FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile
Listeners join the Givens family as they forge a new life for themselves. Immigrants from Northern Ireland, they have landed in pre-Civil War Cincinnati. The story is told from the viewpoint of Olivia. Narrator Cassandra Campbell’s soft Northern Irish accent helps reinforce the experience of the family, who start as outsiders with nothing and over the decades build a prosperous life for themselves. She rises to the challenge of giving voice to a wide range of characters, including evangelists, slaves, and Cincinnati society ladies. Campbell’s well-paced narration helps keep the story moving through the various twists and turns in the family’s life. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
10/15/2018
Gamble’s third novel (after Good Family) concerns the lives of the Givens siblings, Irish immigrants who start over in 1819 Cincinnati. Olivia, the book’s strong-willed narrator, takes a shine to like-minded doctor Silas Orpheus, who admires her distaste for religion and allows her to surreptitiously dissect corpses with him. Olivia’s older brother, James, a successful candle maker who married rich, is initially reluctant to give his blessing for their marriage, as Silas’s disreputable brother, Eugene, sends a slave, Tilly, in lieu of a proper dowry. Olivia and Tilly become friendly, and Tilly helps her set up her own business doing hair. Olivia’s ambivalence toward slavery dissipates when Silas dies and she meets Eugene’s family on their Kentucky property. When Olivia enlists the help of her younger brother, Erasmus, now a Methodist preacher living on a river encampment, to help lead one of the slaves to freedom, Eugene retaliates by demanding that Tilly be returned. Since Ohio is a free state, an ill-fated trial ensues. Olivia and her family are thereafter pulled into the movement to smuggle slaves to freedom. Gamble adeptly chronicles Olivia’s transformation from a free-thinking but unaffected young woman into a determined widow who wants to indirectly avenge Tilly. This is a standout depiction of family dynamics, and will appeal to fans of fiction set in pre–Civil War America. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
In the Givens siblings, Terry Gamble has created a vivid and fierce-souled trio who navigate some of the strongest crosscurrents of American history. This is an inventive, spirited, and captivating story.” — Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle
“A captivating historical novel of family loyalties and conflict, and the borders between freedom and slavery, The Eulogist is a searing portrait of the Ohio Valley and its pre-Civil War turmoil with beautifully drawn characters. Highly recommended.” — Paulette Jiles, author of Enemy Women and News of the World
“This gripping historical novel follows an Irish-American immigrant family as they search for their place in the free border state of Ohio, and the momentous choices they must each make in the face of the insidious reach of slavery. An essential read.” — Lalita Tademy, New York Times bestselling author of Cane River, Red River, and Citizens Creek
“The Eulogist is a moving story, beautifully constructed.” — Amitav Ghosh, author of Gun Island
“This is history at its liveliest pace, its most surprising turns, and its strangest twists in the narrow borderlands between antebellum north and south. The Eulogist challenges us to engage with both the living and the dead, the loved and the betrayed, the captive and the free.” — Linda Spalding, award-winning author of A Reckoning
“A sprawling yet richly drawn family saga.” — Kirkus Reviews
“With more twists and turns than the Ohio River, The Eulogist brings us to the source of our nation’s spirit, introducing us to characters we won’t forget, no matter whether we loathe them or love them, culminating on a pitch-perfect note: forgiveness.” — Sally Cabot Gunning, author of The Widow’s War and Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father
“Gamble seduces with her rich, rollicking portrait of life in Jacksonian Ohio.” — New York Times Book Review
Amitav Ghosh
The Eulogist is a moving story, beautifully constructed.
Linda Spalding
This is history at its liveliest pace, its most surprising turns, and its strangest twists in the narrow borderlands between antebellum north and south. The Eulogist challenges us to engage with both the living and the dead, the loved and the betrayed, the captive and the free.
Paulette Jiles
A captivating historical novel of family loyalties and conflict, and the borders between freedom and slavery, The Eulogist is a searing portrait of the Ohio Valley and its pre-Civil War turmoil with beautifully drawn characters. Highly recommended.”
New York Times Book Review
Gamble seduces with her rich, rollicking portrait of life in Jacksonian Ohio.
Lalita Tademy
This gripping historical novel follows an Irish-American immigrant family as they search for their place in the free border state of Ohio, and the momentous choices they must each make in the face of the insidious reach of slavery. An essential read.
Sally Cabot Gunning
With more twists and turns than the Ohio River, The Eulogist brings us to the source of our nation’s spirit, introducing us to characters we won’t forget, no matter whether we loathe them or love them, culminating on a pitch-perfect note: forgiveness.”
Jessica Shattuck
In the Givens siblings, Terry Gamble has created a vivid and fierce-souled trio who navigate some of the strongest crosscurrents of American history. This is an inventive, spirited, and captivating story.”
Library Journal
11/01/2018
Following their mother's death on the way over from Ireland and their subsequent abandonment by their father, the Givens children must fend for themselves in 1819 Cincinnati. Older brother James aspires to become a responsible businessman, wild younger brother Erasmus unexpectedly finds religion and separates himself from society, and freethinking sister Olivia struggles to find fulfillment in a community with very restrictive ideas about women. Though there's some pleasure in her marriage to an eccentric local doctor, the true test of Olivia's character comes when she meets the people enslaved by her in-laws in Kentucky and must decide how far she will go to help them fight for their freedom. Gamble's third novel (Good Family; The Water Dancers) paints an absorbing portrait of life in Cincinnati in the decades leading up to the Civil War and convincingly depicts how one woman's attitudes toward slavery might change from vague disapproval to passionate opposition during the time. The large cast crucially includes well-developed African American characters who are never portrayed as passive victims regardless of their circumstance. VERDICT Recommended for historical fiction fans interested in the time period and in strong-willed heroines forging their own path. [See Prepub Alert, 7/30/18.]—Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL
FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile
Listeners join the Givens family as they forge a new life for themselves. Immigrants from Northern Ireland, they have landed in pre-Civil War Cincinnati. The story is told from the viewpoint of Olivia. Narrator Cassandra Campbell’s soft Northern Irish accent helps reinforce the experience of the family, who start as outsiders with nothing and over the decades build a prosperous life for themselves. She rises to the challenge of giving voice to a wide range of characters, including evangelists, slaves, and Cincinnati society ladies. Campbell’s well-paced narration helps keep the story moving through the various twists and turns in the family’s life. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-10-28
One woman lays bare her family's secrets—for better or worse.
Set in the decades before the Civil War, Gamble's (Good Family, 2009, etc.) novel centers around the Givens family, which has emigrated from Ireland to America, settling in Cincinnati. After their mother dies in childbirth and their father abandons them though they're still teenagers, the three Givens children—Olivia, who becomes a transgressive schoolteacher; James, a hustling businessman; and Erasmus, an itinerant preacher with a penchant for alcohol—must find a way to survive and thrive in a strange land. Told from Olivia's perspective, the novel touches on abolition, immigration, religion (or lack thereof), courtship, and illness through the lens of one family's history. As a character, Olivia feels true to the 19th century while defying and questioning societal norms as often as she can—for example, she reads, writes, and wears men's clothing. When she meets Silas Orpheus, a doctor, her life changes in ways she could never have anticipated. Silas introduces her to Tilly, a talented slave owned by his brother. When her attempt to help Tilly goes horribly awry, all three Givens children become involved in the abolition movement to varying degrees. Gamble's writing is delicate when she's describing the natural world: "even at this hour, the air was as thick as cream," and "soon the bats came out, dodging and darting, winging along the water's edge where the insects were thick." The plot can feel uneven at times, lingering too long on certain scenes and glossing over others too quickly. However, as the narrative structure becomes clearer, the novel's proclivity for detail feels purposeful rather than tedious. It's a book that would benefit from a reread—if only to catch all the hints along the way.
A sprawling yet richly drawn family saga.
