The Rolling Years
by Agnes Sligh Turnbull
In order to have fun doing this I decided to let my mind wander through the years and write about whatever book I thought about. Too often I like to set up rules and regulations and set goals,i.e., write in chronological order. This isn’t the time for that.
I wrote a poem called “There’s the New Girl and She’s a Jew.” It was about the first summer we moved to weird little Swisshelm Park and how I walked to the Swissvale Library almost every day. During the hours I spent in the library I was always browsing and for some reason this book caught my attention.
The Rolling Years is about farm life in western Pennsylvania. The novel is set roughly 150 years ago. The main characters are the McDowell family who, like the people who also farm there, are descendants of Scottish immigrants. The book’s plot is ingenious and quite emotional and the characters are so real, so beautifully described, that yes–you can see them and hear them speak. All of this is true–but the main issue in this book is the Calvinist sect of Christianity. All of the people follow the dictates of these beliefs; my 13-year-old soul was shocked at the rigidity and unforgiving ways of life that these people lived. Calvinists–at that point in time–believed fiercely in heaven and hell and no matter how good you were, you didn’t always automatically go to heaven. Most are doomed to fail, as told to them by their minister in his hour-long Sunday sermons. Nobody played cards–nobody even thought of dancing–there were hours set aside for family prayers–and there were only two leisure activities that were allowed. The McDowell family possessed several books and the children in the family could look at these on Sunday afternoons; on Sundays, during the lunch break between the service and the sermon, families grouped together and the women talked to each other. Farm life was lonely and the women clung to each other for friendliness and recipes and support.
Why did I, and still do, love this book? I don’t know exactly. It’s a superlative piece of writing. But most of all the book reminded me of my Orthodox Jewish grandfather, and the many rules and regulations he held sacred and forced onto others. In later years I would look back affectionately and admire him. Anyway, the book is set quite close to Pittsburgh and at one point one of the characters actually goes to live there.
Finally, Agnes Sligh Turnbull wrote a string of novels after The Rolling Years and at first I was really excited to dive in and read them all. But none were nearly as good as her first.
In many ways you could say that this book is about love, the many kinds of it. The characters experience love and happiness despite the iron rule of Calvinism. My young teenage soul responded easily and, in a way, was relieved that these characters who worried so much about ending up in hell for eternity could enjoy earthly pleasures.
lgmwriting 