Texas/Oklahoma border during Kennedy part of the '60's. Sheriff Ned continues to try to maintain the peace. Top's Uncle Cody is messing with a married woman and gets in a fight with four men. Ned's cotton pickers threaten to go off the job. Ned is nearly ambushed and killed. Lightfoot (?) is released from prison, kills the man who has moved in with his wife, kills his wife, accidentally causes his house to burn killing the rest of his family except for his baby who turns up dead . . . and may be the first human victim of the animal torturer the book started with. Yikes!
"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other. Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy. It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...
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