num_pages: 383
description: "How furiously eloquent is this man Forrest's prose...how admirable the manner in which the great themes of life and literature are revealed...it was impossible not to be amazed."-Ralph EllisonSuch was the impact of Leon Forrest's first novel There Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden. No less stunning is Mr. Forrest's achievement in The Bloodworth Orphans, a big juicy novel about the lives and interconnected relationships of the bastards and orphans -- both black and white -- sired by members of a slave-owning family named Bloodworth.We are introduced to the Bloodworth line of orphans by Rachel Carpenter (Flowers), also known as Mother-Witness, church mother of River Rock of Eden. Toward this blind, righteous prophetess (part of whose mission is the care and instruction of orphans) gravitate Regal Pettibone -- a foundling whom she adopts and who grows into a fascinating "street man -- and La Donna Scales, a refugee from a Catholic convent. They fall in love, these two, before they discover they are brother and sister and before their half brother, Otis Thigpen (another Bloodworth Orphan), can turn his rage on them.But the Bloodworth line is tortuous. It has spawned young white girls who are raped by their own brothers, Rachel's own illegitimate sons: Industrious and Carl-Rae; gamblers, doctors, prostitutes, journalists -- all of whose lives touch. Bound by the past, they are hamstrung by destiny.Viewed through the perceptive vision of Nathaniel Witherspoon --this is a driven story that builds, climbs and tunnels through many lives: a Muslim leader afraid for his life; a blind musician housed in an asylum; a Victorian Negro lady in love with her dead brother; a 350-pound diabetic swathed in diapers; and midwives who write thousand-page records of the passion-ridden Bloodworth Orphans.
language: English
title: The Bloodworth Orphans
titlecomplete: The Bloodworth Orphans
genres: American, United States, Fiction, Novels, African American
ratings_count: 23
series: Forrest County
publisher: Random House