Rainwater

Rainwater.  The title refers to a Mr. Rainwater.  Mr. David Rainwater, to be exact.  He enters the scene in the middle of the 1934 Dust Bowl in Texas like a breath of fresh air.  No wait!  Like a tall, cool drink of water on a hot, dry day.  He comes to refresh the community which is parched by drought, poverty and racism.  He also comes to refresh one Ella Barron who is living a grueling daily grind of running a boarding house and caring for an autistic child who is a total mystery in the 1930s world in which they live.

**Spoiler alert!**

One big problem, though, is that Mr. R. is terminally ill.  Now that doesn’t prevent him from working on fixing all the ills of the community or from thawing out Ella’s hardened heart, or from infiltrating her son’s locked-up mind.

It’s a good story.  The gritty descriptions of the government culling farmers’ herds of starving cattle was heart-rendingly portrayed.  Unfortunately, the simmering sexual tension between Ella and Mr. R. was melodramatic at times.  During a thunderstorm in the middle of the night they are both running around shutting windows and become acutely “aware” of each other:

Their eyes stayed locked.  Ella’s heart felt on the verge of bursting.  She said hoarsely, ‘The storm finally broke.’ He held her stare for several moments longer, slowly shaking his head, ‘No.  It didn’t.’

My my.  I think we see where this is going.  I’ve not read any other books by Ms. Brown, but I understand that this one is pretty tame in the romance department compared to her other novels.

Mr. Rainwater takes on the town bully, defends the downtrodden farmers and shanty-town residents, seeks justice for a lynched black pastor, finds a way to reach an autistic child, and breaks through Ella’s staunch reserve to love her and be loved in return.  In short, he is a self-sacrificing champion of the underdog.  There are a couple of surprises at the end and the epilogue is needed to tie up loose ends.

Do I recommend the book?  Well, yes.  It’s a good read.  The characters are engaging.  It’s not great literature by any means, but it is a fun read and my book club enjoyed discussing it.

 

 

Going Home to Glory

General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower is the subject of this very personal memoir penned by his grandson David Eisenhower.  It details Eisenhower’s post-White House years spent in Gettysburg, PA (I used to live next door to their farm!).  Young David was 12 years old when his grandfather left office in Washington D.C.

He intertwines tales of living next door to his famous grandparents and growing up in Gettysburg, with accounts of the current events of the time period (1961-1969).  It was interesting to me to see how Ike was often consulted by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson even though they were from the opposite political party.  Eisenhower’s political and especially his military expertise were valued during conflicts with Cuba, Vietnam and Russia during the Cold War period.

But the stories I found most fascinating were those about David working for his grandparents on their farm in the summers, receiving lots of advice and admonitions from his grandfather and the evident affection among the family members.  Despite constant visits from various dignitaries, they still maintained a quiet and down-to-earth lifestyle for the most part.

Interestingly, Ike didn’t have a driver’s license when he moved to Gettysburg.  He had to take the in-car test and passed despite the trepidation of family members.

Granddad took corners sharply; the squeal of rubber against concreate and gravel roads never ceased to surprise him, or unsettle me.  Each time we screeched, pitched, yawed, and lunged all the way out [to the golf course] and back.

David often spoke of the high moral ground his grandfather took on matters of state and home.  He believed that our country should “take the offensive on moral and ethical questions.  One of the General’s favorite quotes was from his respected colleague, John Foster Dulles concerning the U.S. as “the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God.  He believed that the “great ideas of the West” and “our cardinal concepts of human dignity, of free enterprise, and human liberty” would always overcome and demolish the currents of Communism, which was the great threat of the day.  Ike was brought up in a strong Christian home where the Bible was read daily.  He was often heard to say, “To read the Bible is to take a trip to a fair land where the spirit is strengthened and faith renewed.”  In a letter to his grandson, Ike encouraged David to uphold the family values:

Your dad has taught you to take your own part but never to be arrogant; to be polite and courteous but never servile; to value true friends above material things, and to be honest and loyal to all those poeple and those teachings that command your respect.

Ike loved his grandson dearly.  He named Camp David after him (and his father was named David also).  David worked on Ike and Mamie’s farm during the summers when he was growing up and Ike actually fired him once for goofing off.  He rehired him later the same day saying, “I allow all my associates one mistake a year.  You‘ve had yours.”  They always enjoyed the time they spent together.  They played golf and discussed politics, baseball, current events and David’s girlfriends.  Even though he liked Julie Nixon, Granddad urged David not to become too involved with
her while he was still in college lest she become a distraction from his studies.  David chose to ignore that piece of grandfatherly advice and married Julie in 1968 while they were both still in college and just a month before Julie’s father took office as the President of the United States (Richard Nixon was also Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president which was how David and Julie met as children).  David was terrified to tell his grandfather that they had gotten engaged against his wishes, but Ike wrote a very sweet letter to David to set his mind at ease in which he noted,

I am more than delighted that the two of you feel such a deep mutual affection.  You are both the kind of people who will, throughout your lives, enrich America.  Moreover, a love, shared by two young and intelligent people, is one of heaven’s greatest gifts to humanity…. I’m not only proud that you are my grandson, but my friend as well– to whom I give my deepest affection.

Eisenhower had a soft heart in many ways.  He struggled to make sure he said the right thing in a speech delivered 20 years after D-day.  He wanted to show respect for the families who lost loved ones there and to emphasize that those losses served to help preserve freedom for others.  He also labored for a long time over a speech to eulogize his friend Winston Churchill whom he considered one of the greatest men of the 20th century.

I am so glad to have read this endearing and human portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  I lived next door to his Gettysburg farm for many years, but I picked up this book while visiting his boyhood home and site of his Presidential library in Abilene, Kansas earlier this year.  Reading it has left me with a much better understanding of this General and President and indeed of the decade of the 1960s.