Product Description

This novel describes the experiences of a young boy growing up in North Carolina in the 1940s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51442 in Books
• Published on: 1987-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Set in the 1940s, this series of interlinked yarns about life on a North Carolina "scratch-ankle mountain farm" is told from the point of view of Jess, age 11. PW called Chappell "a gifted spinner of fictions that often verge on fantasy and the tall tale."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Memorable storytelling
I flatout loved this book. Chappell's novel of quirky tales flows with humor and touching insights, a work of subtle mastery. Everything about it seems right: the understated yet lyrically precise prose; the easy-leaning pace; the eccentric characters, especially the visiting uncles; the curious yearnings of an adolescent narrator; the grounded, homespun values of Southern lore.

In the title of another reviewer, this book is a keeper. As Stephen King said (and I agree), life is too short to reread many books; however, this is one that deserves to be reread. It's that good.

Clearly, Chappell's a man who savors the humor and language of life, a writer who crafts a tale of beguiling beauty. He writes sentences of such grace that I'm reminded of Anne Tyler.

Read this book and enjoy the magic. Chappell is an artist who knows what he's doing.

A keeper.
I read this book originally for a class in college--so I went into reading it thinking "ugh."

But not only did I love it--not only did it make me laugh, cry, roll my eyes, and a range of other emotions--but when I shared it with the rest of my family, they had the same reaction. All of us have read it, it's that good (and we don't usually agree on what's good). It is full of tall tales and mischief and is a fabulously, fabulously amazing book.

A Magical, Wonderful Book
This, the first in Fred Chappell's tetralogy of books about Joe Robert Kirkman and his family, consists of ten stories about ten-year-old (at the start of the book) Jess Kirkman's encounters with four of his mother's relatives, the live-in hired hand on the Kirkman farm, and some of their neighbors. Chappell's narration veers from straightforward fiction to fantasy, telling of the gusto and humor with which Joe Robert meets life. I found myself laughing out loud and slapping my knee at some of the passages, while being touched deeply by the novel's underlying theme of belonging to a family, a place, and a tradition.