Augusta

De: Celia Ryker

Narrado por: Maria McCann

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

©2022 Celia Ryker (P)2023 Celia Ryker

Interesting story well told

Touching treatment of woman making it on her own as a single mother of 4. Historical details are beautifully written. Story is compelling.

Like A Draft

It was OK. It had an unfinished quality all the way through.

Character development was a bit basic. Better character development would have made the story more interesting since this was a fairly typical life of the early 20th century. I also had a hard time estimating the time various actions took place. Most authors insert time markers in the story. They will mention who is President or work in some familiar major event, like the Great Depression, so you know where you are in time. This story lacked those time markers. I don’t know if it ended in the 30s or 40s. Unless I do some math I don’t know how old the main character was at the end. Places could have been described better. Except for the description of the rented house, I knew very little. More description of the Detroit of that time period would have been appreciated and appropriate.

The author was limited because many facts about her family were unclear. I can see her hesitation: she wants to write about her grandmother but doesn’t want to make too much up. That can be tough. But as a story it would have been better if she’d either fleshed it out with imaginary details or grilled her family members better so she had information to complete the tale.

Hearing how people lived in other eras is always interesting and this story highlights how tough and unstable life could be and how much people relied on each other.