RACHEL CADE

by Charles Mercer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1956

The pattern of the story is a familiar enough one. It is the handling of the material that gives it the impact that makes it memorable. Central Africa in the western shadows of the Mountains of the Moon was an area rarely penetrated by white men. One doctor had identified himself with the settlement samed Dibels; but he had done little more than establish a hospital that was not used -- and reenforce a legend of the power of the African gods for evil by his death, after attempting to climb the forbidden mountains. The comes, at the moment of his death, a nurse, mission trained, who sought the challenge of indifference, met it on the place the natives could understand, and made her place as virtual queen in the eyes of the natives. But still a doctor was needed. What happened when Kulu, her native ""boy"", sought a doctor in an appeal to the new God -- and an airplane crash brought one from the skies, provides the romance, the conflict, the major achievement of a gripping story of two white people and the winning of the confidence of the resistant natives. But the war was a force that could not be turned aside; and again Rachel is left, her doctor, her lover, having gone. Another man comes, a missionary to whom also the challenge was great- and who met it in his own way; who loved Rachel, but resisted expressing his love because of the absent man, whom he thought was her husband, father of her child. A new element is injected in meeting the economic needs of the people; a new adventure and a new conquest over fear and superstition. And with the end of the war, a new answer to Rachel's problem. The land and its obsessive demand upon those who give of themselves is actually the central theme of a powerful story. Literary Guild selection for October, and more likely to succeed than his earlier books. There will be strong publisher promotion.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION