Sweetbitter

Turn-of-the-century East Texas. A world that offers no home for Reuben Sweetbitter, a young half-Choctaw, half-white man. Left as a child to fend for himself after the death of his mother, he finds his uneasy way through the world, searching always for a place to belong. He has lost contact with his Choctaw heritage and yet can belong neither to the white world nor that of the blacks who give him shelter. He finds his way to the town of Three Rivers, where he falls in love with Martha Clarke, the young, headstrong daughter of a local lawyer. Their forbidden love is tested when they are forced to flee amid an explosive lynching climate.

First sentence: When Reuben was about six years old his mother Molly Charles was leading him by the hand one early spring day, walking quickly to get down from the Big House, where she was working for the Negro cook in the garden.

Year

1994

Language

English

Publisher

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Editions

1

Pages

432

ISBN

9780140252422

Data source: Wikidata