Book Beginnings and Friday 56 - The Rebel wife by Taylor M. Polites

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. To play along, please do the following:

1. Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. 
2. Make sure to share the name of the book and the author so we know what you're reading. 
3. Feel free to share your first impressions with us based on the first line. 
4. Link your post at Rose City Reader, or if you don't have a blog, leave it in the comments below. 

The book I picked up for this today is The Rebel Wife by Taylor M. Polites:

                              

I knew that Eli is dying.

     Rachel said the rattlesnakes were a bad sign, but that doesn't signify.  The Negroes give so much credence to conjuring and signs.  But there is something about Eli.  He looks so much like Pa before he died.  Eli trembles in his bed like Pa did.  He has the same fever in his eyes.  Loosing Pa was terrible, but I don't feel that with Eli.  He is not a bad husband, but it will not be like when Pa died.  

My Thoughts:  To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this as a book beginning.  I know this book covers the civil war but I'm just a tad uncomfortable with the main characters thoughts and her dialogue.  

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. To play along:

1. Grab the book closest to you, any book will do.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Choose the fifth (5th) sentence or a few more (just don't spoil it too much).
4. Post it on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, post it in the comments below.
5. Link your post to Freda's Voice.

I'm using the same book for my Friday 56 (The Rebel Wife) 

     Mama and I road in the carriage while Hill and Mike walked behind the hearse.  Behind us, the whole town and  virtually every servant in the neighborhood walked in silent mourning, such was the great love my father's people felt for him.  They came all the way from the farthest plantations in the county simply to walk him to his burial place. 

So what are you Friday Book Beginnings and Friday 56?  Please play along and if you decide to follow my blog, let me know in the comments and I'll return the favor.

About The Rebel Wife:

Augusta Branson, born of a prominent Southern family made destitute by the Civil War, is forced by her family into marriage with a wealthy upstart. Ten years after her marriage and the end of the war, she watches her husband, Eli, die from a horrifying blood fever.

Newly widowed, Augusta begins to wake to the realities that surround her: her social standing is stained by her marriage, she is alone and unprotected in a community that is being destroyed by racial prejudice and violence, the fortune she thought she would inherit does not exist, and the deadly blood fever is spreading like wildfire. Nothing is as she believed, everyone she trusts is hiding something from her, and if Augusta can’t find a missing package, she and her son face certain death.

Using the Southern Gothic tradition to subvert literary archetypes like the white Southern Gentleman, the good Mammy, the conniving scalawag, and the defenseless Southern Belle, The Rebel Wife shatters the myths that still cling to the antebellum South and creates an unforgettable heroine for our time.