At the Edge of the Orchard

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Absorbing…[Chevalier] creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a particular moment, it transcends its time and place.”

The story is told via James and Sadie's voices, and these voices are colourful and vibrant. Tracy Chevalier's impeccable research echoes throughout this quite brilliant, evocative and enriching story. My commitment to reading all Tracy Chevalier's novels has brought to my attention a number of trends and patterns in her writing. The main one is that many of her books take a long time to get into the purpose of the plot. They can often feel quite meandering and directionless for a good chunk of the book before it all slots into place and you can see where the story is going. Their youngest child Robert is wandering through Gold Rush California. Restless and haunted by the broken family he left behind, he has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solace, collecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so far, even in America, and when Robert’s past makes an unexpected appearance he must decide whether to strike out again or stake his own claim to a home at last. After Robert does not hear from his family for 17 years, he finally gives up trying to communicate with them. Everything about this communication is foreign to us in an age where technology minimizes great distances. Discuss the real costs of leaving your family in the era this book is set. Would you be able to make this kind of choice? Think about all the different migrations in this book: settlers moving west, stopping somewhere to make a home or continuing on to the coast; Johnny Appleseed and William Lobb’s travels; all the different paths taken by the various members of the Goodenough family. We don’t think of trees being as mobile as people, but Johnny Appleseed points out to Sadie at one point how much trees migrate from place to place as well, frequently moved by people. How much of the landscape of where you are now is a product of these types of migrations—of humans, animals, or plants?It is both fascinating and crazy to see how the Goodenough family (barely) functions in life. I kept reading and thinking it couldn't possibly get worse between these two, and then something more would pop up as James and Sadie told their story in alternating POVs. I couldn't turn away from watching these two self-destruct. We also hear from two of the children, Robert and Martha, and oh my gosh. With impeccable research and flawless prose, Chevalier perfectly conjures the grandeur of the pristine Wild West . . . and the everyday adventurers male and female who were bold enough or foolish enough to be drawn to the unknown. She crafts for us an excellent experience. Martha dies shortly after giving birth to a son and Molly takes over the baby's care, nursing it when Robert had come to fear that the baby might die. Molly soon gives birth to a daughter. Robert discovers that he is going to have to make a trip to England just an hour before he has to leave. Molly makes him take time to realize that he does not have to spend his life reacting to situations, including running from his childhood memories. Robert realizes that he does want Molly and the babies to accompany him, and they set out for England with Molly teaching Robert that life can be exciting and fun.

Sadie’s mistakes and aggressions are the ones that propel the plot in the first half of the book. What did you think about her character? Discuss the ways the author makes Sadie’s behavior more understandable or sympathetic. In what ways is James responsible for the family’s strife? What would this novel be like without Sadie? Robert is an oddly passive character; he falls into jobs, lodgings and relationships largely as a result of other people’s choices. It’s the gutsy female supporting characters who liven up the novel, and I would have liked to hear more of their stories, particularly his mother, Sadie – a conflicted drunk who takes out her frustrations on her husband and children, but has enough self-awareness to feel remorse – and his sister, Martha. A heartbreaking narrative of an Ohio pioneer family’s struggles…A pleasureable literary experience.”

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NOTE: The following version of the book was used to make this Study Guide: Chevalier, Tracy. At the Edge of the Orchard. Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2016. Kindle AZW file. And then to balance it all out were beautiful descriptions of trees, seedlings and apples. I can safely say, I'm now an expert on apples. This part of the book is in such contrast to the jarring family dynamics, but it really works. Summary of At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier by Instaread is an excellent analysis of this novel about a dysfunctional family in America of the 1830s and 40s, the time of Manifest Destiny and America’s march to the Pacific. An excellent overview of the history and culture of the country told through the experiences of one family. My thanks to Penguin Viking and Net Galley for providing a digital copy of this novel for review purposes. - However, there's a situation yet to come involving Robert's sometimes-lover Molly, and his long-lost sister. More tragedy waits in the offing.

Discuss the transformation of Robert & Molly’s relationship. At what point does it deepen? Would you have gambled on Robert as Molly does? As well as this desolate Ohioan setting, we experience the excitement and wonder of Gold Rush California when, Robert, the Goodenoughs’ youngest son heads West but don’t expect a sudden reversal of fortune for the Goodenough offspring! This is a story about family, sacrifice, determination and the need to set down roots. There aren’t a lot of laughs but then the pioneers didn’t have an easy time of it. You know when you read an amazing book where the landscape becomes one of the characters? You know: the moors in Return of the Native, or the highlands (and the house) in Wuthering Heights. In At the Edge of the Orchard, you have trees. Apple trees, and redwoods, and giant sequoias. We start with the family and their efforts to settle in this swamp, and then we travel with young Robert, the eldest son as he travels westward, working different jobs until he meets Hobbs and find employment with him collecting seeds and comes. We don't know why he left his family and won't until the third part of the book. Robert is the youngest in the Goodenough family and this story really belongs to him. We get his travelogue through letters he writes home to his family. Once Robert settles in with an English botanist, his story unfolds in regular chapters. While Robert isn't always a completely engaging character, his story is interesting and the people with which he surrounds himself is equally of importance.

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What fascinates me most about Tracy Chevalier and her writing is the fact that in every one of her books I've been introduced to a subject, or a place that I knew nothing about before. Whether is is Mary Anning, discovering fossils on the beach in the early 1800s (Remarkable Creatures, 2010), or Griet the young Dutch girl who became the model for the artist Vermeer (Girl With A Pearl Earring, 2001), this author's writing always captivates me. She totally immerses her readers into the time and the places of her stories, and she has done it once again in At The Edge of the Orchard. Robert runs away, generally westward, and winds up in California where he meets William Lobb, a plant collector who sends seeds and seedlings to England. Robert soon becomes William's right hand. Meanwhile, Robert also reconnects with a former lover, Molly Jones. Martha's life continues to be harsh. She is raped by a neighbor and later by her own brother, who fathers the child she is carrying when she learns that Robert is in California. She reaches Robert just as Molly announces that she is also carrying a child, and that it is likely Robert's. Anyway. That's how I see it. I am a big fan of Tracy Chevalier and I'm always taken up and swept away by the beautiful writing in her impeccably researched historical fiction novels. Orchard is no exception. It's keen storytelling full of tension. Holy tree-zus! I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen to each of these people. It's an amazing journey across the American West, but this ain't no Little House on the Prairie. Get ready for a bumpy wagon ride. By the spring of 1838, they have buried five of their 10 children. The remaining children include two older boys, Caleb and Nathan, and three younger children, Sal, Margaret, and Robert. Sadie hates their lives there and has become vindictive to the point of hating everything and everyone. She turns to alcohol for comfort, made from some of the family's apple trees. James loves the apple trees and the orchard has become his method of coping with his harsh, disappointing life. He is prone to violence and often beats Sadie and even the children. Robert’s passion for apples becomes a passion for trees. And after the death of his parents, he leaves the homestead and his siblings and strikes out on his own. He is the son who will learn, travel, work a variety of jobs, make acquaintances, truly fall in love and in the end, settle in a most unexpected place with his own family.