Average customer rating:
- ONE OF THE BEST OF THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Ramblings of an English major...
- great read
- Absolutely brilliant. Best book I've read in a long time.
- Better than any history book
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Fair and Tender Ladies (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Lee Smith
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Smith, Lee
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ASIN: 0345383990
Release Date: 1993-06-01 |
Book Description
"A TOUR DE FORCE"
- Los Angeles Times
"The story of Ivy Rowe, born near the turn of the century in the Virginia Mountain enclave of Sugar Fork, is told completely through letters that Ivy is forever writing family and friends...Lee Smith exhibits her own understanding and affection for the traditions of the Appalachians. She is at home with the down-home speech and ways of her characters. They come vividly to life, and none more so than Ivy, whose voice and heart and humor sustain Fair and Tender Ladies."
- Philadelphia Inquirer
"Because of Ivy's narrative ability and her zest for living, Fair and Tender Ladies opens for us like a flower with a gloriously unexpected center. There are unforgettable characters...Few readers will be dry-eyed as they watch this extraordinary woman disappear around that last bend in the road."
-Chicago Tribune
"These beautiful letters...display Ivy's soul up close, the way a just-caught firefly illuminates a jar. So real does she become that it is hard to believe that Ivy did not actually live to write her letters."
-USA Today
"This is about a moving a work of literature as has ever been written." ANNIE DILLARD
Customer Reviews:
ONE OF THE BEST OF THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-06-18
How I hated for this book to end! I LOVE Lee Smith's writings. She is truly one of THE BEST authors of our time. If you have not read her, PLEASE DO. She NEVER EVER disappoints.
This wondeful book is written in the form of letters by one Miss Ivy Rowe. The letters span the lifetime of Ivy. She LOVES to write letters and writes to friends, family, acquaintances. Ivy chronicles her entire life from a young teenager to her death (SOB!! -- yes, SOB!!) in these letters.
Ivy lives and dies in the Appalachian Mountain area. She lives through World Wars, ups and downs, feast and famine, good times, bad times, pain, sorrow, joy, happiness. Her letters tell all and tell all very, very well. You meet her family and friends all through her letters to various people. She is outspoken, kind, tough, sweet, loving, caring. Ivy's life was never easy, yet she handles every hurdle with common sense and humor.
At first it was a little slow going reading this book as her letters are written in true form of someone who lived in the early 1900's with very, very little education. However, Ivy is one of the lucky people who can read and write and loves to do both.
Her spunk, wit, and just IVY will make this one of your favorite books of all time. I loved the format of the book, it is different than any other book I have ever read. I know this is one book that I will not soon forget. Ms. Lee Smith has the outstanding talent of making her characters so life-like and totally people you believe in. How sad I was when this wonderful tale ended. This book also contained much history of our country and I believe I learned a great deal -- in a fun and interesting way -- about our country's colorful history.
Do yourself a favor and read this book and then read all of the other treasures that Ms. Smith has waiting for you. You will not be sorry.
Thanks!
Pam
Ramblings of an English major..........2007-04-02
_Fair and Tender Ladies_ tells the secrets of the soul of Appalachia. Tracing the life of Ivy Rowe from youth to old age through her letters, the book is an Appalachian masterpiece. Ms. Smith was supposedly inspired to write this book after coming across a bundle of letters at a yard sale. She claims not to have read the letters (after all, they were private!), but she felt a story like this should be told.
Here, Lee Smith tells the story of Ivy Rowe, rural Appalachia, the impact big business coal mining, love, hope, and life. If you know nothing of Appalachia, let this be your introduction. If you live there, let it be your celebration. If you are alive, let this story draw you along, softly whispering the story of your own humanity to you--one letter at a time.
great read.......2007-02-25
Our book club read this book and everyone loved it. We discussed it for 2 hours. I would highly recommend it.
Absolutely brilliant. Best book I've read in a long time........2006-07-19
Fair and Tender Ladies tells the lifelong story of Ivy Rowe, a woman growing up and growing old in Appalachian Virginia. The story is told totally through a long series of letters she writs to family, friends, lovers and acquaintances.
Ivy's life is one of abject poverty and hardship. Most of her siblings dies young. Her father is disabled through the majority of the book, Her mother is a tormented and exploited soul. Ivy has several chances to escape all this but the pull of place and family keeps her firmly entrenched where she is.
This out to be a thoroughly depressing book--instead it is a truly inspiring book. For, though objectively a person with virtually nothing, Ivy sees herself as uniquely blessed. The life force that carries her into old age is one that sees the glass perpetually as half full--her hardships are, to her eyes, less threatening and frightening than those she sees around her. She is essentially saved several times by people she dos not know or whom she has previously rejected. Though she is often exploited she does not allow those experiences to harden her heart.
This is not to say Ivy is soft or naive. She merely sees hard times as the burden of life and chooses to write her letters to make sense of it all where she can and merely record it if she can't.
I would have thought the letter format would wear after a while. It did not. It in fact created a sense of intimacy that enhanced the reading experience.
All in all, this is one of the best books I read in years. I was thoroughly enchanted throughout. I can only rejoice in the large body of work that lee Smith has for me to work through. If her other efforts are even a fraction as good as this book, I have a lot of great reading ahead of me.
Better than any history book.......2006-02-01
FAIR AND TENDER LADIES chronicles the life of IVY, written in letters spanning the decades of her life,(beginning as a small child) to her various loved ones. They are written in Appalachian dialect and sometimes, I had to read it again to make certain I got the meaning. After awhile however, your eye and your ear get in synch and it's much easier.
The book paints a portrait (a very accurate portrait) of life in rural West Virginia. It could have as easily been in Kentucky.
The mettle of this wonderfully human woman keeps her afloat. It's is ironic, funny, tender and engrossing; most of all totally believable..
Book Description
Illus. in full color. Here is the gripping story of Hillary and Norgay's perilous ascent of Mount Everest as they battled snow and ice slides, whipping winds, and the grim knowledge that 19 others had died in the same attempt.
Book Description
BIG CHERRY HOLLER, the extraordinary sequel to BIG STONE GAP, takes us back to the mountain life that enchanted us in Adriana Trigiani’s best selling debut novel. It’s been eight years since the town pharmacist and long time spinster Ave Maria Mulligan married coal miner Jack MacChesney. With her new found belief in love and its possibilities, Ave Maria makes a life for herself and her growing family, hoping that her fearless leap into commitment will make happiness stay. What she didn’t count on was that fate, life, and the ghosts of the past would come to haunt her and, eventually, test the love she has for her husband. The mountain walls that have protected her all of her life can not spare Ave Maria the life lessons she must learn.
BIG CHERRY HOLLER is the story of a marriage, revealing the deep secrets, the power struggle, the betrayal and the unmet expectations that exist between husband and wife. It is the story of a community that must reinvent itself as it comes to grips with the decline of the coal mining industry. It is the story of an extended family, the people of Big Stone Gap, who are there for one another especially when times are tough
—including bookmobile librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, and Rescue Squad captain Spec Broadwater, who faces the complications of his double life. Ave Maria’s best friend Theodore Tipton, now band director at the University of Tennessee, continues to be her chief counselor and conscience as he reaches the pinnacle of marching band success.
When Ave Maria takes her daughter to Italy for the summer, she meets a handsome stranger who offers her a life beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ave Maria is forced to confront what is truly important: to her, to her marriage, and to her family. Brimming with humor, wisdom, honesty, and the drama and local color of mountain life from Virginia to Italy, BIG CHERRY HOLLER is a deeply felt, brilliantly evoked story of two lovers who have lost their way and their struggle to find one another again.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
In a hilarious and heartwarming sequel to the bestselling Big Stone Gap, Ave Maria and Jack MacChesney find their marriage strained by a summer spent apart.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book! .......2007-10-01
I had never read any books by this author before this series. I'm hooked, she is a great writer & her books are fantastic!
Life goes on..........2007-01-04
Following on from Big Stone Gap, part 2 of Trigiani's trilogy picks up Ave Maria's life 8 years after her marriage to Jack.
Darker, sadder but more honest and insightful than Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler faces up to the fact that
a) life isn't always a bed of roses
b) people often screw up
... but it doesn't have to be the end of the world when it happens.
NB: I'd ordered this at the same time as Big Stone Gap, and enjoyed reading them back-to-back, while the characters and `history'of Big Stone Gap was still fresh in my mind.
The second of the "Big Stone Gap" quartet.......2006-09-09
In this sequel to "Big Stone Gap," it's eight years after Ave Maria and Jack began their lives together. They are struggling to give 10-year-old daughter Etta a normal childhood, while mourning the sudden death of four-year-old Joe several years earlier.
Largely due to their intense sorrow, Ave Maria and Jack begin drifting apart. Ave Maria begins to suspect her husband of intimacy with Karen Bell, a woman he met through work; and she herself is faced with a difficult decision after meeting a man on a trip to her relatives in Italy.
The humorous color of the side characters first introduced in the previous novel balances well with the seriousness of the MacChesney family's problems. It also gives hope that in the end, what's good will prevail.
This book is the second of the "Big Stone Gap" quartet; the fourth book is scheduled for release at the end of October 2006.
Another excellent book by Trigiani.......2006-05-24
I loved this book, just as I like the first one, Big Stone Gap. I can't get enough of Ave Maria, Jack and Etta. I look forward to Milk Glass Moon.
What a bummer.......2006-02-18
After the magic and suble romance of the first, this one was a real bummer. No love, no magic...at least not in the first chapter or two. I didn't make it any further because it was just too danged depressing with no sign of happiness on down the road.
Book Description
Milk Glass Moon, the third book in Adriana Trigiani's bestselling Big Stone Gap series, continues the life story of Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney as she faces the challenges and changes of motherhood with her trademark humor and honesty. With twists as plentiful as those found on the holler roads of southwest Virginia, this story takes turns that will surprise and enthrall the reader.
Transporting us from Ave Maria's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Italian Alps, from New York City to the Tuscan countryside,
Milk Glass Moon is the story of a shifting mother-daughter relationship, of a daughter's first love and a mother's heartbreak, of an enduring marriage that contains its own ongoing challenges, and of a community faced with seismic change.
All of Trigiani's beloved characters are back: Jack Mac, Ave Maria's true love, who is willing to gamble security for the unknown; her best friend and confidant, bandleader Theodore Tip-ton, who begins a new life in New York City; librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, who faces a life-or-death crisis. Meanwhile, surprises emerge in the blossoming of crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, the maturing of mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, and the return of Pete Rutledge, the handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria's world upside down in
Big Cherry Holler.
In this rollicking hayride of upheaval and change, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and to people who enter her life and rock its foundation. As Ave Maria reaches into the past to find answers to the present, readers will stay with her every step of the way, rooting for the onetime town spinster who embraced love and made a family.
Milk Glass Moon is about the power of love and its abiding truth, and captures Trigiani at her most lyrical and heartfelt.
Download Description
Milk Glass Moon, the third book in Adriana Trigiani's bestselling Big Stone Gap series, continues the life story of Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney as she faces the challenges and changes of motherhood with her trademark humor and honesty. With twists as plentiful as those found on the holler roads of southwest Virginia, this story takes turns that will surprise and enthrall the reader.
Transporting us from Ave Maria's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Italian Alps, from New York City to the Tuscan countryside, Milk Glass Moon is the story of a shifting mother-daughter relationship, of a daughter's first love and a mother's heartbreak, of an enduring marriage that contains its own ongoing challenges, and of a community faced with seismic change.
All of Trigiani's beloved characters are back: Jack Mac, Ave Maria's true love, who is willing to gamble security for the unknown; her best friend and confidant, bandleader Theodore Tipton, who begins a new life in New York City; librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, who faces a life-or-death crisis. Meanwhile, surprises emerge in the blossoming of crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, the maturing of mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, and the return of Pete Rutledge, the handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria's world upside down in Big Cherry Holler.
In this rollicking hayride of upheaval and change, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and to people who enter her life and rock its foundation. As Ave Maria reaches into the past to find answers to the present, readers will stay with her every step of the way, rooting for the onetime town spinster who embraced love and made a family. Milk Glass Moon is about the power of love and its abiding truth, and captures Trigiani at her most lyrical and heartfelt.
Customer Reviews:
Book Review.......2007-10-01
Great book! Author is awesome. First time reading her books & really enjoyed the triology.
GOOD READ.......2007-06-01
I BOUGHT THIS FOR MY STEPMOTHER AND AUNT. THEY BOTH LIKE HER BOOKS REALLY WELL.
Milk Glass Moon.......2007-02-11
I have loved all of the Big Stone Gap Novels - "Milk Glass Moon" is the third in this series which will charm anyone who enjoys a kind of "down home" story, as we journey through life with Ave Maria, her husband,Jack, and their daughter, Etta, and all their friends in Big Stone Gap. I call this one of my "feel good" books (Please note, I feel the same way about Fannie Flagg's books) - you want to pack up and move to Big Stone Gap and be a part of their lives.
The third book in the "Big Stone Gap" quartet.......2006-09-09
After following the troubled MacChesney marriage in the second book, readers now focus on the adolescent Etta as she struggles with growing up. Her mother Ave Maria, too, has difficulty allowing her daughter this passage, especially after losing her toddler son Joe to leukemia.
Yet, like her mother, Etta promises to become a strong young woman. This doesn't make the MacChesneys any easier, though, when longtime family friend Stefano Grassi comes to visit from Italy...
This book is the second of the "Big Stone Gap" quartet; the fourth book is scheduled for release at the end of October 2006.
Wonderful book!.......2006-05-24
Like the 2 previous novels about Big Stone Gap and the MacChesney, I love this one too! I am glad to see that there is another book, The Return to Big Stone Gap, coming out in September.
Book Description
It is the early 1900s in rural Kentucky, and young Saul Sullivan is heading up to Redbud Camp to look for work. He is wary but unafraid of the Cherokee girl there whose beauty is said to cause the death of all men who see her. But the minute Saul lays eyes on Vine, he knows she is meant to be his wife. Vine’s mother disapproves of the mixed marriage; Saul’s mother, Esme, has always been ill at ease around the Cherokee people. But once Vine walks into God’s Creek, Saul’s mother and brother Aaron take to her immediately. It quickly becomes clear to Vine, though, that Aaron is obsessed with her. And when Saul leaves God’s Creek for a year to work in another county, the wife he leaves behind will never be the same again. The violence that lies ahead for Vine, will not only test her spirit, but also her ability to forgive—both others and herself. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully written sensory experience.......2007-05-25
Silas House has written a beautiful book that is so descriptive that you'd swear you could smell the wet leaves as the characters walk through the woods after a spring rain. This love story between Irish Saul Sullivan and Cherokee Vine is not to be missed. Wonderfully drawn characters, (my favorite is Serena, the wild midwife who befriends Vine), and lyrical, evocative writing make this a story not to be missed. If you enjoy this as much as I did, read House's The Coal Tattoo next, followed by Clay's Quilt. This will follow the whole family's saga from start to finish. All of these are wonderful stories, but this is the best of the batch, followed closely by Clay's Quilt.
A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House .......2007-02-24
Silas House writes beautiful novels. He teaches rich American History many of us would never learn if not for his books. I love to read about the Appalachians.
Wonderful..........2006-08-23
This is a beautifully written, beautifully told story of Vine, a young Cherokee woman in Kentucky of the early 1900's. Vine is a three dimensional character, well-defined and very real.
While the story is slowly paced, it does not lag in any way. House does a great job of describing what "Holler" life was like during that period of time, and especially what life was like for Native Americans. Esme, Aidia and Serena are also well written characters and add a great dynamic to the story.
I did find that the characters of Saul and Aaron needed a little bit more defining for me. Why did Aaron become the type of person that he did? Other than Saul being described as a man of few words, I never got a good sense of him. I'm not sure it was an entirely good idea to have written him out of so much of the book. I would have liked to have read more about the relationship between him and Vine. Regardless, this is still a great book that I highly recommend.
Beautiful.......2006-03-15
One of the best novels I have ever read. This book has everything a good read should: characters that become real to the reader, a wonderful sense of place, a sense of history and knowledge. Not only do you get completely wrapped up in the world of Vine Sullivan, but you also learn more about yourself in the process. A truly beautiful book that I can't recommend highly enough. I've bought a copy for everyone I love.
Beautifully written.......2006-02-27
I read this book during a rainy weekend and loved it. House's familiarity with Kentucky and his love for the hills and the heritage of the area resound in this tale. I was amazed that a male writer could get into the hearts and souls of the female characters he created. Bravo!
Book Description
“A YOUNG WRITER OF IMMENSE GIFTS . . . One of the best books I have ever read about contemporary life in the mountains of southern Appalachia. . . . I could see and feel Free Creek, and the mountain above it.”
–LEE SMITH
After his mother is killed, four-year-old Clay Sizemore finds himself alone in a small Appalachian mining town. At first, unsure of Free Creek, he slowly learns to lean on its residents as family. There’s Aunt Easter, who is always filled with a sense of foreboding, bound to her faith above all; quiltmaking Uncle Paul; untamable Evangeline; and Alma, the fiddler whose song wends it way into Clay’s heart. Together, they help Clay fashion a quilt of a life from what treasured pieces surround him. . . .
“A long love poem to the hills of Kentucky. It flows with Appalachian music, religion, and that certain knowledge that your people will always hold you close. . . . Like the finely stitched quilts that Clay’s Uncle Paul labors over, the author sews a flawless seam of folks who love their home and each other.”
–Southern Living
“Unpretentious and clear-eyed . . . A tale whose joys are as legitimate as its sorrows.”
–The Roanoke Times
Customer Reviews:
Somewhat disappointing..........2006-10-27
I read both A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES and COAL TATTOO prior to reading this one, and while I liked CLAY'S QUILT, I felt it was lacking some of the beauty and charm of the other two books.
I found it a bit difficult to like some of the characters (Cake and Evangeline were a bit to cliché for me) and I felt there could have been more written about Dreama and Darry's situation. I also found some of the story predictable - I could see the bar brawl and the confrontation between Clay and Denzel coming down the road a mile away.
I was also a little confused on what I was supposed to surmise about the relationship between Clay and Cake. A couple of times while I was reading this book, I though for sure I was going to start reading some scene from BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
Also, having read A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES and COAL TATTOO prior to this one, I became very aware of some inconsistencies in the three stories. For example, in COAL TATTOO, Easter and Anneth refer to both of their grandmothers by their first names, Selena and Vine. In this book, there are references made about "Granny" - I don't recall the two grandmothers ever being referred to as Granny in COAL TATTOO. Also, the character of Marguerite seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. She did not exist in COAL TATTOO.
I thought that the last 50 pages of this book were well worth reading the entire story, but if you have not done so, please read the other two books in this trilogy.
Truth and honesty???.......2006-10-02
This book (and other's by Silas House) celebrates too many negative aspects of life in Kentucky's Eastern Appalachian Mountains. First, Clay is an undereducated coal miner who drinks and does pot and spends his free time in bars. Second, the other characters are equally undereducated, one a teenage mother, and almost all are in abusive relationships. Third, Clay falls in love with another man's wife and the two fight it out in a drunken brawl at a local bar (which is apparently the only entertainment around).
Moreover, the overall theme of House's work is that of "celebrating one's heritage". While this may be a good thing for many people, Clay's family never encourages him to better himself. He doesn't go to college, and while Clay does briefly leave home, he later returns and builds a house right in Aunt Easter's yard. Having come from a large family in Eastern Kentucky, I know that this is one of the problems in the area, no one wants their children to leave, and thus people rarely reach their full potential.
Clay's Aunt Easter doesn't leave her own home very much either (Easter behaves similarly in the Coal Tattoo), and she condemns Clay's mother for trying to "live a little". Clay's mother equally fails at leaving home and comes back to Eastern Kentucky in The Coal Tattoo. It would be one thing to celebrate the families and communities if they were strong, but they are not. The Eastern Kentucky region is fraught with issues of poverty, under or no education, unemployment, drop outs, drug abuse, and a large amount of people on government assistance (Clay's cousin in the novel is on WIC). While other areas of America have the same issues as Eastern Kentucky, I wish that some writers would have enough courage to honestly write about them. And I wish House's novels had explored these issues more instead of adopting the attitude of acceptance and celebration. While Eastern Kentucky is an area rich with its own language and culture, people who are endearing and pioneering, and people who are agrarians at heart, the area does have many problems that cannot continue to be brushed under the rug. Many Eastern Kentuckians do not have proper educational opportunities (or do not take advantage of those offered), are slow to accept change, and most do not want their children to leave the area.
Of course there are other major issues in all three of House's novels that he addresses very well. In particular the issues of big coal companies taking over the land, taking advantage of the undereducated, and reeking havoc on the land and the environment. The coal companies and timber companies are in direct conflict with the agrarianism that many of the older generation of Eastern Kentuckians have held onto. In addition, House adequately explores the dangers of the coal mining and timber mining industry in his novels. However, I was left wanting more truth and honesty from House's work, but I suppose the literary world will have to wait for such a writer.
Outstanding - Clay and Alma are great character in fiction.......2006-07-23
Silas House's trilogy on the lives of people in Kentucky coal country is one of the best-written series of novels I have seen in many a year. The writing is not only superb in structure but gripping and evocative without seeming forced, as so many modern novelists seem to be. His characters are not always likeable but are always interesting: they are real characters, as opposed to "types," and that makes all the difference in the world between a light read and something deeper.
"Clay's Quilt," the third and last book in the series, focuses around the maturity and life of Anneth Sizemore's son, who is only four years old when his mother is murdered by the stepfather he never knew and doesn't remember. Haunted by her image and wanting resolution, he spends the bulk of his young adulthood searching for pieces of her to put together like the crazy quilts his granduncle Paul makes. Raised equally by his kindly aunt Easter and his wilder but equally kindly uncle Gabe, Clay matures into a deeply sensitive young man, inheriting that side of his mother without even realizing it.
One of the best aspects of this book is the character of Alma, the estranged fiddler daughter of a powerful Baptist preacher who leaves her abusive, cocaine-snorting husband to live a life of relative freedom with her even wilder sister Evangeline, a singer in a honky-tonk. Alma's deep connection to music is as mysterious and unexplained as Clay's connection to his family and the area in which he was raised, and lives. Descriptions abound in the book of the way Alma's deep, intense focus on creating and/or performing music remove her completely from the physical plane and put her in the realm of pure spirit. Though Anneth and Easter both responded to the folk, pop and country music they heard in "Coal Tattoo" in an intense way, Alma's connection as both composer and performer kept me spellbound. This is as close as music comes to theism, and Silas House explains it in a way that is both logical and completely understandable, at least for her.
Highly recommended.
Long live House!.......2006-05-21
I had the privelege of reading this book years ago, and immediately sat down to write its creator; little did I know that he would write me back (spending the time to scratch out his thoughts on a post card no less) and express how truly down to Earth that he was.
I have read all three of his books, and was lucky enough to meet him in person when he came to Birmingham. Even though, "A Parchment of Leaves" remains to be my favorite, I still love anything he writes. I can't tell enough people about this writer who not only celebrates life, but through his novels, urges others to do the same. While Clay's Quilt is tacitly connected to the 'trilogy' about Anneth and Easter, Clay's mother and aunt, it can still be read on its own.
I never have been to Kentucky, but when one reads a Silas House novel, you will not be able to say you haven't experienced the spirit of Appalachia anymore. Stunning, lyrical, and absolutely heartbreaking. I can't recommend it enough.
Although this review is a nod toward the author more than his work, I assure you once you read one of his books you will be an instant fan, as I was.
A Welcome New Voice in Southern Fiction.......2006-03-26
There's a great new voice in Southern fiction, and it belongs to Kentucky novelist Silas House. Two years ago, I had the privilege of reading "The Coal Tattoo," his third novel, and was haunted by its depiction of how land, religion and family simultaneously freed and circumscribed an unforgettable Appalachian family. So when someone in my book club suggested we read "Clay's Quilt," House's first novel (which addresses a later generation in the same mountain family), it was my top choice.
The novel has everything: passion, family, faith, violence, and did I mention passion? One recurrent theme is the idea that there exists only a razor-thin separation between life-making zeal -- for God, for music, for family -- and life-destroying violence. The same characters are capable of both extremes, even Clay, the gentle young miner at the heart of the story. House uses a quilt as a metaphor for Clay piecing together his family hstory (and yes, this has been done before; quilt-as-metaphor is certainly familiar literary territory, but I can't think of anyone who's done it better than House). When his own unspeakable act of violence causes him to remember the details of his mother's tragic death, Clay stands at the brink of the abyss, pulled from self-loathing and depression only by the grip of his family's love.
I loved the literary symbolism in this novel, particularly the red birds, who flit in and out at key moments, and Anneth dancing in the snow in her red coat. But House uses these not merely to impress the critics but to emphasize the characters' unbreakable ties to the land where they live. The birds, the flowers, the trees (which House describes at one point as "burning" with God's presence) are extensions of the family and their love for each other. The people are inseparable from nature.
I think that Silas House ranks up there with Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver as the holy trinity of Kentucky writers. I'm going to read "A Parchment of Leaves" next, which takes the Sizemore family back yet another generation.
-- A longer version of this review was posted on March 17, 2006 at The Review Revolution (janariess.typepad.com).
Book Description
When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. But Donn doesn't count on a fast-moving fog that obscures the path. He doesn't count on falling down an embankment that hides him from sight. And he doesn't count on taking a turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nearly two weeks in the empty mountain wilderness.
Customer Reviews:
a book for all ages.......2007-06-28
This book keeps coming back with each generation. I read this book as a child and both my boys have read it as well. A well written account of a true life adventure providing suspense, adventure and thoughtfulness. A perfect summer read for young people, it's fairly short and they could get through it in an afternoon.
Lost on a mountain in Maine.......2006-05-17
By Keegan, a sixth grader in Maine
LOST ON A MOUNTAIN IN MAINE is one of the best books i have ever read. The begining of the book is clear of how every thing started. The mittle of the book told the problems on the mountain. This book has the zing that grasps you into reading more. Some parts of the book are dull but it fires back up and hooks you into reading more.
First read and loved when I was 9..........2006-01-28
and now @# years later, I still love it! For any lover of the outdoors and for those of us that like to have "Survivor" weekends, it is a fun, quick read that encourages the question, "what would you do?".
Barbara's Review.......2005-11-08
I liked the book. It was full of adventure and suspense. You never wanted to put it down. It is a true story.
Donn Fedler got lost in a mountain in Maine at the age of twelve. He starts back down the trail to go back to meet his father at the plateau and takes the wrong trail by accident because it was so foggy. At night he slept in hallow trees or on patches of moss. On his third day he looses his pants and meets a deer. On the fourth day he sees a bear and finds a blanket in an abandon cabin. Throughout the next two days he sees another bear and hears screech owls. Will Donn ever get home?
The type of reader who would like this book is someone who likes adventure stories. Anyone who has read the book Hatchet and liked it would like this book too.
Keith's review.......2005-10-25
I think this book was good, but not edge of your seat kind of good. If I were to give this book a rating on a scale of one to ten, I would give it an g. I mean, sure it was a true story, but if it weren't true, it would probably be more exciting. The story basically tells about a boy who was lost for nine days. The story tells it from his point of view and what really happened during those nine days. For example, he had to survive some close encounters with deadly animals and a few incidents in the rushing rapids of a stream. I don't want to give too much away but I will tell you that what this boy went through is amazing. This book would for someone who likes true amazing stories about people that push themselves to their limit both physically and mentally. That's just what this book is about, a boy who pushes himself to his furthest possible limits.
Book Description
"There are no bears on Hemlock Mountain, No bears, no bears at all..."
Or so young Jonathan is told by the grown-ups as he sets out alone over Hemlock Mountain. But as Jonathan discovers on that cold winter night, grown-ups don't always know...
And there are bears on Hemlock Mountain!
Customer Reviews:
A Satisfying Story.......2005-11-07
My kids, in 1st and 2nd grade, read and loved this book. I think it is particularly satisfying to children because often when kids say they are afraid of something, perhaps of poisonous snakes in the woods or ghosts in the closet, adults will tell them "there's no poisonous snakes in these woods", or "there's no such thing as a ghost". In this book, however, young Jonathan's fears were VINDICATED! He was right and there WERE bears on Hemlock Moutain!
My kids also loved Jonathan's absentminded visit to his aunt, as they also sometimes forget tasks they are supposed to do. And they loved his creative solution when he came face to face with the bears!
The illustrations are charming, simple two-color drawings, and the book is written with a tongue-in-cheek tone that I really enjoyed and the kids didn't notice.
My children also read "Courage of Sarah Noble" by the same author, and were able to compare and contrast the books - we used a venn diagram. Then they both voted this book their favorite of the two.
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.......2003-02-24
I think the big iron pot is cool. The bears are scary. The big black cat was cute. I would tell a friend to read this book because there are very interesting things like the beginning poem and ending poem.
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.......2003-02-07
I liked the spooky noises. I liked it when the bears came out. I liked Jonathan's stopping chant. I would tell a friend to read this book because it is exciting when the bears come. It is the most exciting when the bears are right by him.
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.......2003-02-07
I liked it when the animals were eating. I liked it when Jonathan's uncles came walking up. I also like dit when Jonathan was hiding. I would tell a friend to read this book because my friend might like bears and likes hiking mountains.
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.......2003-02-07
I liked the book because there were bears there. I liked it when Jonathan's father came and I liked the squirrels. I would tell a friend to read this book because it has animals in it. It has bears in it.
Book Description
John Thomas, a boy who lives in the woods of Tennessee with his stern guardian Luke, leads a lonely, solitary life. One morning after a storm, he finds an injured bird and makes his pet. When another young boy steals White Bird, John Thomas sets out on his own to find his pet. A perfect first chapter book for fans of historical fiction.
Customer Reviews:
The White Bird.......2007-02-01
I will always remember not to give up on people.The book made me feel sad.
I think the book was exciting.My favorite part of the book was when he found the bird.
White Bird.......2005-12-18
White Bird is a book you'll want to read over and over again!
White Bird.......2001-12-05
I will always remember when Luke saw John in the cradle.
This book was very Exciting!
I think others should read this book because there are exciting things on every page!
White Bird.......2001-12-05
I will always remember... The ending. This book was... exciting!
I think others should read this book because I think others will relate to it.
white bird.......2001-12-05
I will always remember the ending.
This book was... excting,awesome, and sad!
I think others should read this book because it is fun to read! It made me feel sad,excited, happy, and glad!
Average customer rating:
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The Mountains of the Moon
Kathleen Duey
Manufacturer: Aladdin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0689842724 |
Book Description
Heart has to find a safe haven for her beloved unicorns. With Lord Dunraven looking for them -- and Heart's friends aware that helping her will bring Dunraven's anger -- she has nowhere to turn. If only she knew where her family was -- or who they were. In a mysterious bundle of paper in Dunraven's castle Heart finds a drawing that looks like the design on her baby blanket. The paper is covered with tiny symbols. If she can find out what they mean will they unlock the secrets of the dreams that have been haunting her?
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