Finished: Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin) The 1929 Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the lives of a Black community in South Carolina, in the early 1900's, who still live on the grounds of an old, empty plantation on which their forefathers served. They are a town and community like any other, raising crops together, going to church together, helping each other with hardships, and gossiping about each other when there is news to spread. This is a captivating story about Mary, a girl who has just become a young woman, and how she is torn between being a member in good standing at her church and her need to live her life with wild abandon, doing as she pleases, even if it is a "sin" in the eyes of the people of her church. Mary is known as Sister Mary, because at the beginning of the story, she IS in good standing. She was raised as an orphan on the plantation by Auntie Maum Hannah and her son, Budda Ben, who has been crippled all his life. They all attend church together and work hard in the fields to bring crops in for the town. When Mary falls in love with July, the more charismatic, yet less dependable, of the twins, June and July, she falls hard and before they have a chance to get married, she's already pregnant with his child. Enough of the church folk figure it out, and she then becomes Scarlet Sister Mary, for her scarlet sin. Even though she is married at the church as planned, Mary is then cast out and no longer allowed to be a member. Mary and July are in love and happy enough until July gets the wanderlust after their child, Unex, is born. He runs off with another woman, and Mary morns pitifully until she almost starves herself. It takes her months to recover and realize he is gone and not coming back. As she starts to spring back to life, she starts a relationship with June, who has always loved her, and they have a child together, Seraphine. Soon, though, June too decides to leave. He can never marry Mary, since she's already got a husband, and he wants to go and find better work. Mary's heart hardens to actually loving one man, as in her mind now, they are all alike and will leave you as soon as you love them. As the years go on, Mary continues to have relationships with different men and isn't at all ashamed about it. She also has children by those men, and raises healthy, happy, children, having nine children in all. She provides for them by continuing to be one of the best workers in the field and by tending her garden, chickens and goat. She continues to be ostracized by the church, but loved by Aunti Maum and Budda Ben. Soon, twenty years has gone by since July deserted her, and Mary has just had twin boys. Who comes knocking at her door, but July! He thinks that Mary will welcome him back with open arms. He is her husband after all. However, Mary, though she's torn to pieces inside, stays strong and makes him leave, even as he tries to hug and kiss her. A few days later, her firstborn, Unex, shows up at the door. He's lived away for awhile now, and not stayed in good touch with Mary. He's got a little bundle in his arms....his new baby daughter, Emma. He wonders if Mary could raise his little daughter because her mother has died. Mary takes the baby and piles her in with the twin boys. She's so thrilled to see Unex, but her happiness is short-lived when Unex falls sick with a fever and dies within a few days. The town mourns with Mary, but she needs to be alone so goes out into the woods to mourn alone. She doesn't realize she spends all night there, but she has a dream experience where she sees Unex and he talks to her and tells her to pray to Jesus for her sins. He is fine, but he brings a white silk cloth with a red mark across it for each of her children. Mary frantically prays all night, begging forgiveness for her sins, one child at a time. And, the red marks disappear one at a time. When Mary wakes up, it's because the town has been searching for her all night and found her. She's lighter inside than she's been in a long time, and no longer mourning Unex, but rejoicing that he has gone to heaven. She is asked to attend church to tell about her experience and also see if she'll be accepted back into the fold. She does so, and the deacons decide that she can rejoin the church if she's rebaptized. She says she has no problem being baptized again. When the plantation healer comes up to her, the last person to leave, he tells her he guesses she better give him back that charm/potion necklace he gave her years ago to make July love her again. He figures, since she never saw July again to use it on him, that she must have used it on all those other men. She just smiles at him and says, she's happy to be rejoining the church, but she thinks she'll keep her charm necklace just the same. And that's the end. The prose used in the book is so good! The dialogue is written as the people talked to each other, and was at first hard to read, but I got into the rhythm, and with it written the way it was, it really took me right there as if I was witnessing the whole story first hand. :-)