text:
Q: jQGrid - Form Add&Edit editoptions: disabled settings toggling between Add & Edit I am using forms to add and edit records. When adding, I want two columns to be editable. When editing, I don't want the user to edit the values in those columns but I still want to display the data on the form.
I'm using beforeShowForm to set the disabled for the edit options to disabled:false for add and disabled:true for edit.
The first time I open the add form, everything is ok. When I open it again, the two columns are disabled. If I open the edit form, which has the columns disabled, and go back to add, the columns are again editable.
Please provide information for how I can get the form to be consistently editable. Everything I'm trying so far doesn't work.
Thank you.
.jqGrid('navGrid','#pager',{add:true, edit:true, del:true},
            {//add option
                beforeShowForm: function(formid) {
                    $(this).jqGrid('setColProp', 'messageId', {editoptions:{disabled:false}});
                    $(this).jqGrid('setColProp', 'messageSubId', {editoptions:{disabled:false}});
                }
            },
            {//edit option
                beforeShowForm: function(formid) {
                    $(this).jqGrid('setColProp', 'messageId', {editoptions:{disabled:true}});
                    $(this).jqGrid('setColProp', 'messageSubId', {editoptions:{disabled:true}});
                }
            },
            {width: 450}, {width: 450});

This is the edit piece of the grid.
jQuery.extend(jQuery.jgrid.edit, {
ajaxEditOptions: { contentType: "application/json"},
savekey: [true, 13],
closeAfterAdd: true,
recreateForm: true,
closeOnEscape: true,
modal: true,
serializeEditData: function (postData) {
    postData.messageClassId = currentVal;
    return JSON.stringify(postData);
},
afterSubmit: function (response, postdata) {
     $("#msgAdmin").setGridParam({datatype:'json', page:1}).trigger('reloadGrid');
     return [true,'']; // No error
 },
beforeSubmit: function(postdata, formid) {
    // Form field validations

afterComplete : function(response, postdata, formid) {
    buildGrid();
 },
errorTextFormat: function (response) {
    if (response.status != '200') {
        return 'Error: ' + response.responseText;
    }
    else {
        return 'Data Saved!';
    }
    return [true,'']; // no error
}

});


text:
"""Provides managed registration services on behalf of :func:`.listen`
arguments.

By "managed registration", we mean that event listening functions and
other objects can be added to various collections in such a way that their
membership in all those collections can be revoked at once, based on
an equivalent :class:`._EventKey`.

"""

from __future__ import absolute_import

import weakref
import collections
import types
from .. import exc, util

_key_to_collection = collections.defaultdict(dict)
"""
Given an original listen() argument, can locate all
listener collections and the listener fn contained

(target, identifier, fn) -> {
                            ref(listenercollection) -> ref(listener_fn)
                            ref(listenercollection) -> ref(listener_fn)
                            ref(listenercollection) -> ref(listener_fn)
                        }
"""

_collection_to_key = collections.defaultdict(dict)
"""
Given a _ListenerCollection or _DispatchDescriptor, can locate
all the original listen() arguments and the listener fn contained

ref(listenercollection) -> {
                            ref(listener_fn) -> (target, identifier, fn),
                            ref(listener_fn) -> (target, identifier, fn),
                            ref(listener_fn) -> (target, identifier, fn),
                        }
"""

def _collection_gced(ref):
    # defaultdict, so can't get a KeyError
    if not _collection_to_key or ref not in _collection_to_key:
        return
    listener_to_key = _collection_to_key.pop(ref)
    for key in listener_to_key.values():
        if key in _key_to_collection:
            # defaultdict, so can't get a KeyError
            dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection[key]
            dispatch_reg.pop(ref)
            if not dispatch_reg:
                _key_to_collection.pop(key)

def _stored_in_collection(event_key, owner):
    key = event_key._key

    dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection[key]

    owner_ref = owner.ref
    listen_ref = weakref.ref(event_key._listen_fn)

    if owner_ref in dispatch_reg:
        assert dispatch_reg[owner_ref] == listen_ref
    else:
        dispatch_reg[owner_ref] = listen_ref

    listener_to_key = _collection_to_key[owner_ref]
    listener_to_key[listen_ref] = key

def _removed_from_collection(event_key, owner):
    key = event_key._key

    dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection[key]

    listen_ref = weakref.ref(event_key._listen_fn)

    owner_ref = owner.ref
    dispatch_reg.pop(owner_ref, None)
    if not dispatch_reg:
        del _key_to_collection[key]

    if owner_ref in _collection_to_key:
        listener_to_key = _collection_to_key[owner_ref]
        listener_to_key.pop(listen_ref)

def _stored_in_collection_multi(newowner, oldowner, elements):
    if not elements:
        return

    oldowner = oldowner.ref
    newowner = newowner.ref

    old_listener_to_key = _collection_to_key[oldowner]
    new_listener_to_key = _collection_to_key[newowner]

    for listen_fn in elements:
        listen_ref = weakref.ref(listen_fn)
        key = old_listener_to_key[listen_ref]
        dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection[key]
        if newowner in dispatch_reg:
            assert dispatch_reg[newowner] == listen_ref
        else:
            dispatch_reg[newowner] = listen_ref

        new_listener_to_key[listen_ref] = key

def _clear(owner, elements):
    if not elements:
        return

    owner = owner.ref
    listener_to_key = _collection_to_key[owner]
    for listen_fn in elements:
        listen_ref = weakref.ref(listen_fn)
        key = listener_to_key[listen_ref]
        dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection[key]
        dispatch_reg.pop(owner, None)

        if not dispatch_reg:
            del _key_to_collection[key]

class _EventKey(object):
    """Represent :func:`.listen` arguments.
    """

    def __init__(self, target, identifier, fn, dispatch_target, _fn_wrap=None):
        self.target = target
        self.identifier = identifier
        self.fn = fn
        if isinstance(fn, types.MethodType):
            self.fn_key = id(fn.__func__), id(fn.__self__)
        else:
            self.fn_key = id(fn)
        self.fn_wrap = _fn_wrap
        self.dispatch_target = dispatch_target

    @property
    def _key(self):
        return (id(self.target), self.identifier, self.fn_key)

    def with_wrapper(self, fn_wrap):
        if fn_wrap is self._listen_fn:
            return self
        else:
            return _EventKey(
                self.target,
                self.identifier,
                self.fn,
                self.dispatch_target,
                _fn_wrap=fn_wrap
                )

    def with_dispatch_target(self, dispatch_target):
        if dispatch_target is self.dispatch_target:
            return self
        else:
            return _EventKey(
                self.target,
                self.identifier,
                self.fn,
                dispatch_target,
                _fn_wrap=self.fn_wrap
                )

    def listen(self, *args, **kw):
        once = kw.pop("once", False)
        if once:
            self.with_wrapper(util.only_once(self._listen_fn)).listen(*args, **kw)
        else:
            self.dispatch_target.dispatch._listen(self, *args, **kw)

    def remove(self):
        key = self._key

        if key not in _key_to_collection:
            raise exc.InvalidRequestError(
                    "No listeners found for event %s / %r / %s " %
                    (self.target, self.identifier, self.fn)
                )
        dispatch_reg = _key_to_collection.pop(key)

        for collection_ref, listener_ref in dispatch_reg.items():
            collection = collection_ref()
            listener_fn = listener_ref()
            if collection is not None and listener_fn is not None:
                collection.remove(self.with_wrapper(listener_fn))

    def contains(self):
        """Return True if this event key is registered to listen.
        """
        return self._key in _key_to_collection

    def base_listen(self, propagate=False, insert=False,
                            named=False):

        target, identifier, fn = \
            self.dispatch_target, self.identifier, self._listen_fn

        dispatch_descriptor = getattr(target.dispatch, identifier)

        fn = dispatch_descriptor._adjust_fn_spec(fn, named)
        self = self.with_wrapper(fn)

        if insert:
            dispatch_descriptor.\
                    for_modify(target.dispatch).insert(self, propagate)
        else:
            dispatch_descriptor.\
                    for_modify(target.dispatch).append(self, propagate)

    @property
    def _listen_fn(self):
        return self.fn_wrap or self.fn

    def append_value_to_list(self, owner, list_, value):
        _stored_in_collection(self, owner)
        list_.append(value)

    def append_to_list(self, owner, list_):
        _stored_in_collection(self, owner)
        list_.append(self._listen_fn)

    def remove_from_list(self, owner, list_):
        _removed_from_collection(self, owner)
        list_.remove(self._listen_fn)

    def prepend_to_list(self, owner, list_):
        _stored_in_collection(self, owner)
        list_.insert(0, self._listen_fn)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


BMW Sunglasses frames from SpecsDirect.ca online optical.
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Dani: "I am just writing to thank specsdirect.com for my glasses. They are exactly what I wanted, the prescription is perfect and I can't say enough good things about specdirect.com. I will be telling everyone in need of ..."
Kat: "Wonderful no issues not one scratch, wish shipping was a little quicker "


David has an extensive background in advertising and radio that dates back to the 1970s.
In 1982, with partner Gordon Dryden, David formed the Dryden Johnson Group and grew the business into a substantial marketing and publishing company. The flagship product, the Trends series of titles, were initially designed for the Home Interest market, but were soon extended to include the Commercial Design market.
Over the next 20 years David continued to build the Trends brand and it now produces more than 60 high-quality publications a year, with specific titles for New Zealand, Australia, USA, SE Asia, the Gulf, China and India.
In 1998 David won the Ernst and Young New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He continued his involvement with this programme, as a judge of the awards and through mentoring up to a dozen different entrepreneurs around the country.
In 2005 he was on the international judging panel for the Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Monte Carlo.
He also judges a number of other Awards programmes in New Zealand and is a director on several company boards.
As the digital media landscape has evolved, David has kept Trends at the forefront of developments and innovations – from the initial establishment of the original Trends Ideas website, through video production by TrendsTV, to the launch of the Trends digital platform in 2014.
David is a firm advocate of online environments – an area in which he sees Trends developing an even stronger position in the future.
David is also committed to expanding the company globally, and offering the multiple media platforms in all the countries where Trends has a presence. In some countries, Trends has 100% ownership of its titles and platforms, and in other countries works with a partner.
Meanwhile, Trends is looking at further expansion with other specialty subjects outside the home and commercial design market.


text:
De Bondsrepubliek Duitsland (informeel: West-Duitsland) nam deel aan de Olympische Zomerspelen 1984 in Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten.

Medailleoverzicht

Deelnemers en resultaten per onderdeel

Atletiek

Basketbal

Boksen

Boogschieten

Gewichtheffen

Gymnastiek

Handbal

Mannen

Vrouwen

Hockey

Mannen

Vrouwen

Judo

Kanovaren

Moderne vijfkamp

Paardensport

Roeien

Schermen

Schietsport

Schoonspringen

Sychroonzwemmen

Voetbal

Volleybal

Waterpolo

Wielersport

Worstelen

Zeilen

Zwemmen

Duitsland
1984

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Start by marking "God's Little Acre" as Want to Read:
We'd love your help. Let us know what's wrong with this preview of God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell.
Preview — God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Caldwell,
Lewis Nordan (Foreword by)
Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of Ty Ty's son-in-law, a cotton mill worker in a nearby town who is killed during a strike.First published in 1933, God's Little Acre was censured by the Georgia Literary Commission, banned in Boston, and once led the all-time best-seller list, with more than ten million copies in print. ...more
Published February 1st 1995 by University of Georgia Press (first published 1933)
Georgia (United States)
Audie Award for Fiction, Abridged (1998)
To ask other readers questions about God's Little Acre, please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about God's Little Acre
Best Books of the Decade: 1930s
Best Southern Literature
All LanguagesEnglish (170) Español (4) Français (2) Italiano (9) Magyar (2) Nederlands (1)
Start your review of God's Little Acre
May 07, 2015 Howard rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Ms. Park
Shelves: fathers-and-sons, fathers-and-daughters, american-south, reviewed, family, family-dysfunction, humor, fiction
What William Faulkner implies, Erskine Caldwell records. -- Chicago Tribune
Caldwell writes with a full-blooded gutsy vitality that makes him akin to the truly great. -- San Francisco Chronicle
At one time God's Little Acre (1932) was the most popular novel ever published, selling a reported fourteen million copies. But in the process, the book ignited a firestorm of controversy, leading to numerous efforts to suppress it.
A year earlier, Caldwell's Tobacco Road was published. It became a runaway What William Faulkner implies, Erskine Caldwell records. -- Chicago Tribune
A year earlier, Caldwell's Tobacco Road was published. It became a runaway best-seller after it was adapted as a stage play. When the play ended its long run years later, it was the longest-running play in Broadway's history. The play spurred book sales and eventually ten million copies were sold.
Caldwell's portrayal of poor white southern tenant farmers who had been exploited by their landlords outraged many southerners and received mixed reviews from critics. There were also charges that Tobacco Road's explicit sexual scenes constituted obscenity and it was banned from many libraries, including in his hometown, and efforts were made to suppress it elsewhere.
That was only the beginning. God's Little Acre was even more controversial.
Once again Caldwell wrote about the dire straits of poor white rural people who when faced with choices rarely chose the right one. But it also focuses on southern textile mill hands who are exploited by their employers. At one plant the workers strike for higher wages and a shorter work week, but because they are deprived of union protection the owners lock them out and shut down the mill.
There is no doubt that Caldwell was influenced by several strikes by southern textile workers that occurred in the late '20's and early '30's, strikes that were in response to the fact that they were the lowest paid textile workers in the nation.
While Caldwell again presented his story as a curious combination of black humor and tragedy, a combination that confuses critics -- not to mention readers -- God's Little Acre became very serious -- deadly serious -- when it turned from the humorous efforts of Ty Ty Walden and his sons to find gold on their farm to an attempt by Ty Ty's son-in-law to forcibly re-open the textile plant that has kept him and his co-workers unemployed for a year and a half.
The sexual scenes in God's Little Acre are even more explicit than in Tobacco Road. And while they are relatively mild by today's standards, they were not mild by the standards of that day.
In 1933, Caldwell and his publisher, Viking Press, were hauled into court on a charge of disseminating pornography. It was reported that more than sixty writers, editors, and literary critics rallied to his support. Caldwell's defense was that if his book was obscene it was because the truth was obscene. The judge ruled in his favor, declaring that the book was literature and not pornography. However, that did not deter other efforts to suppress the book. But what would-be book banners never seem to learn is that all that publicity spurs sales and the novel became not only Caldwell's biggest seller, but one of the biggest ever.
The book was still very controversial many, many years later and that is why I tucked my copy inside my lit book during my sophomore year in high school. I knew that it was going to be a lot more interesting than my assigned reading. Well, I must confess that it wasn't just the controversy. It was also the lurid cover featuring a scantily-clad, well-endowed young lady on the cover of the paperback re-issue that I possessed. But that's another story.
You probably already know the meaning of the book's title by now, but if not, I don't wish to be a spoiler. I'll let the publisher's blurb describing the book do that. ...more
Feb 12, 2012 Richard Derus rated it liked it
ERSKINE CALDWELL
Open Road Media
$1.99 Kindle edition, available now
Rating: 3.75* of five
The University of Georgia Says: Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the
The University of Georgia Says: Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of Ty Ty's son-in-law, a cotton mill worker in a nearby town who is killed during a strike.First published in 1933, God's Little Acre was censured by the Georgia Literary Commission, banned in Boston, and once led the all-time best-seller list, with more than ten million copies in print. (This is the edition I read in 2012, which has a foreword by Lewis Nordan that I consider very important to read.)
Open Road Media Says: Caldwell's blockbuster bestseller: In the Depression-era Deep South, destitute farmer Ty Ty Walden struggles to raise a family on his own
Single father and poor Southern farmer Ty Ty Walden has a plan to save his farm and his family: He will tear his fields apart until he finds gold. While Ty Ty obsesses over his fool's quest, his sons and daughters search in vain for their own dreams of instant happiness—whether from money, violence, or sex.
God's Little Acre is a classic dark comedy, a satire that lampoons a broken South while holding a light to the toll that poverty takes on the hopes and dreams of the poor themselves.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.
**THE E-BOOK EDITIONS ARE ON SALE FOR BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2016**
My Review: First published in 1933, when the author was a mere slip of a thirty-year-old, this novel starts in a hole and keeps digging deeper and deeper. Literally, not metaphorically. Well, literally AND metaphorically.
Ty Ty and his sons are poor white Southern Americans in the grimmest economic times of the 20th century. There was revolution brewing because of the depth of the economic crisis, and the complete absence of any safety net for anyone at all. Ty Ty and his boys, like modern-day conservatives, are digging for gold in their unpromising Georgia home's unyielding land, and finding lots of dirt and not much else. The womenfolk are trying to keep food on the table and as many rapists as possible outside. The ones at home, well, we all have our crosses to bear, don't we?
Since the land's being dug up for gold instead of farmed for food, the boys go off to work in the textile mills. Yes Virginia, there once was a textile industry in the USA. Now it's all in Pakistan, where a couple dollars a month is a (barely) living wage. Mill owners naturally want to keep their costs down to maximize profits, and families are going hungry to make sure the rich get richer (is this sounding familiar?), until the unions come to town. With predictable results.
There's death, there's misery, there's hard work followed by failure, there's more misery, the end.
And what an end! What a beautiful piece of writing this is, and how very grim the picture it paints in its simple shapes and clear colors. There is nothing unclear or muddy about the book, except the minds of the characters, and that is by the author's design.
The search for gold isn't as stupid as it sounds. The Georgia north was Cherokee country until white folks found gold in them thar hills and booted the native inhabitants off the land. In the novel, some few flakes are found, but never enough to do what Ty Ty wants, which is free him and his family from want and dependence on others. It works well as a metaphor for the frayed and threadbare Murrikin dream, too: Keep working keep working keep working and the rewards will (not) come! Or if they come, at what cost, and ultimately to what end?
The title, God's Little Acre, refers to Ty Ty's gift of one acre of his farmland to God to support the church. But because Ty Ty wants gold for himself and his family, he moves the location of the acre at will, so he'll be sure not to give his gold away. Not so unfamiliar here, either, is it?
Murder, betrayal, lust, rage, and that's all before we get to the workplace! Is it any wonder this book was called obscene by the forces of reaction? It *was* obscene! The horrible exploitive relationships in every single nook and cranny of the world the characters inhabit is obscene. The dreadful ignorance, the grinding and maliciously intentional poverty, all of it obscene!
Sadly, with the slow withering of liberalism, the story's outlines are rapidly recrudescing in the modern Murrika being carved from the living flesh of the unwashed masses too drugged on the crack of an American Dream they will never, ever attain by Lotto or hard work or virtue rewarded. The horror is we've been here before, and a few brave and good men tried to steer us away from this hideous abyss. And here we are, back again.
Sick-making, isn't it? Read the book, and use it as a cautionary tale. ...more
Apr 29, 2018 Jessaka rated it liked it
Speaking of God's Little Acre, which I don't wish to do, I had a dream last night that I was sitting in Ty Ty's 1952 Pontiac, which he could not have owned since they lived in the 1930s, but hey, dreams are like that.
I had been trying to clean up their ol' rusty car, as if that would also clean up their sordid lives. Then I cut a wire near the glove box because it was useless, and one of Ty Ty's girls said that her husband had planned on fixing it. I said, "He can now just add a new wire." And Speaking of God's Little Acre, which I don't wish to do, I had a dream last night that I was sitting in Ty Ty's 1952 Pontiac, which he could not have owned since they lived in the 1930s, but hey, dreams are like that.
I had been trying to clean up their ol' rusty car, as if that would also clean up their sordid lives. Then I cut a wire near the glove box because it was useless, and one of Ty Ty's girls said that her husband had planned on fixing it. I said, "He can now just add a new wire." And then I found a Pontiac Repair Manual and began reading it. Asking for a piece of paper and a pen, I decided that I would write a review on the car manual, but I woke up after writing just a few lines.
I disliked this book so you know that the last thing I wanted to do was dream about those people, which I may as well tell you are NOT like any hillbillies I have met, but I am sure they are out there somewhere.
Thank God it was only a 200 pager. Why did I read it? Well, when I was a teenager my mom took away his other book that I was reading, "Tobacco Road," and I had read it again when I was in my early 30s, but I had forgotten how repulsive it was. My mom was right for once in her life, and she may have been right about many other things, but I don't recall. I just know that taking that book away from me imprinted it into my mind, and I was going to read it someday. I am surprised that I didn't check it out again and hide it like some kids would do.
And why did the librarians allow me to check it out in the first place? It should have been banned from anyone under 30. Why would anyone want to read about other people's sordid lives? Well, that is just it. We humans sit and watch stupid soap operas, and the rancid lives of Roseanne and her kids. We listen to the news. Gee, I can complain a lot when I am half awake.
So what is this book about? Well, I had another review going yesterday that was a parody of the book and all because I didn't really want to talk about the book that much. It doesn't deserve my trying to tell you what it is all about or maybe it does. Maybe it is that I don't feel that I deserve to put myself through it after reading the hobnobbing thing. Wow! I just pulled a word I never use out of my head and didn't even know and had to look it up. Hobnob. And it was the right word to use.
So here is what I had written:
He was standing out in my yard with a shovel in his hand. His orange face looked like a sliced cantaloupe with two seedy eyes peering at me. I thought to run, but instead I yelled, "What are y'all doing in my yard with that shovel?"
It spoke: I am digging for gold.
Me: I hear that y'alls been digging 20 foot holes all over America, ruining everything ya touch, and now y'alls want to ruin our land? Y'alls crazy. And where's all those people y'all hired? I heard that they all fell into holes that they couldn't get out of? I also heard tell it that y'alls been chasing tail all over our country when ya ain't been digging holes. Well, I'll just watch ya slip into a hole that ya can't get out of.
It spoke: You'll see. I am going to make our land great again, just as soon as I find the gold.
Me: I'm a telling y'all, we don't have any gold. I know, because I saw what came up when our groundhog was out back digging a hole for her babies. All we have is no good rocks, plastic garbage bags and tin cans. Y'all might run into an old car part or a washing machine, but we don't have any gold! And when ya'lls finished we will have to clean up your mess, and it won't be easy. But I am telling y'all now, digging in Cherokee County ain't duck soup. It will break y'alls back. But personally, I don't think y'all have the ability to do what you think y'alls doing, so I'm going sit over yonder there and just watch.
Walks away mumbling: That cattywampus. He's fat as a tick and windy as a bag full of farts.
And that is it for me. The truth in this story lies in the dream and the groundhog. Those thingst really did happen.
Note: After all has been said and done, this was actually a very entertaining read with a moral at the end. ...more
Jun 26, 2015 Teresa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Recommended to Teresa by: Howard
Yes, this is the cover of the edition I read, and it's both right and wrong: the house should not be a wooden shack; the woman was not wearing a mini-dress (or slip) or high heels; and the hair of the woman on the bed should be brown.
In the comments section of the last book I finished, Zola's Nana, my friend Howard (and Erskine Caldwell expert) said its theme would segue nicely into this one. He was right of course, especially with its depiction of sexuality. He said it was the first time he'd Yes, this is the cover of the edition I read, and it's both right and wrong: the house should not be a wooden shack; the woman was not wearing a mini-dress (or slip) or high heels; and the hair of the woman on the bed should be brown.
In the comments section of the last book I finished, Zola's Nana, my friend Howard (and Erskine Caldwell expert) said its theme would segue nicely into this one. He was right of course, especially with its depiction of sexuality. He said it was the first time he'd linked the two authors (Caldwell was born the year after Zola died and in a vastly different kind of place than Paris), but a blurb by the San Francisco Chronicle included with this edition agrees.
The striking workers at the cotton mill evoked another recently finished book, Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others, another depressing reminder that worldwide social and economic injustices have not gone away and probably never will. The patriarch Ty Ty with his never-ending digging foresees a Beckettian protagonist, or perhaps harkens back to a Quixotian one.
As with Tobacco Road, what Caldwell believes is ambiguous. Is he advocating free love, a surrendering to our animal nature, the suppression of those instincts being the root cause of tragic conflicts? I doubt it. And though it may not seem so in the beginning, Caldwell affords the characters here more dignity than those of Tobacco Road. He portrays the ignorance and inherent racism, but also points to small growths, as when Ty Ty realizes the young albino man is actually a person.
As with the end of Tobacco Road, Caldwell displays a lyricism he uses sparingly, and thus to great effect. It's in the description of the sameness of the yellow houses in the company town; in the son-in-law Will's visions of the "ivy-walled mills", "the bloody-lipped men" and "the girls with eyes like morning-glories"; and in the subversive speech of the two black men near the end.
But what most struck me as I read on is if Caldwell's Tobacco Road can be compared to and contrasted with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (which Howard and I did), the same can be done with Steinbeck's East of Eden and this novel, which anticipates the former by almost twenty years. Though not as obvious (Steinbeck is always more obvious), this is a Cain-and-Abel story too. The titles are reminiscent of each other as well, as if God's acre (a wonderful symbol!) is also somewhere east of Eden. ...more
Oct 25, 2012 R.W. Ridley rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Writers
Recommended to R.W. by: Staff Recommendation at Barnes and Noble
It is quite possible that God's Little Acre has now become my favorite book. It's inspired me to read more of Erskine Caldwell's novels. I can't believe no one has recommended him to me before. He is a master at the art of character development. If you read it expecting your standard story structure of introduction, conflict and conclusion, you'll be disappointed. Caldwell somehow manages to create a compelling story that centers on character development through conflict after conflict. Ty Ty is It is quite possible that God's Little Acre has now become my favorite book. It's inspired me to read more of Erskine Caldwell's novels. I can't believe no one has recommended him to me before. He is a master at the art of character development. If you read it expecting your standard story structure of introduction, conflict and conclusion, you'll be disappointed. Caldwell somehow manages to create a compelling story that centers on character development through conflict after conflict. Ty Ty is desperate to find gold on his property. Will is desperate to turn the power on at the mill. Pluto is anxious about counting votes for the upcoming election for sheriff. Darling Jill is desperate to sow her wild oats. Every man is desperate to ravage Griselda. The book is a boiling caldron of desperation and sexual tension.
There are no hidden messages in this book. The book gets its title from Ty Ty's offering to God. He has set aside a single acre on his land and dedicated it to God. Should he strike gold on that acre, all of it would go to the church. Ty Ty relocates the acre whenever he wants to dig in God's little acre because he doesn't want to risk giving his 'lode' to the church.
This book was published in 1933 so it is full of racially insensitive language and stereotypes. Women are nothing more than sexual objects. Part of that is the era in which it was written, and the region in which it is written about. Part of it is Caldwell's writing philosophy. I found an old interview in The Paris Review with Caldwell where he is asked whether or not he has control over his characters. This is his answer;
"I have no influence over them. I'm only an observer, recording. The story is always being told by the characters themselves. In fact, I'm often critical, or maybe ashamed, of what some of them say and do—their profanity or their immorality. But I have no control over it."
As a writer, I totally agree with this approach to writing. You can't censor your characters even if your beliefs are in opposition to theirs. If you do, then you're not writing an honest story. Life can be ugly and unfair. As a writer, you have to allow the grotesque to be told.
BTW – Caldwell received a lot of grief in his life for the way he depicted the south. Southerner's hated that he focused on the poverty and ignorance. Margaret Mitchell publicly criticized him, which is odd because I've always considered Scarlett O'Hara to be one of the great sociopaths in American literature, but I digress. I bring this particular criticism up because if reality TV has taught us anything it is that Caldwell was dead on with his depiction of the south. I've never seen the show, but I've seen clips of Honey Boo Boo online and there are definitely shades of God's Little Acre in that family. I've lived in the south for 35 years now, and I can say with great confidence that Caldwell was spot on.
In short, this book is a classic that should be required reading for anyone who aspires to be a writer.
Aug 12, 2013 Shaun rated it it was amazing
Shelves: read-in-2013, erskine-caldwell, southern-gothic
Another odd little gem from Erskine Caldwell. Just finished reading Tobacco Road, which I enjoyed and so was anxious to read this, and alas was not disappointed.
Interestingly, I can't exactly pinpoint what I liked, which makes me like it that much more.
The story and the characters aren't meant to be taken at face value and in that way, this reads more like a fable/fairy tale than it does anything else. As with Tobacco Road, the characters are caricatures and the story itself borders on the Another odd little gem from Erskine Caldwell. Just finished reading Tobacco Road, which I enjoyed and so was anxious to read this, and alas was not disappointed.
The story and the characters aren't meant to be taken at face value and in that way, this reads more like a fable/fairy tale than it does anything else. As with Tobacco Road, the characters are caricatures and the story itself borders on the absurd. Yet, there's something that resonates so clearly as true, so much so that it's hard not look for the deeper meaning.
Interestingly, reading through many reviews, it seems to speak differently to different people, and not at all to some.
So here's my take:
Though filled with religious undertones, I didn't get that this was a statement on religion outside of its cultural context. I don't think this was a comment about race or the role or value of women nor a scathing commentary necessarily directed only at the South (though he tackles specific issues present at the time it was written). I also wouldn't reduce this to soft porn as some reviews I have read do.
If anything, I felt this was a story about man and his struggle against societal forces (whatever those might be), and thus had and still has far reaching implications.
You have the poor, struggling farmers, specifically Ty Ty with his unending search for gold and his odd appreciation for his daughter-in-law's beauty. You have the cotton mills and their use and abuse of workers. You have members of a family struggling against each other, yet simultaneously supporting each other. You have a distinction and subsequent tension between the mill workers who make their living off of machinery and the farmers who still work off the land. You have the little men against the big corporations. You have the base desires, food and sex, and man's basic need for purpose and dignity. And then you have this all-too-true social hierarchy in which the repressed are all too happy to repress others when given the chance.
In short, you have civilized animals.
This is one of those books that you have to ponder long after the fact. I would love to see this performed live, as amidst all the profound ideas is a humor that would be even more obvious on stage.
Bottom line: I think this is going on my favorites shelf.
Would recommend this to anyone who appreciates well-crafted and relevant writing, and willing to dig beyond the surface. Unlike Ty Ty, you're bound to find gold.
A favorite excerpt:
Not really a spoiler but to keep the review manageable...(view spoiler)[
Ty Ty got up. "It's a pity all folks ain't got the sense dogs are born with."
"The trouble with people is that they try to fool themselves into believing that they're different from the way God made them. You go to church and a preacher tells you things that deep down in your heart you know ain't so. But most people are so dead inside that they believe it and try to make everybody else live that way. People out to live like God made us to live. When you sit down by yourself and feel what's in you, that's the real way to live. It's feeling. Some people talk about your head being the thing to go by, but it ain't so. Your head gives you sense to show you how to deal with people when it comes to striking a bargain and things like that, but it can't feel for you. People have got to feel for themselves as God made them to fell. It's folks who let their head run them who make all the mess of living. Your head can't make you love a man, if you don't feel like loving him. It's got to be a feeling down inside of you like you and Will had."
"There was a mean trick played on us somewhere. God put us in the bodies of animals and tried to make us act like people. That was the beginning of trouble. If He had made us like we are, and not called us people, the last one of us would know how to live. A man can't live, feeling himself from the inside, and listening to what the preachers say. He can't do both, but he can do one or the other. He can live like we were made to live, and feel himself on the inside or he can live like the preachers say, and be dead on the inside. A man has got God in him from the start, and when he is made to live like a preacher says to live, there's going to be trouble.
Feb 18, 2017 Literary Chic rated it liked it
I wanted to like God's Little Acre. I read that it had been banned in its day so I immediately wanted to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't get far with me.
The main plot has the patriarch and his poor family digging for gold on a Georgian farm. Additionally, there's a decent storyline about unfair labor practices in a mill. On those two main plots, lean the most base, over-sexed adult characters you may ever read.
In the last couple of chapters, the sexual antics cease and Caldwell has the I wanted to like God's Little Acre. I read that it had been banned in its day so I immediately wanted to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't get far with me.
In the last couple of chapters, the sexual antics cease and Caldwell has the protagonist shift to a wise patriarch. There is a BRILLIANT conversation towards the end between the patriarch and a daughter-in-law. Although there is so much truth in the patriarch's soliloquy, I think there must have been better ways to reach the moral of the story than the route Caldwell took.
Chapters 18-20: 4 stars
Chapters 1-17: 2 stars ...more
Mar 05, 2008 Tom rated it really liked it
God's Little Acre is a great exposition on man's relationship with God. We make promises to God--Dedicate our little acre to him--and then move it and change our promise when things don't work out the way we planned. However, this review is an excuse to tell of my meeting Erskine Caldwell.
It was in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in the Waldorf Bar and Grill and pool hall. I was probably about 14 years old. Roger Owens and I used to save a couple of dollars and then hitchhike into Klamath Falls to shoot God's Little Acre is a great exposition on man's relationship with God. We make promises to God--Dedicate our little acre to him--and then move it and change our promise when things don't work out the way we planned. However, this review is an excuse to tell of my meeting Erskine Caldwell.
It was in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in the Waldorf Bar and Grill and pool hall. I was probably about 14 years old. Roger Owens and I used to save a couple of dollars and then hitchhike into Klamath Falls to shoot pool at the Waldorf. I met many interesting characters there; enough to write many novels just describing their lives. One day I was engaged in a conversation with a down and out drunk who had obviously been on a several day binge. After talking for a few minutes, we introduced ourselves. The drunk said, and I am paraphrasing the best to my memory,
"I'm Erskine Caldwell. I'm a writer. Maybe you've heard of me. I wrote God's Little Acre and a bunch of shit like that."
I had read God's Little Acre, so I smiled and said my name is Tom Sanders. Glad to meet you. I patronised this poor delusional drunk, and told the story to my friends later that day. Then, a couple of days later, I read in The Herald and News that Erskine Caldwell had been to Klamath Falls for a book talk and signing. They had a picture of him, and sure enough it was the down-and-out drunk I had talked to for over and hour. I guess Erskine had a bit of a problem with alcohol, and used to disappear for weeks at a time, ending up on skid row. So it goes. Oh--another interesting bit of trivia: Erskine Caldwell was a heavy smoker and died of emphysema. He is is buried in Scenic Hills Memorial Park in Ashland, Oregon. Since he died in Arizona, I don't know why they brought his body to Ashland. Perhaps it was the wish of his fourth and final wife. ...more
Mar 31, 2014 Pamela rated it it was amazing
I'm a big fan of Southern Gothic, and this is pretty much as good as it gets. Hard to believe it was written in the early 30s. Very hard. Caldwell's style may be a bit off-putting to some--I've read reviews that slam him for the repetition of images and phrases, but if you just sit back and let the words flow over you, it's mesmerizing.
Much like Things Fall Apart the story seems like nothing more than a simple fable while you are reading it. It's afterwards, when you can't get it out of your I'm a big fan of Southern Gothic, and this is pretty much as good as it gets. Hard to believe it was written in the early 30s. Very hard. Caldwell's style may be a bit off-putting to some--I've read reviews that slam him for the repetition of images and phrases, but if you just sit back and let the words flow over you, it's mesmerizing.
Much like Things Fall Apart the story seems like nothing more than a simple fable while you are reading it. It's afterwards, when you can't get it out of your mind that you realize its true brilliance. ...more
Nov 24, 2012 Kelli rated it did not like it
Shelves: the-books-of-2012, books-of-2013
My favourite part of this book is the very last sentence. I don't remember what the sentence was about, I was too busy celebrating that id come to the end of this soap opera of a novel to notice the content.
Honestly, this is the worst book I've read in a long time. In fact I can't remember reading a book to the end that was as disgusting as this one. There was not one likeable character in the entire book. There was no plot or subplot that did not disgust me. Just a thoroughly wretched reading My favourite part of this book is the very last sentence. I don't remember what the sentence was about, I was too busy celebrating that id come to the end of this soap opera of a novel to notice the content.
Honestly, this is the worst book I've read in a long time. In fact I can't remember reading a book to the end that was as disgusting as this one. There was not one likeable character in the entire book. There was no plot or subplot that did not disgust me. Just a thoroughly wretched reading experience. ...more
Apr 15, 2015 Ned rated it liked it
Picked this up in a little independent bookstore while visiting Chapel Hill, NC, to have a little southern memento in the form of a little old (but well preserved) Signet pocket sized paperback. I think I payed $3 in cash. A strange little tale of the south (Augusta Georgia) where Ty Ty (the elder) digs hole after hole in vain trying to find gold. He harangues and bullies and tricks his adult children into his pitiful endeavor. This book has all the strangeness of O'Conner or McCuthers yet is Picked this up in a little independent bookstore while visiting Chapel Hill, NC, to have a little southern memento in the form of a little old (but well preserved) Signet pocket sized paperback. I think I payed $3 in cash. A strange little tale of the south (Augusta Georgia) where Ty Ty (the elder) digs hole after hole in vain trying to find gold. He harangues and bullies and tricks his adult children into his pitiful endeavor. This book has all the strangeness of O'Conner or McCuthers yet is written in a simple, childish style with mature themes. Published in 1939, it is hard to image these simpletons exist (of course they did, and do), but they have a native, cunning sexual intelligence. It is about farmers and working men, and their love/hatred of labor control and capitalism. But the obsession is the primacy of 0/sex, as when Ty Ty opines unabashedly and openly about his daughter in law:
p. 78. "I ain't ashamed of nothing", Ty Ty said heatedly. "I reckon Griselda is just about the prettiest girl I ever did see. There ain't a man alive who've ever seen a finer looking pair of rising beauties as she's got. Why? Man alive! They're that pretty it makes me feel sometimes like getting right down on my hands and knees like these old hound dogs you see chasing after a flowing bitch. You just ache to get down and lick something. That's the way, and its God's own truth as he would tell it himself if he could talk like the rest of us. You don't mean to sit there and say you've seen them, do you?" Will asked, winking at Griselda and Rosamond. "Seen them? Why, man alive! I spend all my spare time trying to slip up on her when she ain't looking to see them more. Seen them? Man alive! Just like a rabbit likes clover! When you've seen them once, that's the only start. You can't sit calm and peaceful and think of nothing else until you see them again. And every time you see them it makes you feel just a little bit more like that old hound dog I was talking about. You're sitting out there in the yard somewhere all calm and pleased and all of a sudden you'll get a notion in your head. You sit there, telling it to go away and let you rest, and all the time there's something getting up inside of you. You can't stop it. Because you can't put your hands on it, you can't talk to it, because you can't make it here.
The women are equally base, and sensual, as when the beautiful Griselda enjoys the strangeness of life in town, and feels the pulse of humanity and its crawling essence:
p. 132. Through the open windows the soft summer night floated into the room. It was a soft night, and it was warm, but with the evening air there was something else that excited Griselda. She could hear sounds, voices, murmurs, that were like none she had ever heard before. A woman's laughter, a child's excited cry, and the faint gurgle of a waterfall somewhere below all came into the room together. There was a feeling in the air of living people just like herself, and this she had never felt before. The new knowledge that all those people out there, all those sounds, were as real as she herself was made her heart beat faster. Never had the noises of Augusta sounded like these, in the city there were other sounds of another race of people. It was gorillas.
The men revere the raw power of women, and fear them for their secret knowledge and power. The hapless Pluto observes the powerful Will, as he indulges his passion with purposeful ignorance of the consequences… he follows his desire like a wild animal, oblivious to bystanders:
p. 140. Beside her, Pluto was bewildered. He had not felt the things she had. She knew no man would. Pluto was speechless with wonder at Will and Griselda, but he was unmoved. Darling Jill had felt the surge of their lives pass through the room while Will stood before them tearing Griselda's clothes to shreds, and Rosamond had. But Pluto was a man, and he would never understand how they felt. Even Will, who brought it, had acted only with the guidance of his want with Griselda. She was stunning, standing in the windowsill naked.
A strange aspect of this book was the exact repetition of passages, for example the masses of young ladies in the mill, over and over…
p. 149. It looked as if everything would come true. Here in the millyard now were the mild eyed valley girls with erect breasts behind the mill windows they would look like morning glories.
The fear of urban life, represented by Pluto's terror, as he hopes to return to the country:
p. 156. He had become afraid of the man beside him, he was afraid the man would suddenly turn with a knife in his hand and cut his throat from ear to ear. He knew then that he was out of place in a cotton mill town. The country, back at home in Marion, was the place for him to go as quickly as possible. He promised himself he would never again leave it if only he could get back safely this time.
The alpha males rule in this tale, as the beautiful Griselda feels the power in the aging Ty Ty, and nostalgically connects to him:
p. 162. I would have stayed with Will the rest of my life. Because when a man does that to a woman, Pa, it makes love so strong nothing in the world can stop it. It must be God in people to do that. It's something, anyway, I have it now. Ty Ty patted her hand. He could think of nothing to say, because there beside him sat a woman who knew as he did a secret of living. After awhile he breathed deeply, and lifted his head from her shoulder. "He'll never learn, Pa, Buck just isn't like you and Will. A man has to be born that way at the start."
Truthfully, I've never read so much misogyny and crudity – an uncivilized ragtag family with no scruples or education. They remind me of why we need the constraints of religion – to elevate the baseness of such people. But the book is told seductively, in a kind of secret code that I just could not seem to unravel. It was entertaining, and the mystery of these people (who are inexplicably never described in terms of age or physical appearance).
I'll read Caldwell again, and I'll see what others have to say about God's little acre (a metaphor for tithing, and how man tries to trick and cheat the almighty to line his own pockets).
Sep 12, 2015 Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma rated it liked it
I have taken quite a while before writing a review on this as I was travelling.
When I picked up this book, I actually didn't know what to expect. But the title is what caught my eye. God's little acre, is a peace of land belonging to Ty Ty, the father to Darling Jill, Buck and Shaw.
He is a poor man who's looking for gold. He goes around digging his land in search of the mineral but doesn't find any. He has however preserved God's little acre, as a sacrifice to God.
Most of his family members I have taken quite a while before writing a review on this as I was travelling.
Most of his family members think it's a bad idea digging around, rather than putting the land into better use. Something that can actually earn him some income. Ty ty however, is adamant and believes that one day he will strike gold.
There is also some biskering between members of his family. Mainly the row revolves around Griselda, Buck's wife who is a very beautiful dame. He is admired by every male member of Ty ty's family and this causes a lot of distress to her husband buck.
Most of the family members are poor and still live with their father. Only Jim is well of but he's mean and doesn't help any of them.
This a story of a poor family searching for gold, trying to live together, with as little affection towards one another. Tbey are crude and don't care so much about how others feel. This leads eventually to murder. ...more
Mar 03, 2008 Chris rated it it was amazing
perfect southern goth, with one of the best families of all time
May 01, 2016 B. Tollison rated it it was ok
Two words: Very base. The characters are all simple, self-centered, and obsessed with having sex, mostly with the exceptionally attractive Griselda. Griselda, like all the women in God's Little Acre, is portrayed as a passive sex object for the men to fight over; which they do, regularly. As a portrait of what gender roles might have been like in the 1930's, and might still be like in some parts of the American South, this dynamic might have some merit, but, since we're only ever given a male's Two words: Very base. The characters are all simple, self-centered, and obsessed with having sex, mostly with the exceptionally attractive Griselda. Griselda, like all the women in God's Little Acre, is portrayed as a passive sex object for the men to fight over; which they do, regularly. As a portrait of what gender roles might have been like in the 1930's, and might still be like in some parts of the American South, this dynamic might have some merit, but, since we're only ever given a male's perspective, it's difficult to see past the blatant misogyny. The book is clearly a product of its time, and so I grant it some allowance for that, but it's that misogyny that renders all the women in God's Little Acre as incredibly one dimensional and replaceable, and that is something I'm not so willing to forgive.
The only characters with any depth are the father and protagonist, Ty Ty, and the son in law, Will. For over 15 years, instead of using his farm to grow crops, Ty Ty has been digging massive holes all over his property in search of gold. He occasionally ruminates about God and life, but his philosophising never ventures beyond a simple acceptance of his and others' place in the world and of God's mysterious ways. God's Little Acre refers to a small section of his land of which he has promised to donate the proceeds of anything grown on it to the church. Only he never grows anything and actually continues to shift the piece of nominal land so that he can dig it for gold and not have to subsequently give up what he finds to the church. This is probably the best part of the story for me. A commentary on greed and the tricks people will pull in an attempt to trick their own beliefs and gods. It's a pity the story didn't offer any more of this kind of insight.
Will is one of many cotton mill workers out of work due to a labour and pay dispute. He spends most of his time venting and worrying about getting his job back. Through Will's situation we learn a little about rural life during the great depression and gain some insight into the effects of labour disputes on the working class but beyond that, it doesn't feel like Caldwell was saying much else.
In fact, in one of the later scenes, Will becomes a beacon of antiquated, masculine self-indulgence. He literally tears a woman's clothes off and rips them to shreds in front of her. This apparently has her loins burning so badly (not to mention the loins of one of the on-looking women) that she has no choice but to surrender herself to him. There's nothing in the scene that suggests (at least to me) that Caldwell was trying to say anything other than describing base people carrying out base acts. (Slight spoiler) We don't even get to see inside the head of Will's wife who was also witness to his chest thumping, caveman act, in fact, she doesn't say anything at all and so is rendered almost entirely irrelevant. Just another useless object. (End of slight spoiler)
The fact that everyone's sexual indiscretions (of which there are many) go with virtually no consequence not only renders such acts meaningless, and thus uninteresting to read, but never elevates the story any higher than soap-opera level entertainment.
I found it difficult to sympathise with characters that are so unbelievably simple-minded. They seem incapable of making correct decisions or of caring about anything above food, sex, and (for Ty Ty) digging up gold. Without any other dimensions, I really had no reason to care about what happened to anyone by the end of the story.
Caldwell succeeds in creating a portrait of characters controlled only by their base urges but doesn't actually provide much in the way of insight. It's one thing to point out such banal, circular behaviour, and to put it onto paper, but it's a completely different thing to actually convey the potential depth and substance such acts can impart on the people involved and on us as readers. I'm sure some people could invent symbolism and interpret in any creative number of ways, but I feel that would be looking for meaning where there isn't any, or at least not enough to warrant looking for in the first place.
While there is some humour in God's Little Acre (mostly at the start) it is nowhere near adequate enough to carry the story, unlike in Caldwell's other novel, Tobacco Road. While both novels are written in an almost identical style with similar ideas and characters, at least the family in Tobacco Road are a little more justified in their baseness since they're always on the verge of starvation. Or maybe the only difference between the two novels is that I happened to read Tobacco Road first and so was already tired of Caldwell's style by the time I came to God's Little Acre.
It is a style that is easy to read (much like Steinbeck), but offers little more substance than an episode of Coronation Street. ...more
Oct 12, 2014 backlist bitch rated it liked it · review of another edition
"There was a mean trick played on us somewhere. God put us in the bodies of animals and tried to make us act like people. That was the beginning of trouble."
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell left a big impression on me so it was only natural to seek out Caldwell's other books. God's Little Acre was published just one year after Tobacco Road and while both focus on the rural poor in Georgia during the Great Depression, they are somewhat different in tone. This book was more serious and focused on "There was a mean trick played on us somewhere. God put us in the bodies of animals and tried to make us act like people. That was the beginning of trouble."
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell left a big impression on me so it was only natural to seek out Caldwell's other books. God's Little Acre was published just one year after Tobacco Road and while both focus on the rural poor in Georgia during the Great Depression, they are somewhat different in tone. This book was more serious and focused on the failure of man to work the ground (the demise of the sharecropping system) and machinery (cotton mill strike in Carolina). Absent is the violent, absurd in-your-face brutality that was so apparent in Tobacco Road. With that said, there is some glimmer of the absurdity that I was seeking. After all, this is a tale of Ty Ty who has been digging holes on his farm for 15 years to discover gold and kidnaps an albino from his house to act as a conjur without any moral qualms at all! Caldwell's use of overt sexuality earned him a day in court and another place on the banned books list. A good book highlighting the social problems of the era, I was just hoping for more redneck dysfunction.
Nov 30, 2008 Elizabeth rated it it was ok
the day that Pluto implores the Waldens to go into the swamp to catch an albino man to help them divine gold, he ponders his relationship with the beautiful Darling Jill: "she was that kind of girl, and he knew of no way to change her. but as long as she would sit still and let him hug her, he was completely satisfied; it was when she slapped him on the face and hit him the belly with her fists that he was wholly displeased."
this may not give you a real taste of how INSANE this book is. an the day that Pluto implores the Waldens to go into the swamp to catch an albino man to help them divine gold, he ponders his relationship with the beautiful Darling Jill: "she was that kind of girl, and he knew of no way to change her. but as long as she would sit still and let him hug her, he was completely satisfied; it was when she slapped him on the face and hit him the belly with her fists that he was wholly displeased."
this may not give you a real taste of how INSANE this book is. an important cultural read? maybe. but know that you are delving into madness.
Sep 08, 2017 Helga Cohen rated it really liked it
Shelves: classics, southern, literature
Great Depression in the South so he knew how to write about this time well. This book took place during the depression south. It is a funny, sensual, raw and very powerful novel with a tragic theme and was banned when it first came out. It was especially reviled in the south.
He observed firsthand the trials of rural life and the poverty of tenant farmers. They are themes he includes in his works. His novels look at race, religious hypocrisy and greed. This book had a little of all of that. He Great Depression in the South so he knew how to write about this time well. This book took place during the depression south. It is a funny, sensual, raw and very powerful novel with a tragic theme and was banned when it first came out. It was especially reviled in the south.
He observed firsthand the trials of rural life and the poverty of tenant farmers. They are themes he includes in his works. His novels look at race, religious hypocrisy and greed. This book had a little of all of that. He brilliantly captured the tragedy of American life during the depression years.
The Walden farm is slowly falling to ruin as fewer and fewer crops are being planted because Ty Ty is digging holes in the ground in search of gold. His sons are antagonistic and the black sharecroppers are starving. To pacify the Lord, he designates a parcel of land to harvest and give the proceeds to the Lord but he keeps moving it in search of gold as he does not wish to give to the church or the Lord any gold if he does dig it up. And the sons have their minds on the other's wives and not on digging which has gone on for years. Tragedy ensues.
Even though this book was banned in Boston and other places and attacked by the NY Society, it went on to sell more than 10 million copies. It is quite amazing to look at it in perspective today and see how little progress has been made in society in some areas.
Aug 27, 2012 Veronica rated it really liked it
After being enthralled with Tobacco Road, I was ready for more Erskine Caldwell. Equally if not even more disturbing, God's Little Acre took human indifference and overt sexuality to a whole new level. And that's a fact…
Set primarily on an underutilized farm in Georgia and a cotton mill in Carolina, God's Little Acre introduces the Walden family who have been digging for gold for over fifteen years to no avail. A married daughter living in Carolina with her striking husband, a strong proponent After being enthralled with Tobacco Road, I was ready for more Erskine Caldwell. Equally if not even more disturbing, God's Little Acre took human indifference and overt sexuality to a whole new level. And that's a fact…
Set primarily on an underutilized farm in Georgia and a cotton mill in Carolina, God's Little Acre introduces the Walden family who have been digging for gold for over fifteen years to no avail. A married daughter living in Carolina with her striking husband, a strong proponent of worker's rights, represents the emergence of the industrial revolution and union representation.
The family patriarch, Ty Ty Walden lusts for gold and his daughter-in-law. He neglects farming in favor of gold digging and is joined by his two sons and in search for more help, kidnaps an albino neighbor for his purported divining abilities. When his black farm hands threaten to eat his mule since he hasn't given them food, he counters that he will beat them if they do so. His children's blatant licentiousness is of no concern as he believes people who give into their desires are living a more honest and natural life. Those unable to live this way are restricted by religion in his belief while he maintains an acre of his land whose profits would be turned over to God, thus the title. This acre, rather conveniently, was moved quite often as he continued digging as he feared striking it big and having to turn it over.
Darling Jill Walden, the youngest daughter, is sexually unrestrained and enjoys the pleasure of many men while her father chuckles. Unabashed in her pleasure, she is indiscriminate and enjoys any man who catches her scent. She is courted by the corpulent Pluto Swint, who she will likely marry after she finds herself pregnant. A life devoted to self satisfaction alone, Darling Jill seems to be in search of the unattainable. Not likely the girl to bring home for dinner…
Will Thompson, Rosamond Walden's husband, laughs at the family's futile attempts at digging for gold and is a devoted factory man with strong beliefs in protecting the rights of workers. He is uncomfortable at the family farm and longs to return to his home although he has been out of work for eighteen months. He attempts to take over the mills and the results are tragic. This could have been a hero, however, his debauchery makes Darling Jill appear prudish as he beds his sisters-in-law in the presence of his wife. C'mon, I know we're sexual beings, but his behavior took away from what he was supposed to represent.
What in the pluperfect hell was Mr. Caldwell trying to say? I think he had a lot to say; about the industrial revolution, about the need for union protection, and about hopelessness so he pushed the literary envelope as far as he could with regards to human desire and sexuality. Well there would certainly be no shortage of things to discuss with this interesting fellow who I'd hope would share some of his fine writing skills.
My rating for God's Little Acre is a 9 out of 10.
Mar 07, 2011 Maxine rated it really liked it
I wish I could give this book 4.5 stars. It's so close to being a 5, but not quite.
The novel is about the Waldens, a Southern family digging holes in their farmland in hopes of striking gold. "God's Little Acre" is a piece of land set aside for God, but after Ty Ty Walden moves the acre to make more room for prospecting, everything goes all to hell. In a big, messy, dirty way.
It seems like the point here is clear: get rid of God, bad stuff happens. However, I don't actually think the book is I wish I could give this book 4.5 stars. It's so close to being a 5, but not quite.
It seems like the point here is clear: get rid of God, bad stuff happens. However, I don't actually think the book is about that at all. The novel, with all its sexually deranged characters, is not trying to be moral. Instead, it presents a world where common decency--and stereotypes about the charming South--are disregarded completely and the reader is left to wonder what the distinction between man and animal really is. If you can stomach it, the scenes in the novel will catch you off guard in a good way.
I know this book was banned and censored so many times that no one has even heard of it nowadays, but it's a very good book. You can dismiss it as a "shock value" novel, a racist novel, or a misogynist novel...but if you do, you're missing out. ...more
Jul 15, 2017 Jim rated it really liked it
Shelves: fiction, american-south
Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre is a potboiler, pure and simple. It is the story of Ty Ty Walden and his family, whose dreams of finding gold on his property are dimmed because his lovely daughter-in-law Griselda is a subject of contention with all the menfolk who meet her, even though she is married to Ty Ty's son Buck.
As a potboiler, it's pretty good. The girls are always having their clothes ripped off in the presence of lascivious men; and Ty Ty is surprised that he is having so much Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre is a potboiler, pure and simple. It is the story of Ty Ty Walden and his family, whose dreams of finding gold on his property are dimmed because his lovely daughter-in-law Griselda is a subject of contention with all the menfolk who meet her, even though she is married to Ty Ty's son Buck.
As a potboiler, it's pretty good. The girls are always having their clothes ripped off in the presence of lascivious men; and Ty Ty is surprised that he is having so much trouble getting men to dig with him for gold. By the end of the novel, he has still not found any gold, but he has found more trouble than he can handle.
Caldwell is capable at what he does, but I wouldn't make any claims of literary merit for it. I prefer Emile Zola's pot-boilers (after all, he invented the term). ...more
May 19, 2015 Kirk Smith rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This sweet little tragicomedy had me grinning most of the way through. This is early Southern Lit from 1933 and pretty advanced for the period. Sex was referred to as "doing it"! I thought that was something more current but as I think of it the language has always been there. There was a reference to "doing the dozens" that has to be the earliest reference in literature. Quirky, humorous and implausible sometimes, but wonderful because it's such an early example of the genre I love. Caldwell This sweet little tragicomedy had me grinning most of the way through. This is early Southern Lit from 1933 and pretty advanced for the period. Sex was referred to as "doing it"! I thought that was something more current but as I think of it the language has always been there. There was a reference to "doing the dozens" that has to be the earliest reference in literature. Quirky, humorous and implausible sometimes, but wonderful because it's such an early example of the genre I love. Caldwell likes repetition and it occurs almost as a chorus/refrain with this line: "These were the girls of the Valley whose breasts were erect and whose faces were like morning-glories when they stood in the window of the ivy-walled mill." Another line often used introduced me to a new word: "What in the pluperfect hell is an albino, Pluto?" Pluperfect, kind of the best way to describe this book after finishing! ...more
Sep 14, 2012 Henry Chavez rated it it was amazing
I don't know who recommended this book or if I simply discovered it by accident and put it on my list, but I am glad I found it. I guess it can be characterized as an easy read, but that is what makes it so excellent. The simplicity of the writing belies its true complexity. I am of the opinion that the style directly affects your view of the story, it's plot lines and characters. You're quickly brought into a different reality and one that is exceedingly interesting. The narrative is brilliant I don't know who recommended this book or if I simply discovered it by accident and put it on my list, but I am glad I found it. I guess it can be characterized as an easy read, but that is what makes it so excellent. The simplicity of the writing belies its true complexity. I am of the opinion that the style directly affects your view of the story, it's plot lines and characters. You're quickly brought into a different reality and one that is exceedingly interesting. The narrative is brilliant and artistically portrayed for the reader. Some folks here have made negative comments about the repetition in some of the dialogue. However, it seems to me that this was one of the ingenious ways the author painted his story. One would not complain that a sculpture looked too real, so why do it with this very real work of art. I enjoyed it marvelous much. ...more
Sep 12, 2011 Bill rated it really liked it
Shelves: favorites, books_adapted_for_film
Much of this is shocking today, I can't imagine what it was eighty years ago!
Fascinating book. What starts out as a farce devolves into terrible tragedy over just a couple of hundred pages. Caldwell's use of language changes to match that shift, which is interesting to see and it hints at something deeper going on in the story. There's not much to admire about anyone, or anything, in the story, as Caldwell clearly intended with the one faint glimmer of "God's Little Acre" itself.
A New York court Much of this is shocking today, I can't imagine what it was eighty years ago!
A New York court case wherein Caldwell and his publisher were accused of (and acquitted of) distributing pornography remains an important precedent in the establishment of artists' First Amendment rights in freedom of expression. For that we can all be thankful. ...more
Oct 24, 2011 Julia rated it liked it
What an incredibly disheartening, sad, revolting story...in a skillfully written book. I picked this up because I wondered why this classic was never assigned in my American literature courses. I knew within three pages. It is the story of a very poor southern farm family. This is the first time that I read about farmers where I didn't have any compassion for them. They are all immoral, shallow and uncaring people, who by the way, never farm the land but irrationally dig for gold that they have What an incredibly disheartening, sad, revolting story...in a skillfully written book. I picked this up because I wondered why this classic was never assigned in my American literature courses. I knew within three pages. It is the story of a very poor southern farm family. This is the first time that I read about farmers where I didn't have any compassion for them. They are all immoral, shallow and uncaring people, who by the way, never farm the land but irrationally dig for gold that they have no cogent reason to believe exists. I looked up the film on Turner Classics and read that it had a wonderful cast and crew. Nevertheless I do not think that I could bear to watch a film about these miserable characters. That said, Caldwell is a terrific writer. ...more
Nov 08, 2009 Courtney rated it really liked it
At first I was a little disturbed by this book's strange sexual dynamic, but as I continued to read I found myself identifying with several of the characters and understanding their choices and desires. Caldwell's language is occasionally poetic and moving. His characters are vivid and believable, and some are unexpectedly wise. I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but overall I enjoyed God's Little Acre. I think I learned something about human behavior that makes me feel a little less At first I was a little disturbed by this book's strange sexual dynamic, but as I continued to read I found myself identifying with several of the characters and understanding their choices and desires. Caldwell's language is occasionally poetic and moving. His characters are vivid and believable, and some are unexpectedly wise. I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but overall I enjoyed God's Little Acre. I think I learned something about human behavior that makes me feel a little less judgmental. ...more
Jul 21, 2015 Dana added it
I wish this book did not exist. I actively hated it, I hated the characters, I hated the author for dreaming up the characters, I hated the Era that would describe people and norms in this way. I hated the readers who would think something this idiotic is titilating. yet, I finished the book, because I could sense some sort of literary place it belonged to. I saw outside the moronic behavior more than just the obvious tragedy of poverty and lack of educcagion, but the meta experience of the set I wish this book did not exist. I actively hated it, I hated the characters, I hated the author for dreaming up the characters, I hated the Era that would describe people and norms in this way. I hated the readers who would think something this idiotic is titilating. yet, I finished the book, because I could sense some sort of literary place it belonged to. I saw outside the moronic behavior more than just the obvious tragedy of poverty and lack of educcagion, but the meta experience of the set of readers who at that time had probably not been exposed to characters such as these. ...more
Oct 23, 2012 Paul Jellinek rated it really liked it
A quirky little book from the 1930's that initially got lots of attention (and sales) from some of its explicit (for the 1930's) content, it is the story of a Georgia farmer who keeps digging holes in his property in a futile effort to find gold. The cast of characters includes his sons and daughters, their spouses, and, for comic relief, a fat man running for sheriff. There is, in fact, plenty of comedy throughout the book, until it suddenly turns dead serious in its final pages. I think that A quirky little book from the 1930's that initially got lots of attention (and sales) from some of its explicit (for the 1930's) content, it is the story of a Georgia farmer who keeps digging holes in his property in a futile effort to find gold. The cast of characters includes his sons and daughters, their spouses, and, for comic relief, a fat man running for sheriff. There is, in fact, plenty of comedy throughout the book, until it suddenly turns dead serious in its final pages. I think that in the end I really liked this book, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure. ...more
May 05, 2013 وائل المنعم rated it it was ok · review of another edition
Shelves: original-language, fiction
One of the most naive novels i've ever read, I don't know how some critics consider Erskine Caldwell as an important american novelist when he writes in this silly amateur style and using this modest language.
In the same time i can't ignore that the story itself is good and i read the whole 160 pages of it. The characters were attractive in some aspects. But both the good story and the attractive characters needed a good novelist.
Sep 01, 2008 Jerome rated it really liked it
I first read this book back about 1950 and never forgot it. I just reread it and find it just as good as I remembered it from the first time. Depression era Georgia crackers at their best / worst.
The movie made in 1958 was rather poor adaptation of the book and totally missed the whole idea behind the book. I'd give the movie two stars.
Nov 21, 2017 Patrick Murtha rated it it was amazing
So funny it hurts. Caldwell is a seriously underestimated novelist.
Symbolism 1 1 Jan 03, 2020 04:42AM
Controversial subjects 1 1 Jan 03, 2020 04:41AM
How does the novel treat love? 1 1 Jan 03, 2020 04:40AM
American > Southern
Literature > American
Historical > Historical Fiction
Literature > Banned Books
Gothic > Southern Gothic
American > Americana
About Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was holding the region up to ridicule.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_...
Books by Erskine Caldwell
Trivia About God's Little Acre
1 trivia question
Quotes from God's Little Acre
"All you boys seem to think about is the things you can see and touch—that ain't living. It's the things you can feel inside of you—that's what living is made for." — 0 likes

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While most people take air conditioning for granted, this technology has positively affected lives in several ways. After all, it is one of the keys to a healthy and comfortable home. Though the HVAC system was once considered a luxury, it is now an essential part of homes, schools, hospitals and other buildings.
Below, we'll provide a closer look at the history of air conditioning and its developments over the years.
Dr. John Gorrie of Florida conceived the concept of air conditioning during the 1840s to protect residents from the adverse effects of high temperature. He believed that this was the key to keeping patients comfortable in hospital rooms and preventing diseases like malaria.
However, the problem was that his rudimentary system needed ice from frozen lakes and streams in the northern parts of the country. To bypass this costly approach, he started experimenting with artificial cooling. He created a machine that produced ice using a compressor powered by different sources, such as steam, water, horses and wind-driven sails. While this earned a patent in 1851, Gorrie failed to introduce his invention to the market due to financial concerns.
The next advancement in air conditioning was in 1902 by Engr. Willis Carrier, who then worked for the Buffalo Forge Company. He was assigned to address a humidity issue that was causing magazine pages to wrinkle at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn. He designed a system called "Apparatus for Treating Air," which could either humidify by heating water or dehumidify by cooling water. As he continued improving his technology, he realized that air conditioning was crucial in various industries. He later formed the Carrier Engineering Corporation with other engineers.
Two years after Willis Carrier's success, air conditioning was finally introduced to the public. It was first installed in the Missouri State Building during the St. Louis World's Fair. Another breakthrough in comfort cooling came in the 1920s, where it was first used in movie theaters.
In 1929, Frigidaire proposed a split-system air conditioning unit small enough for the average home, though it was not without its downsides. General Electric's Frank Faust improved its design using a self-contained cooler. Cooling systems continued to grow smaller after J.Q. Sherman and H.H. Schultz registered a patent for a unit that could be placed on a window ledge. Because of its steep price tag, engineer, Henry Galson went on to create a more compact, affordable window air conditioner. By 1947, homeowners were able to enjoy this technology for the first time.
To optimize the safety of air conditioning systems, Robert McNary, Albert Henne and Thomas Midgley synthesized chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) coolants. However, these chemicals would be linked to ozone depletion decades later and were eventually phased out.
The energy crisis of the 1970s hit just as air conditioning increased in consumer demand. Lawmakers passed legislation to minimize energy consumption, which set the stage for the Energy Department's Appliance and Equipment Standards Program. This has helped consumers save energy and money since then.
To achieve optimum comfort and energy efficiency for your home, Sheldon's Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. has partnered with Carrier®, the leading HVAC manufacturer in the country. All of their products meet stringent standards for energy performance so you can get the best value for your money. Get in touch with us at (877) 411-9888 for more information.
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text:
Classic film: The Lion in Winter (1968)
Friday October 07 2016, 12.01am, The Times
Katharine Hepburn won an Oscar for her performance in The Lion in Winter
"The only thing you want to see is your father's vitals on a bed of lettuce," says Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to her son Richard the Lionheart in this humdinger of medieval powerplay, brought to life on screen with Katharine Hepburn as the queen and a young Anthony Hopkins as Richard. Peter O'Toole has the central role as Henry II, an ageing monarch bent on controlling his succession and his mistress, the beautiful young Alais (Jane Merrow).
Hepburn won an Oscar for her role as a royal wife imprisoned for ten years by her husband, and she erupts back into the machinations of court with an iron will and zinging dialogue. Adapted by James Goldman from his Broadway play, the Lear-like story has a


Old-school Amtrac fans who've been there since the beginning will tell you: The dude is one helluva live performer. His debut album Came Along featured serious songwriting chops, and the tour that accompanied it was just as impressive. That was back in 2011, and in the years since, he's proven himself a master of all kinds of moods. At the start of 2017, he launched his label Openers as a means to give other cool artists a platform, but in 2019, he's taking back the spotlight and bringing it to his live roots.
Amtrac picks up the mic for "Madness to Mayhem," a song that seems to bridge the gap between his Came Along days and the moody blues of his present. There's a ghostly air to its smooth house groove as the Kentucky-bred gentleman reminds us that the dance floor is always there for us in this crazy world.
The single is a first taste of things to come, as Amtrac finishes work on his second album with another live tour to follow in 2019. "Madness to Mayhem" is out now on Amtrac's label Openers. Listen to it below.


text:
Q: How to use DHCP on multiple VLANs on a single interface with netplan? In my current network topology I have multiple VLANs - each of which has it's own routing:
VLAN 10:
  DHCP:    10.0.10.10-10.0.10.255
  Subnet:  255.255.255.0
  Gateway: 10.0.10.1

VLAN 11
  DHCP:    10.0.11.10-10.0.11.255
  Subnet:  255.255.255.0
  Gateway: 10.0.11.1

The machine(s) I'm automatically provisioning have a single NIC.
This is why I would like to avoid using static configurations and rather relay on the DHCP to provide the "correct" settings.
My yaml looks like this:
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp5s0:
      # Designate the connection as "critical to the system", meaning that special care will be taken by systemd-networkd
      # to not release the IP from DHCP when it the daemon is restarted.
      critical: yes
      dhcp4: no

  vlans:
    cloud:
      id: 10
      link: enp5s0
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp4-overrides:
        route-metric: 200

    office:
      id: 11
      link: enp5s0
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp4-overrides:
        route-metric: 100

The problem is it only gets the DHCP settings for the cloud vlan and does nothing with the office one. Am I missing something here?
NOTE:
This is not a duplicate of netplan with multiple vlans on single interface - help needed.

A: Remember, your DHCP-server does not know about your VLAN configurations.
It is getting a request for an IP for the MAC-adress of enp5s0 and then another request, most likely identical to the previous request. Have a look at the DHCP log, it should confirm this. Or use tcpdump to debug the traffic.

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