Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"Lamb in His Bosom"
by Caroline Miller
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1934
• FHA, amortized mortgages make home ownership more attainable
• FCC organized to regulate telephone, telegraph and radio
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Miller’s great-grandfather was New Light minister. Youngest of seven, Miller was born in Waycross, Georgia at tip of Okefenokee Swamp Wildlife Refuge. Miller was determined to write historical fiction; drew on experiences of her family’s pioneer women, traveled backroads between Baxley and Darien with her young sons to hear the stories and diction of older piney woods residents.
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Antebellum pioneer woman’s life: unrelenting toil, danger, family drama, suffering.
Woman defends very young daughters when mountain lion bursts into her cabin, then births a son by herself the next day.
Microscope on daily life of poor white rural Antebellum Georgians.
Longish 369 pages
Do not presume anyone’s limitations.
Rural poor Antebellum Georgia families usually isolated. Limited education.Backwoods dialect.
New Light religion’s congregation confesses and publicly repents from sin. Poor white churchgoers covet slaves, bigoted toward Native Americans.
People from coast perceived as rich, loose. Father calls son’s bride-to-be slut based on personal experience.
Hard-core work ethic of both men and women. Men do not show feelings. Children: caretakers, housekeepers, farmhands. Violence against women, children.
Three meals for log-raising families. Noon: turkey, dumplings, gravy, fried partridges, crispy squirrel, fried fish, stewed chicken, fried sausages, washpot full of rice, hot hoecakes, preserved pickles. Sunset: roasted beef, pig, venison, sugar cake, pie. Breakfast: bacon with grits cooked to a thick, smooth mush with syrup.
“A mother-in-law’s praise is more in a woman’s favor than anything else in the world.”
Al fresco on lot cleared by a fire at edge of a swamp. Dig shallow cooking pit; chop oak for hot, slow, cooking coals. Create comfy area so men can recline after gorging as women eat scraps then clean up.
Accept hostess gifts like a sack of fat hens, a shoat, or a white rat in a cage humbly.
Gather around fire and listen to spooky stories, superstitions, gossip, and dodgy medical advice.
Discuss attitudetoward slaves and the institution of slavery, the Civil War and how attitudes fit into the New Light religion.
In what situations do people communicate empathically and support each other? Show affection or love?
Discuss the withholding of feelings and information.
What is similar/different between the novel and today about partners relationships and parents/child relationships?
Contrast the lives and roles of the poor women in this novel to the circumstances and behavior of women portrayed in the Gilded Age and modern times, including concern with appearance, courting, relationships with men/infidelity, work, child-rearing, self-expression, wedding/baby prep, rebellions, and freedoms.
Compare perceptions of women who have many children versus others, in the novel and now.
Describe who was considered elderly or disabled and attitudes/support of those people.
What did the novel teach you about self-sufficiency and isolation? Pioneer community life? Burying grief?
What is the relationship with nature and animals in this novel?
Why do/don’t characters change their circumstances?
How/why do attitudes toward the preacher change? How do you feel about public expressions of guilt and repentance?
Talk about the men's trips to the coast. Did women in the novel experience happiness? Have fun?
Go back in time on Georgia’s Altamaha River; see swamps and old growth forests.Scout wildlife. Cruise. Or kayak, camp, and fish. Altamaha Heritage Center in Vidalia is devoted to history of the river basin, with exhibits on Native Americans, moonshine, barn implements, and more. Detour to Tifton to ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture; experience 19th century farming life chores, including planting, harvesting, spinning, quilting, and cooking. End up at mouth of Altamaha on Georgia’s coast near Darien where you’ll find a trading post. If you still haven’t experienced isolation, go to Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge, a barrier island accessible only by boat.
No film version found.
Lebanon (1944).