Review: “Rainwater,’ by Sandra Brown

In drought and depression-ridden 1930s Gilead, Texas, hardworking Ella Barron is the mother of autistic 10-year-old Solly. After her husband walked out, she learned to run her Texas boarding house by herself where she provides spotless surroundings and three meals a day with the help of her black maid, Margaret. She needs her house to be fully occupied in order to make ends meet, so she rents one of her rooms to the kindly Dr. David Rainwater, a man slowly dying of cancer.

Foreclosure and financial ruin have dogged the people of Gilead, and they forced to make difficult choices. The ranchers have had to sell their starving cattle to the government, whose representatives then kill them on site. Their carcasses are dumped in huge ditches for burial. When the ranchers allow the starving residents of the Shantytown to scavenge the carcasses, Conrad Ellis, a greedy bully, gets together a gang to terrorize the Shantytown scavengers and ranchers.

Conrad Ellis has been Ella’s nemesis since they were children. When Ellis is deputized, there is no longer any impediment to his violence, and soon thereafter a young black preacher is lynched. Rainwater organizes a group to resist his persecution, but this only makes Rainwater a target for his hatred. Rainwater’s kindness, and his understanding of her son, Solly, melts Ella’s heart and they begin a romance. But Ella and her son are on Ellis’ hate list and on the hottest summer night of the year, he brings his particular brand of violence to Ella’s doorstep.

Written in a loving tone, this gentle and heartwarming tale tells the timeless story of overcoming life’s adversities through hard work and faith; and the sacrifices we make for the people we love.