The Journey of August King

The Mountain Novels #2

by John Ehle

Discovering Analees Williamsburg, a fifteen-year-old runaway slave in 1810, August King faces a moral dilemma in which he must decide between turning the girl in for a reward or risking his life to help her. Reprint. Movie tie-in.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, American History

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

John Ehle (1925-2018) grew up the eldest of five children in the mountains of North Carolina, which would become the setting for many of his novels and several works of nonfiction. Following service in World War II, Ehle received his BA and MA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he met the playwright Paul Green and began writing plays for the NBC radio series American Adventure. He taught at the university for ten years before joining the staff of the North Carolina governor Terry Sanford, where Ehle was a “one-man think tank,” the governor’s “idea man” from 1962 to 1964. (Sanford once said of Ehle: “If I were to write a guidebook for new governors, one of my main suggestions would be that he find a novelist and put him on his staff.”) Ehle was the author of eleven novels, seven of which constitute his celebrated Mountain Novels cycle, and six works of nonfiction. He had one daughter, actress Jennifer Ehle, with his wife Rosemary Harris, also an actress.

Reviews

[Lori Keeton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of the Mountain Novels by John Ehle. His first being The Land Breakers which was absolutely a phenomenal story about a family who settles the land – “breaks” the land – in a remote North Carolina mountainous area where no one has ever lived before. Now we meet August King who must journey to the town which is still a long a difficult trek but not as brutal as his ancestors endured. Going to town happens once per year so that rations, milk cows, boars, etc. can be purchased and brought back for the year. August has tragically lost his wife, Sarah, on this journey home last year and he is haunted by memories of their baby that previously died and of their relationship that could have been more loving in his remembrances.

Along the way, August encounters a runaway slave girl named Annalees which throws him into conflict with what he should do. His entire journey now takes a new course and August struggles internally with whether to help her to freedom. That these two meet each other is a fateful event as they journey together each in their own ways. August’s journey becomes a spiritual path as he conjures the past wanting freedom from it’s grasp and at the same time wants to do what is right for Annalees who is being hunted by a man obsessed with getting her back. This unlikely pair have no one else in the world to trust but each other. Their journey back to his home is treacherous and unfolds on each page and your heart pounds waiting to see what will happen next to this pair.

Ehle’s prose is beautiful and haunting describing the lush landscape of this mountainous area of North Carolina.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Land Breakers is one of the best books I've read on the settling of the NC mountains, and this novel is the second of John Ehle's mountain series. It takes place in 1810, 30 years after the first one, so we see the growth of the communities as new settlers come into the area. One of these men is August King. August makes his yearly trip down the mountain to sell stock and buy supplies and on the way home runs into a runaway slave girl that he decides to help. To say that his life is changed by that decision is an understatement, as he risks every thing he values, including his very soul.

While I could not rate this one with the same 5 stars I gave to the first one, it was an excellent continuation of the saga.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it while concurrently watching the movie which I found on Netflix. John Ehle did the screenplay as well so it was kind of like he got to tighten up his own story. Of course with a book you get all the internal thought processes. There were more plot elements in the book as well which made it a much more complex story especially since this is part two of Ehle's septology on the Appalachian region in North Carolina. (Ha, I've never had to use that word before). The movie was much tighter and the dialog more succinct. And once again, gee whiz am I glad I'm not trying to hack out a living in the wilderness. I had started reading the Land Breakers, also by Ehle, first, when it was republished by New York Review Books and apparently they can do no wrong. I discovered in poking around on the google machine that TLB was actually the first part of a 7 part series. So August King is the second and I am hooked. I asked the library to pull part 3 out of storage (Time of Drums) set in the civil war so I can get started on that one. WHAT THE HECK IS IT DOING IN STORAGE.

August King is a simple guy just doing his thing when he gradually realizes he has been chosen or has the opportunity to do something meaningful. This is it. Something that will make him feel good about himself and half of the reason is because its hard. Not that his day to day isn't hard- it is- but this is hard beyond that- he risks everything. We all have small opportunities everyday to make a difference we just don't choose to make sacrifices. His neighbors just assume he has gone bat shit crazy and that is how they explain it to themselves. Only August and the reader of course knows that he considers himself healed, whole and quite sane in an insane world by the end. A couple of the younger generation might have an inkling as well which I bet will lead us into Time of Drums. I'll let you know when I find out.John Ehle

John Ehle has quite the corpus apart from his fiction as well. Check out Press53 - they are reprinting the sixth book, Lion on the Hearth this Spring (2015) My library doesn't have that one at all. He wrote The Free Men, which chronicles the civil rights protests in Chapel Hill, NC in 1963-1964 and the Trail of Tears,The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. He has won numerous awards so doesn't need my cheerleading. I highly recommend both the book and the movie.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Is love anguish?
Is it getting bigged?
Is it sympathy?"

In 1815, a widowed farmer in the Appalachians of North Carolina crosses paths with a young, runaway slave girl. He decides to help her get north. That is one of August's journeys. Wrestling openly with his dilemma is the other journey. Neither is easy.
This is the sparse, tense sequel to Ehle's phenomenal Land Breakers (Mooney Wright shows up here later in the novel), written in an almost superior-than-Faulknerian fashion where inner monologue and soul wrestling is brought out into the narrative in a hauntingly beautiful way. August and Annalees dodge hunters, dogs, and warily circle each other as they move through the mountains, and Ehle's superior style makes a tense story bloom with little sublimities here and there.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What beautiful writing and slow steady character development. Once he teams up with the girl the book takes off, the suspense is wonderful and surprising. I didn’t expect it. The frontier justice is shocking. Beautiful ending.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read this book as a precursor to having my older kids watch the film version for their "Movies as Literature" class.
It was stunning, violent, sad, and ultimately uplifting-- if only in that one hopes there will always be August Kings in the world to do what is right.

[Milt · Rating 4 out of 5]

august indeed

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was proud too, August!

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 1971 novel by North Carolinian John Ehle, the second chronologically in his Mountain Novels about the Wright and King families and their settlement of a North Carolina Appalachian town between 1779 through the 1930s. I read the first novel, The Land Breakers that about the initial settlement of the town between 1779 and 1784. The protagonist of that story was Irish immigrant Mooney Wright and a key character was the young teenage girl Mina. This story takes place in about 1810 and features the title character, August King, who farms in the same community that Mooney Wright helped establish some 25 years prior.

August is a recent widow whose wife’s recent passing hangs over the story as more gets revealed about it as August’s journey” goes on. August is traveling through the mountains in, returning from his biennial long trip to market in the valley when he is hears news that two of his neighboring farmer Olaf slaves have runaway. People all along the roadway are excited since Olaf has offered a reward for their capture, August soon finds someone accompanying him on his journey, 15 year-old Analees Williamsburg, one of the runaway slaves, who Olaf especially covets. August has to decide whether he should facilitate her escape, which is illegal, or to turn her in for a reward. It all leads to a fairly satisfying resolution.

While there is action, much of the book consists of August’s internal monologues, as the reader accompanies him on both his external and internal journeys. There are also many scenes of both short and extended dialogues of August with people he runs into in his external journey, including several with young Analees.

While I shouldn’t look at this novel through comparison to the first series book, I cannot help but do so. As before, Ehle’s writing is beautifully descriptive and his plot development is well-paced, providing slight revelations leading to periods of suspense eventually leading to fuller revelations. It has the very American theme and setting that the Land Breakers did but by being in the second generation of settlers, the impact of August’s struggles is somewhat muted compared to Mooney’s. The narrower plot and timeframe consisting entirely of August’s thoughts and actions during his return from market trip also lessened this story’s impact for me, despite the addition of the serious theme of slavery.

Mooney Write does make a brief but vital appearance in this book as does the now-visibly-older Mina. Their appearance helped solidify the series aspect of the novel, which for me adds some gravitas to August’s story. While this may not have been “a great American novel” as The Land Breakers was, it is at least a “very good American novel.” I rate it as 4+ stars.

[Susann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #2 in John Ehle's Mountain Novels series. I'm not sure exactly when I read this, but it must have been during the second half of 2015. North Carolina Appalachia in 1810. August King helps an escaped slave.

[Caleb Rose]

I stumbled on Ehle's The Land Breakers at a Durham NC-based bookshop. A fan of all things primitive Appalachia, I was intrigued by the dust cover, and wound up loving the book. I was happy to learn that this NC native had written seven books in his "Mountain Novels" chronicling the early settlers of Western NC (the Wrights, Kings, Harrisons etc.). The Journey of August King is the second in this series and is the story of a quiet, somewhat stoic widower who aides a runaway slave in seeking her freedom. The 'journey' in this case is not only physical for August, but also emotional and spiritual. It was nice to see some familiar, though older, characters from the Land Breakers make an appearance in this book, tying the two stories together in time and place.

As I work my way through the Mountain Novels, I am learning that Ehle's gift of prose is not in writing action, but in detailing his charcters'/narrators' self-reflection during quiet moments. This is juxtaposed with beautiful descriptive passages about the primitive NC mountain country.

[Jakki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this book at a thrift store for .75! What a bargain. An AMAZING story about the man, August King, who gave up EVERYTHING that was important to him materially to help a young black girl escape slavery. I love what he said "Sometimes to do the right thing one has to give up other things that are encumbrances even if those things are a big part of what gives us security". Accused of "wrong thinking" in wanting to help the young girl, his friends told 1/2 truths.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read everything I can find in historical fiction for the Appalachian area! All of John Ehle's books are wonderful!

I first say the movie THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING and then found the book. I was hooked!
I read all the others one by one and enjoyed seeing the same names of families appearing from generation to generation.

Read them all!

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can not stress how great this book is. The time period it takes place and the conflict that arrises makes it a book I couldn't put down.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and harrowing story of a man trying to do the right thing in a world that is UN-apologeticlly wrong.

[Victoria Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story, but found it hard to read. It took me a long time, but I was reading several books at the same time.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book for a 1975 Appalachian literature class and remembered more about the moral choices August made than the violence. The historical details ring true from what I know about the drovers’ road in the mountains of western Northern Carolina. Not the easiest book to read now but worth it. I’ll read more of Ehle’s work.

“In a sense they were permitted to steal on the road; those who had suffered losses could take the lame and sick stock that had been left behind by others, or take strays, or take most anything else which was not adequately protected, the degree of their crime to be judged in terms of their desperateness.” 47

“Lord knows, he wanted to be home again; even the thought of being home rejuvenated him. He wanted to be there and see the room he had made and be with his own things again, and be free of the road entirely. To be home where everything was known and understood and expected, yet was interesting, where he was not under the shadow to prove himself in some new way, as he had been this morning.” 63-4

“Better to wait here, he thought, now that there is music. The music is washing the field. It is cutting down the anger like a sickle in ripe grain. See how other musicians gather and young people find places on the torn grass.” 149

[Bob Grenier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Land Breakers and liked it very much. I looked forward to reading The Journey of August King and was not disappointed although I think the books are very different. The writing is still superb with excellent descriptions and interesting characters and stories.

What was "The Journey?" Was it just helping Annalee to freedom? Maybe so, but I think it was more about August discovering himself and reconciling his feelings about his wife Sarah and her tragic death - and also about his beliefs about God. Was helping her and losing everything his redemption?

During the parts of the story when he was helping Annalee, I had a deep sense of foreboding until the very end when she was on her way to the north.

Four people attended our virtual meeting on the 7th. All but one person liked the book. She was appalled by the violence and set the book down but finally finished it.

Some of the members could not get a copy of the book.

I recommend the book and will add some of the other mountain series to my want to read list.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah had said he could not hear a forest breathe. He had said to her, “You cannot but I can, and that’s the difference between us.”

August King is a good man. He has worked hard to establish a home in the mountains, where nothing comes easy. In the process, he has lost his wife, Sarah. Twice a year, he travels, as do most of the other mountain people, down to the valley to trade for goods that are needed to survive in the wilder area in which he lives. On his current trip, he is unexpectedly thrown into contact with an escaped slave girl. What he does results in a story that is searing in its brutality and deafening in its commentary.

The Journey of August King is a story about right and wrong; about truth, half-truths and lies; a story about freedom and what constitutes freedom; betrayal and longing; and about courage and the importance of self-determination. Whom do we owe? Ourselves, our past, our society, our God? This book is a tour de force of human reckoning that left me trembling when I closed the last page.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fascinated and overwhelmed with the "living history" shared in the Land Breakers by
John Ehle. His writings are
so descriptive, you can hear the wind thru the trees and the creek down the mountain.
I was excited to read "August King" But I was not nearly as enamored.
It was as beautifully written with John's style; the life experiences were as tragic as the times. But the mental ramblings of August's mind lost me,
a few times.
No need in my opinion to read these 2 in order.
His stories are as real as real can be for the earliest times of the determined and hardy Appalachian people. Anything prior to this era is still part of the sacred stories of our earliest Native Americans.
John Ehle is so knowledgeable it's like he interviewed the earliest families. He knew the day to day joy and heartbreak
I'm looking forward to the next books in his series.
I'm a huge fan and follower of this part of the SE. So thankful that the National Parks are preserving the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third of John Ehle's books I have read, and each one has been a delight although quite different.. His prose is lyrical, and the story telling is spectacular. The complicated issues around slavery and human rights are magnified in the conflict facing August King. The southern Appalachian region was not the terrain for large slave holding plantations, and as a result, many who lived there had seldom or ever actually encountered a black person. August had never touched a black person and was actually a bit afraid of them, so his decision to help the runaway slave caused great internal conflict.

[Emiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In de periode van het ontstaan van de eerste nederzettingen in de Appalachen reist August King van de markt terug naar huis. Hij heeft een aantal dieren en dingen aangeschaft die goed van pas gaan komen op zijn boerderij. Onderweg hoort hij over ontsnapte slaven. Wanneer hij een van de ontsnapte slaven, een meisje van ongeveer 15, tegenkomt, moet hij beslissen wat te doen.

Het duurt even voordat het verhaal op gang komt en het is in het begin wat moeilijk door te komen, maar als het boek je dan eenmaal in zijn grip heeft laat het niet meer los! De spanning groeit naarmate het verhaal vordert. Walgelijk om te lezen wat mensen andere mensen aan kunnen doen...

[Maria Van Kempen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vind de gedachtes van august even vies als die van de anderen in het boek. Hij wordt neergezet als ‘de held’, en het is goed dat hij haar heeft geholpen natuurlijk. Buiten dat zijn zijn gedachtes nog steeds even vies als die van de anderen. Het meisje is 15 en hij is tot haar aangetrokken, hij vraagt zich af of er een jas kan worden gemaakt van het huid van een donkere man? Zulke dingen. Buiten dat vind ik ook al wilt de schrijver een kijkje geven in de gedachtes van de mensen in 1800 dat hij nog steeds het n woord niet kan gebruiken.

[Sydney E · Rating 4 out of 5]

not as many great quotes for me as the land breakers, but maybe that’s because i was reading it fast - i’m not cut out for any sort of thriller lol i just had to keep reading to make sure nothing bad happened to august and annalees!!
however, this book dealt with a lot of heavy shit in such a succinct way, very well done
august sitting in the sunshine at the end and reflecting how he had done well…!
i like how it leads nicely into the next mountain novel, which has to do with the civil war. excited to read it next!

[Faye Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

August King’s Journey is the second in Ehle’s “mountain books” about the Wright and King families, early settlers in the North Carolina mountains. Ehle’s knowledge and understanding of the mountain people and the trials they underwent makes this another very gritty and real look into the soul of the people he writes about. This is another excellent book!

[Cats W. Bats, Esq. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

poetic and philosophical, in places. also at times, august read like he was in the middle of a mental breakdown and/or wrestling with his Lust like jacob wrestling with the angel. anyway, i can't say i didn't enjoy reading it!

[J Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction with many details of everyday life in the mid-1800s that I never considered. It's as if the author was writing a news account of the day that he witnessed personally.

[Kd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth reading. Appalachian classic.

[Rick Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but very little of August’s thinking made sense to me. Very strange.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as engaging as first book in series. Disparity among sources about whether this is book 2 or 3. I read it as 2.