Animation by Kayelle Allen at The Author's Secret

Friday, November 22, 2019

Review of a #mustread Thanksgiving story from @MaryPThornburg

Image courtesy of Pixabay
Of course, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK, but we know all about it from our friends across The Pond, and I'm sure many people here wish we shared this great tradition.  Perhaps the next best thing to experiencing it ourselves is reading about it, and I recently read a short story that immediately put me in the midst of celebrations with a wonderfully bizarre family.  

The story has the highly unusual title Uncle Spotted Turtle Entertains the Pilgrims and is written by Mary Patterson Thornburg, an author who has quickly risen to the top of my all-time favourite authors list.  Here is my review:

I’m totally hooked on this author, so when I saw a title I hadn’t come across before, I accepted Amazon’s invitation to “Look Inside” - and I didn’t have to read more than a dozen words before downloading it.  I read it immediately.

I love the way Thornburg wholeheartedly embraces her characters and settings, making them come alive, sounding, as they, do completely natural and utterly believable.  I’ve never even been to America, but I was there, with Jeremy, in the first and second grade, colouring in pictures of turkeys and singing about ‘wide and drifted snow’, and I was there at the family Thanksgiving feast, hating obnoxious Cousin Kevin, and loving Uncle Spotted Turtle so much, I wanted him to be part of my own family.  This excellent short story (far, far too short for my liking) painted an enormous picture in my mind of a time, place and people that could not have been made more real or more wonderful in any possible way.

I’ve raved about Mary Patterson Thornburg for long enough.  It’s about time the world sat up and took notice of her superb writing.  Start with this delightful short Thanksgiving story – very appropriate for this time of year, but well worth reading all year round - and I promise you, like me, you will be totally captivated by this supremely talented author.

From me, this highly entertaining short story could not possible earn less than 5 well-deserved stars.

The story Uncle Spotted Turtle Entertains the Pilgrims is available from Amazon (price 99c/£0.99), using these links:

and I highly recommend it wherever you are in the world this Thanksgiving - and to all our American friends                                







2 comments:

Miki Thornburg said...

Thank you so much for this review!

I am laughing. Our Thanksgiving celebrates the fact that the Pilgrims made it through a year (or so?) in North America back in the 17th century. And although George Washington held a Thanksgiving celebration in late November over a century later, it wasn't an official national holiday until 1863. The build-up to the celebration is something I remember from my first few years in school, and the feast these days is, for a lot of families, pretty much as described in the story (unfortunately without Uncle Spotted Turtle to set the record straight). I'm sure there is some way for you UK folks to justify celebrating along with us; given our recent political troubles, perhaps you could declare your extreme thankfulness that we colonials cut the cord centuries ago!

Ankit Rautela said...

thats amazing i love your blog

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