Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The pressure was on. I have plans to visit the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park this coming Thursday. I had laid aside her memoir, Cross Creek, when I realized I wasn't going to be attending the April book club meeting where it was going to be discussed. I wanted the book finished by the time I went exploring at the park.

I really wanted to love this book. I love reading historical books about places nearby to where I live. Even after living in Florida for nearly six years, I'm still awed by the fact that "modern Florida" hasn't existed for all that long. I'm sure lots of what Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote about Cross Creek was also true about the part of central Florida that I now call home. That was a part of the book that I loved.

I loved her love of rural Florida. She wasn't going to let the primitive lifestyle beat her.

Cross Creek was the spot in Florida where MKR lived while writing what is most probably her most famous book, The Yearling, which I still haven't read.  I'm glad I read this book. And might pick up The Yearling. While working as a substitute teacher, I started to watch the movie of The Yearling with a class. We didn't get too far into it. I might try to watch the movie again, after I read the novel.

So what didn't I love?

• This was really more of a memoir about Cross Creek than about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I wish she'd included some background information on why she moved to Cross Creek, where she came from, why she was alone, etc.
• I would have preferred more of a narrative in chronological order rather than the little snippets that weren't really like short stories or anecdotes or even on the same subject.
• I found it difficult to keep track of the other residents of Cross Creek. I felt it almost didn't matter.
• While sometimes the language used in the book was lyrical, sometimes it was a bit too over the top for me. Often it made for very slow reading.

A final note

If you read the reviews on goodreads.com, lots of readers comment on how racist MKR was. Or how superior she felt to her neighbors. If the book was written today - about any time during the past 50 years, I would totally agree. Written in the 1940s, about the years leading up to that time, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was speaking in language and beliefs that were common place during that period. I don't believe she was any more racist than was normal for most at the time.

Read about my visit to Cross Creek, the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park, here.