"Some things just don't keep well inside this house ..."
The summer of 1966 burned hot across America but nowhere hotter than the cotton fields of Mississippi. Finding herself in a precarious position as a black woman living alone, Bernice accepts her brother Floyd's invitation to join him as a servant for a white family and she enters the web of hostility and deception that is the Kern plantation household.
The secrets of the house are plentiful yet the silence that has encompassed it for so many years suddenly breaks with the arrival of the harvest and the appearance of Jesse and Fletcher to the plantation as cotton pickers. These two brothers, the sons of the house servant Silva, awaken a vengeful seed within the Missus of the house as she plots to punish not only her husband but Silva's family as well. When the Missus starts flirting with Jesse, she sets into motion a dangerous game that could get Jesse killed and destroy the lives of the rest of the servants.
Bernice walks the fine line between emissary and accomplice, as she tries her best to draw secrets from the Missus's heart, while using their closeness to protect the lives of the people around her. Once the Missus's plans are complete, families will be severed, loyalties will be shattered, and no one will come out unscathed.
With a dazzling voice and rich emotional tension, Pale explores the ties that bind and how quickly humanity can fade and return us to primal ways.
About the Author :
Edward A. Farmer is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he journaled and cultivated stories his entire childhood. He is a graduate of Amherst College with a degree in English and psychology, and recipient of the MacArthur-Leithauser Travel Award for creative writing. He currently lives and writes in Pasadena, California. Pale is his first novel.
Review :
"A beautifully complex story...Though time in Pale seems fungible, the world Farmer has created is specific and visceral, cushioned with bitter cotton bolls and weighted by heavy summer clouds. It is a masterful achievement."
-- "Washington Independent Review of Books"
"A superbly crafted story of racism, family secrets, compulsive revenge, and the legacy of patriarchy, Pale also showcases the impressively literary talents of novelist Edward A. Farmer and his genuine flair for the kind of narrative storytelling that creates memorably distinctive characters and a compelling page-turner of a read from cover to cover."
-- "Midwest Book Review"
"Farmer has woven a richly descriptive historical tale that chronicles just how much pain and racism can alter the course of one's life. Read Pale and discover along with Bernice that 'some things just don't keep well inside this house'--and, no matter how long they have remained hidden, one of those things is secrets."
-- "Deep South Magazine"
"There are perhaps a hundred ways to tell this story; the one Farmer chooses is striking for its patience. He allows his novel to germinate, to uncurl its stalk and lift its head to the sky, then swell into a white, menacing bloom...Pale is an explosion in very slow motion, and what slows it down is powerful, lyrical language...The lover of literary craft will especially savor Farmer's mastery over point of view."
-- "Amherst magazine "
"A beautifully wrought novel, with each character sensitively drawn, exposing the lasting effects of trauma."
-- "John Copenhaver, author of Dodging and Burning"
"His sumptuous prose creates an operatic vision of life on a cotton plantation in 1960s Mississippi, a world on the cusp of great change that many of its characters resist with all their power."
-- "May-lee Chai, author of Useful Phrases for Immigrants"
"The evil of intergenerational racism is revealed by the preference to live in a quicksand of hatred, to choose slow vengeance over breaking free."
-- "Laila Ibrahim, author of Yellow Crocus"
"Pale is such a wonderfully written book. From the wonderful, well-rounded characters to the very descriptive setting and story, I could not help but feel as if I were in the story itself...I could not help but enjoy the journey that the book brought me on, and in a way, I couldn't help but feel like I learned something new about an era of American history that is often overlooked."
-- "Portland Book Review"
"[Farmer] excels at atmosphere, using the oppressive heat of summer, the heaviness of the night sky, the sound of the wind through the cotton, and the isolation of the plantation to deepen the feeling of melancholy...Recommended for readers who like quiet, character-driven novels."
-- "Historical Novels Review"
"Farmer's debut captures the delicate and dangerous lose-lose reality of a person in Bernice's position...Farmer opens with cotton imagery and returns to it throughout, disallowing any visions of beautiful, puffy whiteness...The story's rewards and Bernice's experience are important."
-- "Booklist"
"Secrets and revenge haunt a Mississippi plantation in Pale, the potent debut novel...Readers will hang on each page, just as Bernice feels bound to stay until the story is done. This intergenerational story of racism, patriarchy, and vengeance is one that will not soon be forgotten."
-- "Shelf Awareness (starred review)"
"The book's poetic yet forthright prose has been compared to the work of Ernest Gaines. It's an evocative debut for a novelist who surely has a promising career ahead of him."
-- "Augusta Chronicle"
"The plot and writing are evocative of the work of the late Ernest Gaines; it's a story simply and directly told, and by that simplicity and directness it exposes familial cruelties and kindnesses in equal measure. This is a promising beginning for a writer who, whether he realizes it or not, continues a rich and lyrical narrative tradition. A beautiful first novel."
-- "Library Journal (starred review)"
