Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Harper Torch
Release Date: July 2003 (Reissue)
ISBN: 0061010650
Awards:
Format Reviewed: Paperback
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Genre: Fiction
Reviewed: 2003
Reviewer: Sheila Griffin
Reviewer Notes: Rated E for one fairly graphic love scene. Also, in the last 100 pages of this 450 book, objectionable language suddenly appears.

Fox's Earth
By
Anne Rivers Siddons

     In the late 1800's, Ruth Yancey is born to excruciating poverty. The only light in her life is the big white house in town called Fox's Earth. The moment she first sees it, she resolves that someday she will own it.

     When Ruth is ten, she meets Alicia Fox, the mistress of Fox's Earth. Alicia longs to transform the lives of the poor. In Ruth she finds the perfect candidate for her benevolent project.

     Ruth moves into Fox's Earth to be raised with the family's only child, Paul. He's half in love with Ruth already. Over the years Ruth cooly insures that he falls the rest of the way. Eventually they marry. Ruth's dreams are beginning to come true.

     In time, Ruth produces the required grandchild - a daughter named Hebe. Rip, a young black woman, is hired take care of Ruth and Hebe. Only Rip recognizes what Ruth is - a conniving she-devil who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. And what she wants is a dynasty of Fox women.

     Rip discovers that Ruth has been cruelly pinching Hebe, causing the infant to cry incessantly. Ruth informs Rip that she must cover for Ruth or she will be discharged. Ruth also warns that "there's just no telling what might happen to Hebe" if Rip isn't there to protect her. So Rip keeps her mouth shut and stays.

     Hebe is subjected daily to Ruth's subtle brand of physical and psychological torture. She grows into a fearful woman who marries a spineless man. He provides her with the requisite daughters and also a totally superfluous son. And so begins the torment of another generation under the evil thumb of Ruth Yancey Fox.

      This book spanning three generations is fascinating in the same manner as a car wreck. Toward the end of the book there is objectionable language and a somewhat graphic love scene, but overall this is a clean, if disturbing, book. One would like to discover if Ruth's grandchildren fair any better than her child did. Unfortunately, since this is a re-release of an earlier book, a sequel is unlikely.

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