The Melodeon
is a great novella by Glendon Swarthout. The settings of this novella conjure
up remote farms of Michigan State during the Christmas season. The book notches
limelight as it shows the period of the great depression of 1930s. The story is
about charity during rough times, a small boy James whose grandparents donate
their family heirloom ‘Melodeon’ to a local church when, in fact, they have
nothing for each other to share.
The melodeon
of this story was bought as a present by Ephraim Chubb for his wife Sarah on
the occasion of in 1863 when he left home to fight for the North in the
American Civil War. Ephraim intended the melodeon to keep Sarah’s company until
the day of his homecoming.
How
mysteriously he came home many, many years later than he supposed is here
recalled by his great grandson, James Chubb, in a tale that is as remarkable as
it is charming, warm and entertaining. It all took place when James was just a
boy on a cold and snow-driven Christmas Eve in the depressed 1930’s, the night
his grandparents chose to donate the melodeon to the local church.
The Melodeon
is a short novel but an expertly written book throwing focus on many human
values such as charity, reunion, love, next-generation concern, and family
sentiments. This is a novel of extraordinary courage and remembrance. It is set
during a particularly cold and bitter Christmas Eve, a night when, for a small
boy, the mid-winter birth of a lamb is perhaps the less strange of two
apparently miraculous events. The other concern’s his family’s melodeon, a much
cherished heirloom through which past, present and future suddenly seem to
meet. In this cherishing story, Glendon Swarthout has merged action and poetic
vision into an unforgettable tale of compelling beauty.
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