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I would like to share a book I received for a review Out of the Darkness: A Novel (Courageous Series) by David A. Jacinto (Author).
Thomas Wrights story (Dave’s families story) made me upset to learn about the conditions they lived in. But I enjoyed learning about the pride Thomas felt to go to work in a coal mine, hundreds of feet below Earth. What was surprising was to find out Thomas was only 7 and allowed to work in a Coal Mine something that wouldn’t happen in this day and age. Thank the LORD because I couldn’t ever image children having to be responsible for earning a wage to support their family at the early age of 7 and sometimes even younger. Can you?
The children had to deal with the darkness of the mine, rats, and the horrible the smells, with a candle that only lasts 1 (one) hour out of a 12 hour day. Each child finding a way to make it bearable. Thomas was a lucky boy to have a mother that taught him to read and he shares that knowledge with other children in the coal mine as the story teller. Their joy in hearing the stories of adventures could be felt through Dave’s storytelling.
Out of the Darkness: A Novel (Courageous Series) could be a movie families should share with there children sharing the tiny home, the dark mines, the black faces walking home late at night, and the hunger they dealt with on a daily basis. Along with the despair of women and children left without their father/husband due to deaths happening in the mines which would cause them to be thrown out of their home with no compensation if their wage earner was killed in an accident while the mine owners where never held accountable for safety or working conditions
You will see love and devotion to family, friends, faith which brings the characters to find a better life, working hard and earning their way to purchase passage to America. If only they can get there with nothing bad happening or the wealthy holding them back from achieving their goals. You may want to keep a Kleenex or two in your pocket as at times I did find myself tearing up at the story which I will be sharing with David and Charlie as I wait for other books to come out.
About the book: Out of the Darkness: A Novel (Courageous Series) by David A. Jacinto (Author) which is a historical fiction.
Out of the Darkness is based on the true story of a nineteenth-century child coal miner rising out of the ashes of poverty and tragedy to change the world. It’s the story of greed, love, sacrifice, faith, and the courage to push aside fear and jump into the refiner’s fire where the finest qualities of character are forged.
In 1837, seven-year-old Thomas Wright followed in his family’s footsteps into one of England’s most dangerous coal mines. He struggled with childhood fears, working twelve-hour days, six days a week in the darkness 500-feet below ground. That was until disaster struck in one of England’s most horrific accidents that changes the direction of his life and the course of history.
This is the fast-moving story of a young boy overcoming the iron-fisted rule of the massively wealthy lord of the land, who not only owned much of South Yorkshire’s coal mines and the villages in which the miners lived, but the mortgage on their lives. With the help of his family, he confronts the tyrannical system of industrial slavery, His Lordship’s brutal psychopathic enforcer, and a society that fostered the oppression of the working class. From his desperate beginnings, we follow Tom on a path to a brilliant career, his love affair with a strong-willed woman, and his courageous fight to help change the course of industrial slavery in England.
It’s a masterfully told story of the great sweep of human desire for freedom and liberty; not just for himself, but for his children and his children’s children. Like many immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century, Thomas Wright was drawn to what Abraham Lincoln called, “the last best hope on earth,” and has left a vast American legacy, including his seven-year-old great, great, great, great grandson Cole, pictured on the front cover of this book
About the Book: David A. Jacinto
I’m often asked how I became a writer and where the inspiration for my first novel came from. Like most boys growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, I was never one to allow schoolwork get in the way of my education — how to make jumpin’ ramps for my bike, fishin’ rafts for the creek, or playin’ hooky to go down to the beach when the surf is good. I tried my best to follow the admonition of Mark Twain, “Never put off until tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow.” I made it my hard and fast rule, to never take my schoolbooks home from Bell Avenue Elementary. In my mind, procrastination of my homework to do what was really important … was worth it.
You’d be surprised how much stimulation of the creative mind there is in the fertile ground of playin’ hooky with other disobedient boys. Oh, eventually, I did buckle down and do what society demands. I got a college education and dove into the corporate world for financial success. But always, in the back of my mind, my goal was to build a place somewhere on a quiet, secluded beach with plenty of surf. And time to uncover and explore the whim of inspiration in my creative soul.
Eventually, I did find that deserted beach and built my santuary from the world, entirely off-the-grid, because life is not a dress rehearsal. The best of it is here and then it’s gone. Frequently, I retire from civilization for days to surf and write; not seeing another soul along this deserted stretch of beach pounding with surf. With saltwater from my morning surf still in my ears, I often sit basking in the warmth of a southerly breeze, listening to Bocelli, the inspiring sounds of crashing waves … and just write. Drawing on inspiration from my unrepentant youth, my family, a lifetime of experiences, and of course, Elon Musk’s satellite internet, my thoughts are transported to another time and place. Unconsciously or maybe consciously, millions of outside sources influence the creative part of my mind. Ideas stollen from others make my stories possible. I feel a sense of pride in the accomplishment of cobbling together the ideas of thousands of others who have gone before; superstitiously imagining this discoloration of the story’s origins is entirely my creative masterpiece. I suppose my pride in the creation of an original work like Out of the Darkness, is largely misplaced, unwarranted. Nevertheless, I would not trade away the insatiable compulsion of writing a thought provoking novel like Out of the Darkness. It has been a fulfilling, faith-building experience like no other.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
