Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer

Flashback Friday takes us to Carrie’s review of a true classic – Kate Forbes’ performance of Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. This unabridged rendition of the beautiful story is not currently available for purchase, but if your local public library uses Overdrive’s Libby app, you can still listen to a copy of it – see the link at the end of the review. Highly recommended!

Narrated by Kate Forbes

Note: This review was originally published November 21, 2014.

When I started reading romance books several years back, everything was new. I even had to learn a new vocabulary to talk about the books. I frequented forums and found romance review websites to get recommendations. Before long I noticed that when romance readers talked about their favorite books, Morning Glory was sure to show up in the conversation. Once I started reading the book, I quickly understood why this story is so universally loved.

Morning Glory is about people we might be tempted to call ‘broken” in modern terms. But Will and Ellie aren’t so much broken as closed off due to the hard knocks life has given them. Throughout the book it becomes clear that both Ellie and Will have incredible heart and spirit, and a great will to live. They both find joy and satisfaction in their work and take pride in their accomplishments.

Will’s life started as an abandoned infant, passed from one foster family to another but never wanted. After running away in his teens, he’s been a drifter traveling and working, mostly on ranches. After spending 5 years in prison for 2^nd degree murder, Will is in Georgia trying to find work when he answers the ad Elinore Dinsmore puts in a small town newspaper asking for a husband.

As a child Elinore was kept virtual prisoner by her hyper-religious grandparents. Her continuing joy in all things found out of doors is one of the memorable things about this story. Throughout her life the townspeople have called her crazy, so she never goes to town or mingles. She married the only person who was kind to her. Elinore is now a widow with two young boys and another child on the way, living in a rundown house on a rundown piece of land. She knows she needs a man to help work the property and support her children, so she advertises in the local paper.

The enduring quality of Morning Glory lies in the writing. Spencer writes the scenes with a clarity that makes the reader feel present. She engages the emotions with writing that is spare, but with words so carefully chosen that scenes come to life. In one scene Spencer describes Will’s joy at working after years in prison, about the “honest sweat” and how he “soaked up” the sun after all those years of coldness.

“What was unpleasant for one man was freedom for Will Parker.”

One oft mentioned scene happens shortly after Will and Elinore meet, when Elinore cuts Will’s hair. It’s not a long scene, yet the perfection of the writing makes it heartwarming and very memorable.

Kate Forbes narrates the book with a slight country accent. Her voice has a “common folk” feeling, sounding a little gruff for the narrative parts and for the men’s voices. Her character voice for Elinore is strong yet soft and her children’s voices are realistic. Forbes’ voice reminds me somewhat of Sissy Spacek’s voice when she played Loretta Lynn in the movie, Coalminer’s Daughter. There is a soft cadence to the sounds, making the southern accent sound musical. Forbes’ superb reading skills extend to giving every character a unique voice, and the pacing of the narrative parts is perfect.

Will and Elinore both realize before long that they have feelings for the other, but their past experiences of rejection makes each unable to tell the other. In less capable hands this might have been tiring for the listener, but Spencer makes the situation feel realistic and understandable, and at times heart wrenching. In fact, much of the story has a heart-tugging emotional quality to it. Most romances stop at the wedding, or occasionally with a baby-filled epilogue. One of the great pleasures of Morning Glory is that we get to see Will and Elinore together and watch their lives unfold. Still so unsure when they get married, the real falling in love happens slowly as Will and Elinore learn to believe in their own worth and then to believe that someone else can find them worthy, too. This means stepping out of the fear and learning to trust, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

There are secondary storylines, such as the one involving a gold-digging waitress in town, but all these subplots are used sparingly and for the purpose of illuminating the true character qualities of Will and Elinore, often by stark contrast.

When I first read Morning Glory I gave it my highest rating. Now, after listening to Kate Forbes’s reading of the book, I wish I had an even higher rating to give it. Forbes’s interpretation of Spencer’s characters is so perfect that I forgot all sense of listening to a book. Even though I’ve heard great narrators read wonderfully written books, this synergy of author and narrator has rarely been matched. I can only hope this unabridged audiobook is rereleased and made widely available sometime soon.

Editor’s Note: Morning Glory in unabridged format is a hard-to-find and a real treasure. In 2014, we started an official hunt for this 2002 recording, hoping for a rerelease. Recorded Books graciously responded, “We would love to release our recording of Morning Glory again but unfortunately the rights have been tangled in a difficult situation not of our making for many years. Kind of a tragic thing, really.” There is a new, unabridged recording from 2021 narrated by Emily Sutton Smith.

Carrie

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Look for Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer on Overdrive