Book Review: At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

Set in America during the 1800’s, At the Edge of the Orchard is a book full of many themes – on reading the first few pages I thought the book was going to just be about apples, and yes they do play an important part in the book, but there is more to it than that. It is a story of relationships, hardships, loneliness, loss, perseverance, sickness, death and pain.

The story is split into different parts. The first section tells the story of the Goodenough Family, headed up by James and Sadie, who live in the Black Swamp, Ohio. The family work relentlessly to tame their patch of land and maintaining the apple trees they have planted. But it is a long battle for all and the first few chapters are basically an argument in words between James and Sadie – him versus her - all about apples. James wants to grow the apples to eat whereas Sadie prefers to make applejack - she finds refuge in the alcohol from the loneliness and hardships of life.

The second part follows Robert, the youngest son on a journey throughout America, running from the past of his broken family and looking for solace, which he finally finds in the form of trees.  Robert gets a job collecting seeds for an Englishman who sends new found plants to his father in England. However Robert discovers that no matter how long you run for your past does catch up on you.

As like other novels by Chevalier, this is one of these books which intrigues you from the start – and makes you want to read to the end to find what happens next. 

Faith: God conquered chaos

God conquered chaos. Wow, what a phrase that is and oh how so true, and it doesn’t stop in the past as God still conquers chaos.  He conquers chaos in the individual lives of people and globally throughout the world. It may not seem like he does, but he does.

During the time of Noah, God was not pleased with the way the world was going – “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on earth….” Genesis 6 v 5

The Lord was so disappointed that he “….. regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, an his heart was deeply troubled” Genesis 6 v 6

So He decided to “wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created….”Genesis 6 v 7

The Lord was so troubled, he decided that in order to conquer the chaos sin had created, he would send a flood to wipe away the human race.  This sounds very harsh, but He did save one family – that of Noah, who “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his rime, and he walked faithfully with God” Genesis 6 v 9

God conquered the chaos, but wasn’t so harsh to kill everyone – he not only saved Noah and his family but He also saved the animals too – so that His world could be recreated again.

In Exodus, the Egyptian rule over the Israelite's was awful and displeased the Lord.  There was chaos in Egypt so the Lord arranged for the Israelite's to be freed, but in doing this God created chaos himself with all the plague that he had sent.  But the plagues were necessary to loosen Pharaoh’s heart and free the Israelite's from slavery.

When leaving Egypt the Israelite’s faced a challenge – how to cross the red sea? But God parted the sea for them to cross, giving them a safe passage.  But when the Egyptians who are following them attempt to cross God drowns them.  Here He is showing that He is a mighty God.

In the time of both Noah and Moses God conquered chaos in different ways.  He brought life out of death by saying Noah and his family and by freeing the Israelite’s from slavery and oppression.

God brought salvation out of judgement.  He recreated his people from the waters of death.  And it wasn’t just with the Red Sea and the flood that God showed his power, he did it again in Joshua 3 – 4 with the parting of the River Jordan and he will keep saving his people from chaos.

So when in despair about storms in our own lives or in the world – it is best not to despair but to have faith and hope that the chaos which is in force will be conquered by God.

We may not feel like God is working in our situations by God is always working in the background.

God unravels His creation to recreate His people. 

Faith: The Plagues of Egypt

As a child I was taught in Sunday school about the book of Exodus in the Bible, but the teachings were mainly about Moses, the Exodus through the red sea and the ten plagues God sent on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.

These ten plagues happened in order that Pharaohs hardened heart would soften and his eyes be open to who God really was and listen to God and set the Israelite's free from oppression and slavery.

It’s not that Pharaoh didn’t believe in or worship gods, he did, he believed in the sun gods and the river gods etc. – he just didn’t believe in the God of the Israelite's – the true God.  Pharaoh didn’t take offence at the Israelite's having their own God but he did take offence at the suggestion that the God of Israel might have a claim on him. Pharaoh didn’t want other people’s beliefs imposed upon him.

 By sending the plagues God was declaring that He is the only true and relevant God - “And Moses said, “May it be as you say. You will know that there is no one like the Lord our God” (Exodus 8 v 10).

God through the plagues goes head to head with Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods as it says in Numbers 33 v 4b “the Lord……brought judgement on their gods”

But why the 10 plagues, what do they mean – why did God send the specific plagues he did – well it is because many of the plagues are attacks on specific Egyptian gods.

Plague 1 - turning water into blood (Exodus 7 v 14-24) – this plague was an attack on Hopi, the Egyptian god of fertility. Without the River Nile there was no fertility in Egypt, which effectively meant there would be no Egypt. 

“This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink and the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. (Exodus 7 v 17-18)

Plague 2 – Frogs (Exodus 7 v25 - 8 v 15) – this plague was an attack on Haqt who had the head of a frog and was another fertility god.  By sending this plague God is showing that frogs are his to command and no one else’s.

“This is what the great LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials” (Exodus 8:1–4)

Plague 5 – Diseased Livestock (Exodus 9 v 1-9). The bull was another symbol of fertility and all over Egypt there would have been shrine to the Bull. Two of the Bull-gods who would have been worshipped are Apis and Mneivs and none of them could resist the plague on the livestock of Egypt.

“This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats”  Exodus 9:1–3

Plague 6 – Boils (Exodus 9 v 8-12). The plague of Boils on the Egyptians could not be overturned by Sekhmet who was the lion-headed goddess of plagues

“Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land. -  Exodus 9:8–9

Plague 7– Hail (Exodus 9 v 13-35). The plague of Hail could not be over turned by Nut, the goddess of the Sky - not could she stop the wind which brought the plague of locusts (Egypt 10 v 1-20) – Plague 8.

“Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die. […] The LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation” — Exodus 9:13–24

“This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now” — Exodus 10:3–6

Plague 9 – Darkness for three days (Exodus 10 v 21-29). This plague was no prevented by Re, the sun god who at nigh descended into the netherworld before rising victorious again with dawn. But during the 9th plague he did not rise. These three days of darkness were a clear sign that Re had been defeated. 

The first nine plagues show that before Israel’s God, who is our God that all other gods are powerless, all pretenders are defeated and all blasphemers are silenced.

TV Review: Eastenders

This may be a controversial post, but I have just been watching EastEnders (Okay I wrote this post a few weeks ago, after an emotional episode) – it was a very powerful episode tonight as Shirley, Linda and Roxy plus their loved ones awaited the outcome of the trail of Dean Wicks and his attempted rape on Roxy.

During the episode they didn’t show the trial, instead they focused on the families and the heartache that rape brings.  The victims Roxy and Linda united together while Dean stood in the dock alone awaiting the news of his future. The victims had each other, and had their families, Dean had no one.

And what was the outcome of the trial? Dean got off  - he was found not guilty, which is not what everyone back in Walford wanted, but it happened, and it happens in real life as well.  People may be outraged and disappointed with the outcome, I knew I was. And the reason why I was annoyed - because Dean committed the crime, he raped Linda and tried to rape Roxy as well.

However the unfortunate thing about this, is that the not guilty verdict reflects reality – people get away with rape a lot of the time.  The justice system is flawed:

• Women are often accused of being liars if they report the crime of rape
• Women are often told they brought the crime on themselves because of the clothes they wore or because they were drinking
• Women are often scared to report the crime of rape as they are scared of the perpetrator and they are also scared of being called liars and not being believed.

A lot of women are not believed, and if the police do believe them and the case goes to court it doesn’t mean the perpetrator will get convicted. Many cases get a not guilty verdict, and even if a guilty verdict is given then the sentence is only six or seven years which isn’t much for a crime that can destroy a person’s life.

I knew that this crime happens not only to women but also to men.  And for men to come forward it must be worse for them than a women. It is a very hard subject to tackle as a soap/TV programme but I think that EastEnders did very well.