Morgan, C.E.: All the Living

This is a love story.   It is a story of longing and despair.  It is a story of loneliness and dissatisfaction.  C.E. Morgan’s first novel is written in beautiful prose.   The first sentence, “She had never lived in a house and now, seeing the thing, she was no longer sure she wanted to,” is a fine example of her style. It almost begs to be read out loud.

All the Living is the story of Aloma, a southern mountain orphan raised by an uncle and aunt until she was twelve, and Orren, a worker at a nearby agricultural college.  At twelve Aloma was sent to a mission school and began learning to play piano.  Her talent took her beyond the school walls to an outside teacher and then to play for a local church. After she finished high school, she stayed on to teach piano and dreamed of getting away to the “real world” and study piano and perform.

Aloma and Orren met when he drove a van full of agricultural students to her school so that they could do an agricultural demonstration.  They instantly connected and Orren began making the trip across three counties to see Aloma several times a week.  When Orren’s mother and brother, Cash, die in a tragic accident he comes to see Aloma after the funeral.  He asks her to come live with him on the farm he has inherited and she agrees. 

It almost hurts to read about the stark poverty, the isolation and the stifling of their dreams.  The author’s first work, and written without quotation marks, this is a gripping story.