Gap Creek : The Story Of A Marriage by Robert Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had read this once before, but when it showed up in the astonishing stack of books my aunt sent me recently I thought it was time for another visit with the Richards family down in the valley. The theme I liked the most in this books is that it doesn't seem to be a good idea for mountain folk to leave the mountains; that's just asking for trouble.

And trouble is just what Julie and Hank get when they move down on Gap Creek so Hank can go to work at a job nearby. Julie, newly married with the secret hope that her days of hard work are done, finds herself working just as hard to keep house for her landlord and new husband. Their trials really begin at hog killing time, and things just get worse and worse as the young couple struggles to deal with fire, flood, famine and a difficult mother-in-law.

Told from the point of view of Julie, I sometimes thought the characterization of Hank and the others in the book was a little sketchy. But then I realized that Julie told her story like a mountain woman would tell it. If my grandmother had ever really sat down and told the story of her life, it would have read very much like the story of Julie and Hank. Not so much tragedy, of course, but it would have been about trouble and working and family. And Grandma would have told it like Julie did, with not so much emphasis of how and why this happened; she would have just said it happened this way.

Reading between the lines is required more with this book than with many others, but there is a subtle Appalachian realism here. Mountain people don't go in for introspection and emotion, really. Perhaps the book would have been stronger with less tragedy and more empathy between the characters, and more revelation about the development of some characters. But I think the author accomplished his purpose, and told "The Story of a Marriage".

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 The Autobiography of God: A Novel by Julius Lester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes a book written as fiction plunges bravely to the heart and depth of the hardest and most complicated philosophical and theological issues. This slender volume explores the themes of faith and evil through the story of a young woman rabbi who is struggling with loneliness and a crisis of faith. When she comes into possession of a special Torah, her life is changed radically, and she must face the truth, about herself and about God.

The quietly mystical search that Rebecca experiences in the first part of the book appealed to me, and I identified with her struggle with the difficult questions of life. I spent a lot of time looking up terms and exploring meanings as I read. I also made notes of some beautiful and thoughtful quotations to ponder further.

The later chapters were very different, almost shocking and certainly thought-provoking. Unexpected twists in the plot and stunning new characters are only part of the sudden change, which serves to underscore the meanings in the first part of the book and take the reader into strange new territory. The final chapter isn't a complete resolution, but it is satisfying and I won't soon forget this story.

Julius Lester has a blog called A Commonplace Book.

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 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read a few books recently, all fiction, about India. The last was an entertaining and comic novel about a modern Indian girl's search for "a nice boy" to marry. Even though it was funny, there were some disturbing themes, in the lack of control the young woman felt regarding her life and future.

Mistry's book, also often funny but overshadowed by repeated tragedy, also brings out the theme of lack of control. The four main characters are born in different castes and in different parts of India and are all searching for better lives. They come together through strange circumstances and work together to make a future for themselves, but repeatedly their lives are shattered by events beyond their control. Government corruption is a major offender in this dark world and poverty batters the lives of all of the characters in the novel. The story is set in the mid-1970s, during the "State of Emergency".

What was appealing to me about this book was how four ordinary people somehow managed to rise above the tragedies of their individual lives and reach out to each other and to others around them, some even less fortunate than themselves. The main characters learned to respect each other despite appearances and differences, and the struggle to survive sometimes brought out the best as well as the worst in even the minor characters.

The plot is a beautifully woven tapestry of intertwined lives and loves. Occasionally the story is horrifying, then comically shattering before it soars. The truths in this novel run deep, revealing the changing attitudes toward individuality and personal worth in a culture in turmoil. The depth of the human spirit in a world made up of beggars, murderers, extortionists alongside ordinary people just trying to get by is a fascinating and rich portrait of a culture and time painted by a master.

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 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A haunting, beautiful and often painful tale, The Lovely Bones is the story of the death, life and the mystery of both as Susie Salmon tells about what happened to her one terrible night in a corn field near her home. Her rape and murder begin a shattering journey for her family and friends that she watches from heaven. Unable to tear herself way from the bonds of love and need, Susie is helpless to influence events as grief isolates her family.

This is the second time I've read this book, and like the first time I couldn't put it down. The writer does a wonderful job of speaking for Susie, the victim of a crime that doesn't for a minute see herself as a victim. Told from a unique point of view, as Susie watches the unfolding lives of her family and friends from a gazebo in heaven, this is a unique coming-of-age tale. Filled with sadness and tragedy as the story is, hope and humor lift the story with a unique perception of what heaven might be like and with the comforting idea that those that the living have lost are just beyond our perception, behind the veil.

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 Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been reading the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay lately, so I was pleased to find this book in one of the boxes that my aunt sent at the beginning of the winter. I knew very little about the poet and her life, so this biography, thirty years in the writing, makes me want to take a new look at the poems. Although I feel that there are some faults in Milford's biography, seeing the poetry against the background of a life, often troubled but always adventurous, added a new dimension to my understanding.

Millay spoke for a new generation of women, those of the Jazz Age that were stepping across boundaries and breaking into new territory. Millay smoked in public and made no secret of her many lovers, both male and female. Marriage vows, her own or another's, had little effect on her behavior. Her troubled life began in Maine, where her father abandoned the family early and her mother felt obliged to leave her three small daughters alone for long periods of time while working as a nurse. The relationship between the four women affected much of "Vincent's" life, with turmoil between herself and a difficult younger sister who felt overshadowed by Vincent's talent. Cora Buzzell Millay, Vincent's mother, seems to struggle with pride and jealousy in Milford's portrayal of her, and it sometimes seems that Vincent and her sisters go to great lengths to pacify Cora's demands, perhaps from fear of abandonment. There is a hint at one point that Vincent may have been molested by a man Cora was involved with.

What struck me most about Vincent Millay's life is that genius so often comes out of such a life. Talented people often seem to be driven toward a need for experience, and the depth of their work reveals an understanding of experience that so many of us lack. We need these people to speak for us, out of their pain, to say what we cannot find words to reveal.

Milford disappoints me occasionally throughout her work. She isn't a particularly organized writer; the book is unsettling in the manner that the material is presented, sometimes in an almost haphazard fashion. It is difficult to capture a life, of course, but the best biographers understand the "why" behind the "what happened" and these reasons elude Milford. Reading between the lines of the numerous excerpts of Millay's works, journals and letters is up to the reader, and Milford offers no interpretation or analysis. I felt sometimes that Milford was overwhelmed with the material, and perhaps intimidated by Millay's sister, Norma.

Savage Beauty has some flaws, but so did Edna St. Vincent Millay. The biography is well worth reading for the facts presented and the excerpts from Millay's journals and less accessible writing beyond her poetry. The biography has encouraged me to go back to the poems, with a better understanding of their author, and maybe this is accomplishment enough.

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 I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book, a discovery by my aunt in Connecticut, is such a charming work that I can't understand why I never read it before. The story is quite simple with shades of Jane Austen; two poor girls with no prospects live with their eccentric parents in a rundown ruin of an English castle; then the rich neighbors move in and life is changed forever. But this little story, written from the point of view of the younger sister by way of her journal, captures more than just the castle as young Cassandra discovers life and love and the wide world beyond genteel poverty.


Although Smith's story is not meant to be challenging, I like a small section where Cassandra talks to the local vicar about religion. The vicar is more of a friend than pastor to the family; he is well-educated and one of the few people that the girls or their father know in the small village. Cassandra has realized that she is in love with her sister's fiance, and, although she doesn't know it, the vicar understands she is troubled. He tells her to "sit in an empty church. Sit, not kneel. And listen, not pray. Prayer's a very tricky business." Earlier he explained that God is "merely shorthand for where we come from, where we're going, and what it's all about."


Cassandra wrestles with a few hours of determining to "get religion" and do good works, but then she realizes that some people might use religion as a means of avoiding "life" and she knows she doesn't want to bypass the good and bad of living. The story goes on, often funny, with a gentle tragedy for young Cassandra that somehow seems it will work out right in the end. It's hard for a seventeen year old to give up on life, even with a broken heart, when she has so much interest in people and writing.

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 Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds by Donald Harman Akenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

'm not a Biblical scholar or professional historian, so I'm not sure that I'm a good judge of the worth of a book like this, which is somewhat geared toward the "educated amateur" but deals with historical methods and a tremendous quantity of literature. The subject of the book is the processes that led up to the creation of the main texts of Christianity and Judaism, from the Hebrew Bible up to the Talmuds.

One interesting point that he makes is that the thought and writings of Judaism have had a much stronger impact on the development of Western Civilization than is normally credited. Since I've always been taught that classical Greece was the major influence on the development of modern thought, this is a viewpoint that I hadn't considered, but shall in further reading. Much of Akenson's work urges further research on the part of the reader as well as critical analysis of current scholarship, even his own work!

The writer is deeply respectful of his subject, occasionally witty without being sarcastic and mindful of the fact that there are more questions than answers about some historical periods that he is writing about. Much of his theme revolves around the destruction of the Temple and how that event was a major factor in the development of the Scriptures and commentary.

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 Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those amazing books that captures many aspects of Southern life, especially during the changing times and attitudes of the early 20th century. Young Will Tweedy, just 14 years old, begins to discover just what the people around him are really like, as he explores his budding talents as a writer and records the strange events that take place after the death of his grandmother. Small town life and the upper middle class concern for appearances are explored with sympathy and amusement by Burns, who worked as a journalist before turning to fiction later in her life. Cold Sassy Tree, Georgia, grew from a family history the author was working on, and nearby Commerce was the home of her grandfather's store and the model for the town in the novel.

I'm not sure why I had never read this book. I think I had a vague notion it was part of some sort of heavy generational series. There is nothing heavy about this novel, although like many Southern women writers Burns tackles the difficult issues of life, love and death as seen through the eyes of Will Tweedy. The narrow-minded prejudices of small town are revealed with humor and grace, and the women in Will's family tackle their adversities with their heads held high, despite the opinions of the neighbors!

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 Patches on the same quilt by Becky Mushko
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was hard to decide which of Becky Mushko's books to review. Where There's A Will, a delightful collection of short stories for young people, is the newest of her works and include study guides for use in 6th grade Virginia schools under the SOLs. The title of The Girl Who Raced Mules and Other Stories is nearly irresistible, and is a collection of charming, funny and beautiful stories. Peevish Advice is just plain hilarious, described as "a fun and trashy reading experience".

Patches on the Same Quilt, the first of Becky's books that I read, was also my favorite. This short story collection, winner of the 2001 Smith Mountain Arts Council Fiction Award, spans six generations of a fictional Franklin County family. A member of each generation picks up the thread of the history of the family, telling the tale that begins with a young boy's longing for a horse. The family saga twists and turns with the changes of the 20th century, but the strong love of place and deep appreciation and love of fine horses stretches across the generations.

The author's sense of story and of place, as well as a deep understanding of the people of her unique county, are all revealed in the stories that take place in and around Penhook, Virginia. A good eye for detail shows in the descriptions of the area, settling the reader comfortably in the mountains of Franklin County. The dialect is well done, capturing the soft accents of the mountain people. Much of the intelligence and talent of the native Blue Ridge Mountain people is also revealed in the talents of the characters as artists and writers.

Particularly meaningful to me were the stories of the women. A mother grieves the loss of her soldier son, a young girl faces the consequences of a careless decision, a second wife faces the fact that her new husband is still in love with his dead first bride. The ties of mother to daughter, grandmother to granddaughter, sister to sister; all are explored and revealed as strong women face sorrow, loss, gain and growth.

Horses figure largely in the stories, beginning with a Civil War survivor that was once a fine "singlefootin'" or racking horse that was crippled by the war. Her descendants are celebrated along with the family, and there are some telling revelations about the world of show horses and the corruption of the beautiful natural gaits by show practices in the later stories. The loss of the horses as a way of life leads to more hard changes for the family.

The title of the book is derived from a sampler that a character worked: "We may not be cut from the same cloth, but we're all patches on the same quilt" and serves as the theme of the book. The cover artwork is a photo of a family quilt, an heirloom that Becky Mushko has preserved. The theme that each life in a family serves as an interconnected part of a whole, captured in stories told in individual voices with unique viewpoints, is a revelation about the people of the mountains.

Becky Mushko's books are available on-line from several sources and directly from the author. Patches on the Same Quilt must be ordered directly from Becky and is in a second printing.


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 Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Lee Smith. The name for me evokes memories of long days spent happily lost in books that speak to the minds and hearts of mountain girls everywhere. Oral History, Family Linen, Black Mountain Breakdown, The Devil's Dream, Saving Grace, and my particular favorite, Fair and Tender Ladies. I know so many of the women in these books, and I have been one or two of them. Thought provoking, funny, tender, haunting; each book has a meaning far beyond the story. The richness of detail about mountain life, the deep understanding of the people and their ways and thoughts, and above all the portrayal of the changes that the modern world has inflicted on a proud people are woven into the stories.

The Friends of the Library in Floyd, with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is hosting a wonderful series of author talks entitled "Celebrate the Past/Look to the Future". Lee Smith was the speaker at last night's gathering at the Presbyterian Church in Floyd, Virginia. Surrounded by wooden paneled walls, purple carpet and stained glass, Lee Smith was as charming and funny as her books. Haunting as well, as she spoke of personal experience and personal loss, inspiration for the writer from Grundy who grew up surrounded by story. Mountain people love story, playing with words and evoking emotion with family tales, complicated jokes and the richness of memory. Lee Smith's writings capture this love.

She spoke most about her more recent book, The Last Girls, another favorite of mine. I didn't realize that part of the plot was based on a trip she took in college down the Mississippi on a raft. Smith's description of this trip and the girls she traveled with rocked the large audience with laughter. Readings from the book describing the characters, accented in a true mountain voice, were both hilarious and touching. The charm of the writer echoed the charm of her books; she was funny, tender, thought-provoking and haunting, just like her written words.

She also talked about Fair and Tender Ladies, a novel written during a time of personal crisis for her. I think for a true writer the characters often take over the book, and Smith talked of Ivy Rowe, the main character in Fair and Tender Ladies, as if she were a friend. Ivy Rowe is the one character in all of her books that I can call to mind as a complete person. She is plucky and sensuous, proud and loving. Some of the reason may be that I saw an actress portray the character several years ago at the Reynolds Homestead here in Patrick County. After the program the director introduced favorite cousin and me to the actress. Mary startled me by describing me as sensuous. A bit of self-realization there, thanks to Lee Smith.

I looked around the audience as Lee Smith spoke. Floyd County is a unique blending of cultures. Women with deep roots that span generations in these mountains sat with women of different backgrounds, drawn to Floyd by the beauty of the countryside and feeling of community. Every face has a story, all unique, but all about the experience of being women in changing times. Lee Smith has captured these stories in the pages of her novels, speaking with tender understanding of the mountain people that are so often misrepresented and ridiculed. Speaking with pride in an accent that is fast becoming rare because of outside influences, these novels, as fiction, reveal more than truth about a disappearing time and generation.

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 Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago is not the type of book I would normally pick up. On the surface it seems to be of the horror genre, not one of my personal favorites. But this 'werewolf' book is far more than it seems on the surface. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the structure as the writer weaved her tale with flashbacks and revelations about the characters. The setting, familiar to me as my own backyard, only added to my interest in the story and the names of the characters were right for the area and for the tale. The fascinating theme of the story lifts the book far beyond genre fiction.

I won't say more; I never understood how all those teachers have been able to struggle through years of book reports. But if you're looking for an interesting read with some chills but also with some depth and style, think about Ivy Cole and the Moon.


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