A Depression-era comic masterpiece, E. P. O'Donnell's The Great Big Doorstep centers on the Crochets, a Cajun family who live in a ramshackle house between the levee and the Mississippi River. The Crochets dream of one day owning a stately plantation befitting the magnificent cypress doorstep they have salvaged from the river and proudly display outside their humble home. The memorable characters in this novel have their own concerns: the patriarch, Commodo, is full of wild bravado as he fluctuates between scheming, laboring, and malingering; his wife reigns as the queen of retort, though toughened by years of making do and doing without. The Crochet children also cope with personal struggles: Topal, twenty, restless, and moody, and recently dumped by her fiancé; Arthur, eighteen, attempts to strike out on his own while dodging the coddling of his mother and the fury of his father; Evvie, almost fifteen, plans to join a religious order after renouncing a lover; and twins Gussie and Paul, and baby T. J., provide an ongoing chorus of laughter and tears. The Great Big Doorstep has remained a literary and cultural classic since its publication in 1941. In an 1979 afterword, Eudora Welty praises O'Donnell's comic genius, citing his'supreme gift'for dialogue, while Bryan Giemza's introduction underscores the work's place in the tradition of comic Southern novels.

O'Donnell, E. P. (Edwin P.), 1895 or 1896-1943; Giemza, Bryan Albin; Welty, Eudora, 1909-2001

Louisiana paperback edition, Baton Rouge, 2015

United States, United States of America

Revised ed., 2015

First Published By Houghton Mifflin In October 1941, Just A Few Months Before America?s Entry Into World War Ii Swept The Nation?s Attention From The Appearance Of New Fiction, This Second Novel By A Writer Of Exceptional Promise, Who Died Two Years Later, Is Here RedisƯcovered And Newly Introduced By Eudora Welty. In 1936, With The Publication Of His First Novel, Green Margins, E. P. O?donƯnell Introduced A New Field For American Literature?the Delta Country Of LouisiƯana. The Novel Was Well Received CriticalƯly, And Was A Book-of-the-month Club Selection. Here, In His Second Novel?and First Comedy?writing About The Same CounƯtry, O?donnell Makes Eloquent The Everyday Lives Of A Cajun Family, DeƯscendants Of The Original Acadians, Whose World Is The Mississippi?s Mouth, And, In Fact, Their Lives. ?it Is A Scene,? Eudora Welty Writes, ?which Takes For Granted The Misuse Of Everything?birds?young Girls?the Virgin?probably Even The Barter System. It Is Also True Comedy, And Is Brought About To Tell Us How Desperate Life Is On Grass Margin.? This Comedy Is Filled With The Antics Of Survival And The Efforts Of The Crochet Family To Procure A House Of Sufficient Grandeur To Match The Huge Doorstep Which They Had Salvaged From The River. The Crochets? Continuing Dream, SymƯbolized By The Doorstep, Comes True At Last, As All Comedy Must, But Not WithƯout Irony Which Gives A Deeper Meaning To The Story.--amazon.ca. E. P. O'donnell ; With An Introduction By Bryan Giemza ; And An Afterword By Eudora Welty.

A Depression-era comic masterpiece, E.P. O'Donnell's The Great Big Doorstep centers on the Crochets, a Cajun family who live in a ramshackle house between the levee and the Mississippi River. The Crochets dream of one day owning a stately plantation befitting the magnificent cypress doorstep they have salvaged from the river and proudly display outside their humble home. The memorable characters in this novel have their own concerns: the patriarch, Commodo, is full of wild bravado as he fluctuates between scheming, laboring, and malingering; his wife reigns as the queen of retort, though toughened by years of making do and doing without. The Crochet children also cope with personal struggles: Topal, twenty, restless, and moody, and recently dumped by her fiancE; Arthur, eighteen, attempts to strike out on his own while dodging the coddling of his mother and the fury of his father; Evvie, almost fifteen, plans to join a religious order after renouncing a lover; and twins Gussie and Paul, and baby T.J., provide an ongoing chorus of laughter and tears. The Great Big Doorstep has remained a literary and cultural classic since its publication in 1941. In an 1979 afterword, Eudora Welty praises O'Donnell's comic genius, citing his "supreme gift" for dialogue, while Bryan Giemza's introduction underscores the work's place in the tradition of comic Southern novels

xxxvi, 364 pages ; 22 cm

2023-06-28