God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell

God’s Little Acre is a 1933 novel by Erskine Caldwell about a dysfunctional farming family in Georgia obsessed with sex and wealth.

The novel’s sexual themes were so controversial that the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice asked a New York state court to censor it. The title, God’s Little Acre, refers to Ty Ty’s gift of one acre of his farmland to God to support the church.

But because Ty Ty wants gold for himself and his family, he moves the location of the acre at will, so he’ll be sure not to give his gold away.

Published by Viking Press in 1933, God’s Little Acre was in part influenced by textile mill strikes in Gastonia, North Carolina. The novel is “proletarian”, focusing on the “plight of workers deprived of union protection.” Similarly, the novel deals with the misuse and abuse of land in the South.

What I Liked

I was recommend this book by my Granddad – who said it really captured a segment of white Southerners from when he was growing up. He also said it was contraband that he and his teenage friends would sneak to read. The book totally delivers.

The book is peak Southern Gothic and much more readable that O’Connor – and certainly easier than Faulkner but still captures all the themes of what happens when a society is trapped in self-imposed backwardness while being forced through wrenching cultural change. The contradictions of deep religiosity, poverty, and short-term thinking are all there. If you are into Southern Gothic fiction, it’s a must-read.

What I Did Not Like

Not al whole lot – though I would not just wholeheartedly recommend it. I think you’d need some familiarity with the genre, or else you’ll be just as put off as the New York Vice Society was.