- Hardcover: 292 pages
- Publisher: Workman Publishing Co. (Mar 19 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565123077
- ISBN-13: 978-1565123076
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 14.9 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,369,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A deep love for home suffuses this heartfelt, well-crafted debut novel set in the Kentucky hills. Clay Sizemore, a young coal miner from a big family and a small town, never doubts that he will live out his life in the place where he was born. His mother, Anneth, was killed when he was only four, and he never knew his father, but he is surrounded by the people he loves: his big-hearted, God-fearing Aunt Easter; Dreama, the beautiful cousin he loves like a sister; and Cake, his party boy best friend. Clay and Cake work hard, and play hard at the local honky-tonk, but both want more from life than work, drink and empty sex. For Clay, the future is Alma, a passionate young fiddler separated from her abusive husband and estranged from her gospel-singing parents. But the past concerns him, too: given a box of his beloved mother's possessions, he pieces together her troubled history, while his great-uncle pieces a quilt from her clothing. Violence is inescapable in a place where even Clay carries a pretty pearl-handled pistol, and his mother's violent end foreshadows a death that threatens Clay and Alma's happiness together. The Kentucky landscape is suffused with nostalgia, snow making one character yearn for the past, lonesome autumn unlocking memory's vaults. Deftly written, replete with wisdom and remarkably light on sentimentality, this lovely novel makes plain the value of family and the preciousness of familiar ground. Author tour. (Mar. 30)Forecast: Healthy regional sales are indicated for this title; handselling will help. Strong reviews in national publications should move a few copies, too.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
When he was four years old, Clay Sizemore was stuck with his mother in a blizzard on a Kentucky mountain road, and she was killed. Raised by loving kinfolk, Clay as an adult still remembers the blood in the snow that day as he tries to piece together his mother's life, aided by the memories of family and friends, a long-lost letter, and a final gift from his great-uncle, who makes quilts. Joining Clay in his quest to find his roots is Alma, who wins his heart with the music she plays on her fiddle, but who brings a past that causes pain. First-novelist House, who works as a postal-service carrier in rural Kentucky, does a remarkable job of gradually unfolding his story and revealing his appealing cast of characters, all in a clear, cadenced prose. A lovely and accomplished literary debut. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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First Sentence
CLAY SLID HIS blackened coveralls down his legs, jerked them off, and tossed the hard clump of clothing into the back of the truck. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
CLAY SLID HIS blackened coveralls down his legs, jerked them off, and tossed the hard clump of clothing into the back of the truck. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
the future of southern writing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Clay's Quilt (Paperback)
What a beautiful and heart-felt story! I loved this book and I'm excited to see new young writers like this man who can carry the torch for southern fiction. If you love Eudora Welty, Lee Smith, and Robert Morgan then you'll like this book. It stays with you.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Story!,
By
This review is from: Clay's Quilt (Paperback)
This is truely an excellent book. It left me feeling as though I was part of the friendly, down-home Sizemore family. The author impressed upon me an appreciation for life in the Appalachians.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Appalachian Based Book,
By shawana slone (Garner, KY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Clay's Quilt (Paperback)
Clay's Quit is a wonderful work of writing. Silas House captures a lot of appalachian culture in his book. He shares the tight woven love that eastern KY people have for their families and heritage. Anyone from the Eastern KY area can identify with one or more of his characters. The quilts in our families always hold special sentiments that are dear to our hearts and souls just as Clay's was to him when he breathed in the sent of his mother from his quilt.
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