Orphan Mother (Hicks)

The Orphan Mother 
Robert Hicks, 2016
Grand Central Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780446581769


Summary
An epic account of one remarkable woman's quest for justice from the author of The Widow of the South and A Separate Country.

In the years following the Civil War, Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock—the "Widow of the South"—has quietly built a new life for herself as a midwife to the women of Franklin, Tennessee.

But when her ambitious, politically-minded grown son, Theopolis, is murdered, Mariah—no stranger to loss—finds her world once more breaking apart.

How could this happen? Who wanted him dead?

Mariah's journey to uncover the truth leads her to unexpected people—including George Tole, a recent arrival to town, fleeing a difficult past of his own—and forces her to confront the truths of her own past.

Brimming with the vivid prose and historical research that has won Robert Hicks recognition as a "master storyteller" (San Francisco Chronicle). (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—January 30, 1951
• Where—West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
• Education—unspecified college in Nashville, Tennessee
• Currently—lives in Franklin, Tennessee


Robert Hicks is the author of New York Times bestseller, The Widow of the South (2005) and two other novels in the Southern saga, A Separate Country (2009) and The Orphan Mother (2016). Hicks was born and raised in South Florida, moving to Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1974. He now lives at "Labor in Vain," his late-eighteenth-century log cabin near the Bingham Community.

Because of his writing, as well as his work in music, art, and historical preervation, Hicks made the #2 spot in the "Top 100 Reasons to Love Nashville." The list was featured in a 2015 issue of Nashville Lifestyles, which dubbed Hicks "Nashville's Master of Ceremonies."

Music and art
Hicks's interest in the arts are varied: over the years he has worked in music as a publisher and an artistic manager in both country and alternative-rock music. He has also been a partner in the B. B. King's Blues Clubs—located in Nashville, Memphis, Orlando, and Los Angeles—and continues to serve as the company's "Curator of Vibe."

As a lifelong art collector, Hicks was the first Tennessean ever to be listed among Art & Antiques's Top 100 Collectors in America. He focuses on artists such as Howard Finster and B.F. Perkins, as well as on different genres, such as Tennesseana and Southern Material Culture.

Hicks has also served as curator of the exhibition "Art of Tennessee" at the First Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. The exhibition—first conceived at Hicks's kitchen table—was seven years in the making, opening in September 2003. Hicks also co-edited of the exhibition's award winning catalog, Art of Tennessee.

Historic preservation
Hicks has long been fascinated by the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864—a particularly bloody fight that weakened the Confederate's ability to win the Civil War. Hick's interest led him to found Franklin's Charge, an organization that saved what remained of the eastern flank of the battlefield—turning it into a public battlefield park. It was a massive project, considered "the largest battlefield reclamation in North American history" by the American Battlefield Protection Program.

By the end of 2005, Franklin's Charge had already raised over 5 million dollars toward this goal, surpassing anything ever achieved by other communities in America to preserve battlefield open space. As Jim Lighthizer, President of the Civil War Preservation Trust said, "There is no 'close second' in any community in America, to what Robert Hicks and Franklin's Charge has done in Franklin."

In addition to his work for the battlefield park, Hicks has served on the boards of the Historic Carnton Plantation (a focal point of the Franklin Battle), Tennessee State Museum, The Williamson County Historical Society, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He presently serves on the board of directors of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.

Historical novels
Hicks's interest in the Franklin battlefield—and a chance meeting with Civil War historian and author Shelby Foote—inspired an idea for a book, eventually leading to The Widow of the South, his first novel, which was published in 2005. Hick's intent for the book was to bring national attention to those five bloody hours on the Franklin battlefield and the impact the battle had in remaking us a nation.

A Separate Country, Hicks's second novel published in 2009, takes place in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War. It is based on the life of John Bell Hood, one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army—and one of its most tragic figures.

In 2016, Hicks released his third book in the Civil War saga, The Orphan Mother. The story follows Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock—the "Widow of the South"—who has built a new life for herself as a midwife during the post-war Reconstruction Era.

Other writing
Hicks has written other works in addition to his novels. His first book, published in 2000, is a collaboration with French-American photographer Michel Arnaud: Nashville: the Pilgrims of Guitar Town. In 2008, he co-edited (with Justin Stelter and John Bohlinger) the story collection, A Guitar and A Pen: Short Stories and Story-Songs By Nashville Songwriters.

He has also written the introduction to two books on historic preservation authored by photographer Nell Dickerson, GONE: A Photographic Plea for Preservation and Porch Dogs.

Hicks's essays on regional history, southern material culture, furniture and music have appeared in numerous publications over the years. He also writes op-eds for the New York Times on contemporary politics in the South and is a regular contributor to Garden & Gun.

More
Hicks travels throughout the nation speaking on a variety of topics ranging from "Why The South Matters" to "The Importance of Fiction in Preserving History to Southern Material Culture" and "A Model for the Preservation of Historic Open Space for Every Community."

In January 2016 Hicks was a panelist and featured speaker at the third annual Rancho Mirage Writers Festival in California. Along with American historian H.W. Brands, Hicks took part in the panel discussion "The War that Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Matters."

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin, in 2014 Hicks released the first small batch of his bourbon whiskey Battlefield Bourbon. Each of the 1,864 bottles is numbered and signed by Hicks. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/14/2016.)

Book Reviews
The ingredients for a compelling drama are there, but The Orphan Mother falls short. The storyline is plodding and there’s no real drama.... In Mariah, Hicks has created a strong and noble soul, whose comfort with herself allows her to withstand the indignities of racism.... Mariah’s reaction to Theopolis’ death lacks the passion or devastation of a parent whose only child has been viciously murdered.... The story gives readers some idea about the conflicts that marred Reconstruction and fueled Jim Crow, but it falls short of tying America’s racial past to its present.
Jeanne Marie Brown - Fort Worth Star-Telegram


Hicks is a talented storyteller, and this story moves at a clip, but it feels deliberate and inorganic, his characters sometimes seemingly just vehicles moving the story forward.... Only George seems truly flesh and blood, and is the most memorable character.
Publishers Weekly


Hicks's bittersweet novel reveals a woman discovering a new sense of self in slavery's aftermath. She becomes driven by a demand for justice, though justice for blacks is almost impossible to imagine. A beautifully rendered portrait for all lovers of Civil War fiction. —Bette-Lee Fox
Library Journal


Hicks extends his Tennessee-set historical saga into the...Reconstruction Era [which] was one of the messiest times in American history, not least because establishing civil and political rights for African-Americans newly freed from slavery was left unfinished for another century. That turmoil forms the setting for Hicks' latest... Satisfying historical fiction.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Orphan Mother...then take off on your own:

1. What kind of picture does Robert Hicks paint of the South after the Civil War? How would you describe the relations between former slaves and whites?

2. How much did you know about the Reconstruction Era before you read the Orphan Mother?

3. Talk about Mariah. Some reviewers have trouble liking her, seeing her as somewhat one-dimensional. Her anger is front and center; however given her history and all she has suffered, is her anger justified? What do you think?

4. Was Theopolis naive? Did he not expect to stir up resentment and anger among certain individuals? Or was his hope of election a real possibility?

5. What about George Tole? Talk about his past and how it has shaped the man he has become.

6. In what way does Mariah's role as a midwife elevate her status in the community?

7. What is the relationship between Mariah and her former mistress, Carrie McGovick. How do they renegotiate their new relationship with Mariah now a free woman?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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