman, who will do anything to succeed for her family. It appears as though life really wants to pummel her to the ground.

This is a quick read that takes you into the world of Augusta. It is emotional and heart wrenching to think about all of the hard times she falls upon and what she had to do in order to make it through. Thank you to Celia Ryker and Rootstock Publishing for my gifted copy of this fantastic read.

[Joy Kidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tired was indeed a woman's lot in life, when she married at 13, left by two husbands with several children, and trying to make ends meet during the 1920s. This gritty story is based on the life of the author's grandmother, Augusta. Much of the early dialogue is in dialect, and later a couple of characters use crude language. I especially enjoyed the Author's Note at the end, where readers learn which of Augusta's children is the author's parent, and how she learned so many details of her grandmother's difficult life.

[Elizabeth Gauffreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Celia Ryker’s debut novel, Augusta, is a fictionalized account of her grandmother’s early life, from 1906, when she was twelve years old, through the 1920s. I was initially drawn to the book because writing the story of someone remembered from our childhood seems a natural impulse to explore unanswered questions. As Ryker states in her author’s note at the end of the book:

“I have few clear memories of the woman I knew as Gramma; tiny pieces of a life that ended when I was too young to ask meaningful questions and far too young to listen.” (215)

The question then becomes, is this person’s fictionalized story appropriate for a family history, or is it so compelling, so weighted that it deserves a wider audience? In the case of Augusta, her story clearly deserves an audience outside of her family, from the perspective of her likability and strength of character, as well as the historical context and social history revealed by her story.

Fully one quarter of this short novel is devoted to Augusta’s forced marriage at the age of thirteen to the widowed father of her best friend, one of her eighth-grade classmates. In a case of bitter irony, Augusta proved her mettle as a potential wife by helping the family after the mother took sick and died. Despite Augusta’s objections that she is too young to marry a man so much older than herself, her parents insist it’s the best thing for all concerned.

One of the most telling moments in the book occurs at the party after the marriage service when Augusta asks Simon, her new husband, about a mule tied to the back of her parents’ wagon:

“ ‘Did ya trade a mule fer me?’ He was silent too long. “ ‘That better be yer best mule’. “ (45)

Surprisingly, Augusta is soon able to make the best of the situation she finds herself in:

“Being a wife was something she had trained for most of her life, and she was good at it. She was feeling strong and loved.” (46)

Two years later, Simon loses the farm, starts drinking, and decides to uproot a pregnant Augusta to a tenement in Detroit. Augusta appeals to her mother for help–or at the least, sympathy–to no avail.

I found Augusta’s relationship with her mother to be one of the most compelling and thought-provoking in the book. While Augusta’s mother may appear cruel and insensitive to twenty-first-century sensibilities, I think she is more a reflection of how precarious survival was for a farm family at the turn of the twentieth century in the Ozarks. With no social safety net to fall back on, any opportunity for a daughter’s future financial security had to be seriously considered.

As subsequent events in Detroit would bear out, this was a time when a woman, particularly a woman with children, was at the mercy of her husband, who in turn was at the mercy of the vicissitudes of making a living. One drop in the price of cotton, one reckless financial decision, one lost job could take his family from comfort to destitution.

Augusta, young as she is, manages over the next fifteen years to survive abandonment by her first husband and a second husband who takes to the bottle and becomes abusive, prompting Child Services to remove two of her four children from the home. This husband then vanishes, never to be seen or heard from again.

The saving grace for Augusta through all of this is her ability to make friends and form strong bonds with other women. In fact, if not for these women, I don’t know how she would have survived to become the Gramma Ryker remembers as being “so exceptional that being near her made me feel special by proximity.” (215)

[Ann Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This plain-spoken tale is about a woman born into an Ozark poverty more profound than you probably could imagine.
Augusta and her friend “had worn sacks of some sort for most of their lives. Flour sacks were softer and prettier than feed sacks. The girls and their mothers looked for sacks with interesting designs or pretty lettering. They were adept at cutting sleeve holes to look like cups, and if there was extra thread, they’d create a collar of sorts and sew on pockets cut from their worn-out sack dresses.”
Mama knows that Bella the cow is going to give birth within a day because there’s wax on her teats. The reader follows Mama and Augusta into Bella’s’s stall and learns how to help a cow give birth.
Having empathized with the itchy feed bag dress and the barnyard Augusta grew up in, I was hooked on her. How in tarnation was she going to make it through?
This kind of poverty, the kind you can almost smell, is the background of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante and The Grapes of Wrath. All three novels tell us that poverty has to do with a lot more than money. Self worth is measured differently by the poor, so are luxury, duty, comfort, and success. The poor are snared by forces outside their control, such as a child protective agency and a corporation’s greed and are powerless to resist them.
Some readers might find this a heroic story, but there were millions of farm folk like Augusta at the beginning of the 20th century. They did what they needed to do to survive. Men were sheared of their dignity when they lost the farm or lost a job, and couldn’t support their families. Like Augusta’s two husbands, they often turned to alcohol in their shame. The women made do, taking responsibility for the children.
Her particular struggle was common a long time ago: marriage at thirteen, children born as they came, a move from the farm to the grinding, dirty, dangerous city, meeting new immigrants who had fled similar hardships.
Details carry the story and are constantly surprising. The reader learns how the first washing machines worked, how unwelcome a hospital birth was after knowing the intimacy and convenience of having your baby at home, and what tenements were like.
T he story itself has little filigree. It is a rags-to-relative-comfort story, with a fairytale ending. Fairy godmothers and also fairy godfathers swoop in at Augusta’s lowest moments to take care of her and her children. They aren’t her parents, who are too poor and exhausted to help.
The miraculous ending is too magical to include in a book review. But you’ll learn it soon enough because this is a swift and interesting read.

[Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Augusta is a beautiful mix of fiction and nonfiction anecdotes about a tenacious woman working to keep her family afloat in the early 1900s. Based on the author’s grandmother and family stories, Augusta tells the tale of a young farm girl married off at thirteen, abandoned, and then remarried to another abusive man. Her second husband, Ottis, is fired, leaving Augusta to be their family's sole provider. While the storm of calamity continues to affect her family, Augusta must make the hardest decision of her life: whether to keep her youngest, Lottie, or allow her to be adopted by a wealthy family.

Augusta is a heart-wrenching novel centering on the unique circumstances of a woman in a time period where dependency on marriage to a man for survival was commonplace. Augusta represents a silent yet resilient generation of women who frugally kept their families fed and clothed throughout poverty-stricken years. Many of these women turned to each other and created pockets of communities and villages to ensure mutual aid. The writing captured this well. Augusta’s pain is clear, but so is her love for those around her. She was forced into a marriage and motherhood at an extremely young age and thus relied on her community to guide her through adulthood. Her sacrifices became an important parable for those of us who live in the present.

I enjoyed how the author filled in some gaps to complete Augusta’s story. The story of Al and Angie was particularly touching. They served as a silver lining and restored optimism back into the story. I also liked the historically accurate descriptions of appliances, money, and the like. Augusta’s wide-eyed incredulity towards appliances is interesting to witness. While modern readers will be interested in the simplicity of it, Augusta is impressed by what it can do. In a lot of ways, readers can still feel a connection to Augusta amidst the decades of distance.

Augusta is an essential story for all readers and will continue to be important for years to come.

[Alex Craigie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting. I was initially drawn to it because I knew it was based on the life of the author’s grandmother.
The book tells the story of Augusta, who we first meet on her parent’s farm where life is harsh and there’s no place for sentiment. She had been told that “tired was a woman’s lot in life”. Augusta is wearing a feed sack dress, which isn’t as soft as the flour sack ones. When a foal was stillborn, her father got one of her bothers to throw the foal in with the hogs.
It’s a community that rallies around when someone’s ill and, when the mother of Augusta’s best friend falls sick, she’s sent to the house with a basket of food and helps out in the home until the woman dies. She is thirteen, but the newly-widowed farmer asks her to marry him and her parents push her into it because it’s one less mouth to feed.
From this marriage onwards, Augusta’s life is one of poverty and child-rearing, studded with occasional periods of happiness and plenty. It’s a life that’s as grim in its way as the life on her parents’ farm.
Knowing that real-life events are behind this tale, gives it a depth that makes the events more real and compelling. Augusta (Gus) faces desperate dilemmas involving her children, but the kindness and support of good friends helps her to deal with desperate situations.
This is one of those books that kept me turning the pages and I read it in one go.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story about a woman named Augusta who was pushed into marrying her best friend’s dad at age 13, then moved away from her family and eventually had to give one of her children up for adoption due to being unable to financially care for her. The story was written by the granddaughter of Augusta, and while many of the details are true, of course many blanks had to be filled in by the writer. It gives a good glimpse into what Augusta’s life may have been like back in the 1920s. It was a quick read and very interesting storyline.

[Dee Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Augusta was such an uplifting and heart-breaking read about what life was like in the early 1900s. I loved how the blanket of truth from the author's grandmother and family stories were weaved so perfectly with the threads fiction to fill in the gaps. This gives the readers a glipse into who her grandmother was and the trials and tribulations that shaped her. It was such a beautiful story about the difficult decisions that need to be made and a mother just trying to do the best she could for herself and her children.

Thank you Goodreads for the e-copy.

[AMAO · Rating 5 out of 5]

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋