Kentucky Books

Dubliners is an easy read, probably easier than Portrait, but these essays sprout up new layers to these stories and surprises us that the very skeleton of Joyce's structure is a story on its own. As for myself, I figured I had a finely tuned understanding of all the stories (except for Grace, as that one ran dry for me, but as I will explain in just a bit, I have formed a new respect for the story), but Rejoycing gives us a new apprehension of each one. Each story may have a point, despite how inconclusive many of the endings are, yet with the explanations given by these essays we are given a stronger context that remarks on society, modes of writing, characters affecting the narrative, etc etc.

This is really helpful for understanding Ulysses as well, as many of the essays discuss the connections between the characters appearances in both novels. The essayists discuss the interesting behaviors of characters, such as Cunningham and Bloom, and the stasis of their reappearance in Ulysses. Also, the narrative structure is examined, in that, characters, who domineer the language of the narration are shown to do so as well in Ulysses.

I may not be a Joycean scholar, but I couldn't imagine that these essays wouldn't shed a new light on Dubliners. As for students or first-timers, I'd wager this is a fantastic source for writing papers. I wish I had this last semester when I was actually assigned to read "the Dead" and Portrait of the Artist.

Your first and (never) final friend and companion to the Dubliners,

This collection of fourteen scholarly essays (plus introduction and preface) provides not only the best basis for beginning appreciation of these still revolutionary short stories, but remains solid assistance for advanced readings of these subtle, elusive, shifting tales.

The Dubliners are called the most accessible of Joyce's work, yet the first essay in this collection quickly dispels this error in judgment, as it unfolds the hidden depths and embryonic techniques which bloomed in his later work. What we see upon the surface of these tales is not trustworthy, but open to a myriad of interpretation. Joyce's clever ambiguity has provided a wide spectrum of readings of his short stories, according to the reader's sense and sensibilities, prejudices and presumptions, of which the reader herself may not be fully conscious. As with Wilde's criticism, we often see in Joyce, particularly in these sparse stories, our own image and likeness believing we are reading as the author wrote. This collection of commentary well relieves us of this accident of parallax.

Please review these commentaries for a brilliant glimpse at Joyce's early writings and his tentative trial of narrative techniques later so maturely elaborated in Ulysses. Even a long time reader of Joyce learns much from this collection of essays, as the work of Joyce always holds more to reveal, and these studies are excellent in opening for us further dimensions in this deceptively complex early tales.

Highly recommended for beginning and advanced readers of Joyce, most recent, valuable and substantial of any commentary upon this collection of tales, and indicator of further study.

In American Literature courses (of the high school variety) the "American Dream" too often ends up sounding like the "American Nightmare." Jay Gatsby, Willy Loman, Roy Hobbs (The Natural) -- they all come to disastrous ends because they all follow the wrong dream. This year, I ended my 11th grade American Literature course with Wendell Berry's short novel "Remembering." I taught it along with Bill Forsythe's brilliant film comedy "Local Hero." Together, they offer an effective and credible response to the American dream-as-nightmare despair of most serious American literature. "Remembering" is a small, quiet story of Andy Catlett, who, like Dante in "The Divine Comedy" (the model for the story), is experiencing a profound mid-life crisis, triggered by the loss of a hand (a "dis-membering) in a farming accident. Through a series of reminiscences, or re-memberings (of family members and members of his rural community), Andy is reunited with his past and his present life, and recommits himself to his local community, his farm, and his family. He returns East (reversing the westward movement of Americans from the days of Lewis and Clark), literally running his car into his land and disabling it in the process. Berry is a fine writer -- among the best now working in English. He uses words with great care, and sees late 20th century America more clearly than anyone I know. And his is a comic vision -- as Dante's is. He sees a difficult hope for us -- difficult but possible. I highly recommend this novel, and hope that readers use it as a springboard to his other novels, essays, and poems.

This short novel is the best use of the English language among contemporary authors which I've encountered in a very long time. This story of a farmer and his passions redeemed and his worldview re-oriented is not only a tribute to the best of rural life, but is a testimony to the triumph of the human spirit which seeks ever to soar above the misfortunes and tragedies which we otherwise too often accomodate in life. I'm horrified to discover on this site that it is fast out of print. This is a great loss to story tellers and lovers of stories. This is one of the finest - even if unsung - to be sure.

If you are interested in native american petroglyphs and want facts not fiction then this is the book for you. Dr. Coy's 30+ years of research are dutifully documented. Eastern US rock art has been overlooked and unappreciated by the general public for years. Dr. Coy's compilation of sites is extrodinary. Numerous photos, unbaised presentation and a passion for preserving our past make this book a must have.

Any one interested in Native American Art must read this book.Has great pictures of rock art found in Kentucky.

Elder John Sparks is an ordained minister in the United Baptist denomination and thus is intimately tied to the richly historical traditions of what is general known as the "Old Time Baptists" of central Appalachia, divisions such as Regular Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, Separate Baptists, United Baptist, and a host of other groups, including a wide range of Primitive Baptists. Sparks sets out to document the influence of Shubal Stearns on this entire Old-Time Baptist phenomenon, and his work in excellent in scholarship and analysis.

For those of use who have labored in this this particular field of scholarship, it is a joy and an inspiration to see the field of study added to so wonderfully by an individual who has come from the indeginous base of the phonomenon. Sparks received a degree from Pikeville College in Pikeville, Kentucky, and promptly turned himself in to a excellent scholar. Read this book. You will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding of Appalachian religious history than has heretofore been provided.

Howard Dorgan Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Appalachian State University

Elder John Sparks is an ordained minister in the United Baptist denomination and thus is intimately tied to the richly historical traditions of what is general known as the "Old Time Baptists" of central Appalachia, divisions such as Regular Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, Separate Baptists, United Baptist, and a host of other groups, including a wide range of Primitive Baptists. Sparks sets out to document the influence of Shubal Stearns on this entire Old-Time Baptist phenomenon, and his work in excellent in scholarship and analysis.

For those of use who have labored in this this particular field of scholarship, it is a joy and an inspiration to see the field of study added to so wonderfully by an individual who has come from the indeginous base of the phonomenon. Sparks received a degree from Pikeville College in Pikeville, Kentucky, and promptly turned himself in to a excellent scholar. Read this book. You will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding of Appalachian religious history than has heretofore been provided.

Howard Dorgan Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Appalachian State University

This is a terrific book that I return to over and over. While the writing itself is not dramatic, it is filled with his love of the river and shantyboating. To paraphrase Wendell Barry, Hubbard makes practical what Thoreau made theoretical. Read it with Payne Hollow.

Shantyboat chronicles the adventures of Harlan and Anna Hubbard, who in the early 1950's, built a wooden houseboat (or shantyboat) out of a demolished house and drifted down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Spanning several years, the book describes winters spent drifting freely with the current and summers foraging for or growing what was needed. Much more than a travelogue, the journey is an experiment in living just outside the confines of a newly emerging technological civillization, but still in a fully "civillized" way. Their lives were hardly lived in seclusion. Instead they preferred the richness of friends, good meals gathered from abandoned or empty lands, and art: Harlan was a painter, Anna a concert pianist. The story of their days drifting is often filled with anecdotes about weather, fishing, or dogs, and slowly draws the reader in with a steady seasonal rhythm. Their time on the river represents the last days of the shantyboater, a breed of free spirit that quickly dissappeared after the second world war. Industrial growth along the waterways, large new dams, and toxic pollutants ensured the end of a tradition of free living. Today, our world continues to grapple with issues of technology and its impact on what makes us human. "Shantyboat" offers an alternative, or perhaps a perspective on what is really important.

What most people don't realize is that of the more than 100,000 Southerners who fought on the side of the Union in the American Civil War, some 40,000 were Tennesseans, coming principally from the Appalachian counties of East Tennessee. A Southern Boy In Blue: The Memoir Of Marcus Woodcock, 9th Kentucky Infantry (U.S.A.) is the candid, intimate, and vividly related autobiographical story of one of them who was not yet nineteen when the war broke out. Marcus joined the 9th Kentucky Infantry. A bout of measles kept him from the battle of Shiloh, but then he went on to see action at Stones River, Chickamuagua, Missionary Ridge, and more. Marcus wrote his memoir in 1865, and his descriptions of battles, camp life, and the politics of the time open up an authoritative and informative "window in time" that will be read with interest by academia as well as the non-specialist Civil War military buff.

It's not general known, but of the approximately 100,000 Southerners who joined the Union forces and fought against the Confederacy in the American Civil War, more than 40,000 were Tennessee, especially the Appalachian counties of East Tennessee. A Southern Boy In Blue is the personal memoir of Marcus Woodcock, a young man from Middle Tennessee who at the age of 19, donned a Federal uniform and fought as part of the 9th Kentucky Infantry. Deftly edited by Kenneth Noe, A Southern Boy In Blue is a first hand account of participation at the battles of Stone River, Chicamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign, the siege of Corinth, and the Battle of Perryville. In three years Marcus rose from the rank of private to first lieutenant. He wrote his memoir in 1865 and vividly described the battles, camp life, and the politics of the times. A Southern Boy In Blue is a welcome and invaluable addition to the growing body of eye-witness Civil War literature.

Southern Cross by Madeline M. Dale is a gentle and genteely written story of Mrs. Dale's Kentucky forebears during the War between the States. Apart from the fact that it is a superb "read", drawing a reader eagerly from chapter to chapter to see what happens next, it also rewards the reader with fresh insights and glimpses into historical facts.

Adult readers can appreciate this novel; in addition it has appeal for young readers. I particularly rejoiced to find it one that might be recommended for secondary school reading lists. As the English curriculum specialist for a number of years for the forty secondary schools in Palm Beach County, Florida, I collaborated with heads of the English departments to develop recommended reading lists for each grade (and skills) level of our unified curriculum. The task was not simple, as you can imagine, cofronting not only a mutiplicity of teachers' opinions and students' diverse reading abilities and preferences, but also the sometimes censorious judgements of individuals in the community. Without hesitation, I would urge that Mrs. Dale's Southern Cross be included in school reading lists.

Books bring understanding of people, places and times apart from our own sphere. The people in Mrs. Dale's novel are worth coming to know--foregrounded against the tug-of-war between their everyday subsistence, loyalty to home, and moral sensibilty, and the burden of slavery. I recommend it highly.

A story based on facts as remembered by the great granddaughter of a tobacco farmer in rural Kentucky. An intimate account of the thoughts, purposes and struggles of one family facing the brutality of being torn apart by a national conflict that bled the nation. A personal account of slavery and how people who opposed it coped with being slave owners themselves, the cross that many Southerners had to bear. After the war they could not vote, could get no financial help and had no rights. There was no Marshall Plan for the South. Birth, death, war, prison, financial ruin, and a new start reveal life as it was in the 19th century in America's heartland.

I have not read such a beautiful book since To Kill A Mockingbird and have not read descriptions of a southern family written as well, or better, since The Ponder Heart. Superb writing.

Jo Anna Holt-Watson is a truly wonderful "story teller." Seldom are readers treated to such captivating tales of childhood imagination, without a hint of false pride. In "A Taste of the Sweet Apple: Memoirs," the author is able to hold our attention by graphically producing a setting in rural central Kentucky, Woodford County, that calls on figments of all of the reader's senses: the farm sounds of the "skid" being pulled by the mule, the vision of the heavy mist over the Bluegrass at dawn, the smell of stables laden with manure, and, of course, the almost indescribable taste of chewing tobacco, when it is first surreptitiously wedged between cheek and gum by a seven year old girl.
Ultimately, this is a heart warming story of a child's love. Almost too innocently written, Pee Wee Watson has a brilliant flair with words that will actually make you laugh out loud in one instant and become 'teary-eyed' in the next. Her 'Memoirs' of her life on the farm in the '40s recalls a tender relationship with 'the hired help,' whom she brazenly persuades the reader into loving as much as she assures that she probably really did. Her tender feelings toward these simplistic, but ardently faithful 'keepers,' is not wasted on wishy-washy endearments, but rather is skillfully woven into her story, as told in the first person by a genuine tom-boy and sometimes romantic, but always head-strong girl. This is a 'must read' for all who crave a clever yarn by an excellent spinner, ... from whom I predict, ... we will hear again.

-- Thomas S. Markham, Lookout Mountain, GA -- A devotee of Southern literature

Whether you are a fan of Edgar Tolson's work or of woodcarving in general, this is an essential book to have if you are interested in folk art of the 20th century. The thorough research done on Edgar Tolson is fascinating and through his art and career the world of 20th century folk art is examined. From key folk art collectors to various museums and institutions, the 20th century folk art movement was created and sold to the buying public. By the time the "important" artists were established all of the "important" early work was already in the hands of a few collectors and the museums. It's no accident that Tolson's work ended up in a prestigious Whitney Biennial and his artwork sky-rocketed in price. The same with Howard Finster. By the time his work was presented as being important to the general public, a narrow group of collectors and critics had already hoarded the first few thousand of his numbered pieces which the critics then deemed as the most important of his career. And the story continues to this day with collectors / critics buying early key works, then recommending them to the general folk art buyers. This book is perhaps the best analysis of why and how a folk artist becomes "important" in the 20th century. It may or may not sour your view on 20th century folk art but is a great read either way. As with all art or decorative objects, if you just buy what you like and ignore the critics, you'll be happy. Who's to say 10, 20 or 50 years from now if anyone will even care about "20th century folk art."

Ms. Julia S. Ardey has put together an extraordinary work -- filled with stories and pictures of a poor Kentucky man who whittled stuff to which other folks took a liking. My grandfather Edgar Tolson will always remain an elusive character both in life and in death hard to explain and to understand. As all great artists he was not one dimensional. Ms. Ardey did a fine job of grasping enough bits and pieces of his life, through the eyes and hearts of those who knew him, to give a reasonable representation of who Edgar Tolson was and why he whittled. Ms. Ardey interviewed scores of people and personalities who all have their own opinion of Edgar Tolson the Man and Edgar Tolson the Woodcarver and the times in which he lived. Ms. Ardey managed a remarkable feat in compling those interviews into an a very good work. She included many pictures that give insight into an artisan and his art. Many pictures capture Edgar's soul in his eyes -- others show a family life of just real folks who just have a Daddy that whittles in the living room and lets the shavings fall to floor. As a granddaugther of Edgar Tolson, beloved Kentucky woodcarver, I am very pleased with the work Julia S. Ardery managed to put together on his life and extraordinary talent. With a family as large as he had I am sure that this book will be debated into generations, however, it is a real good starting point at which to kick off the debate of fact or fiction. The papaw I knew was a wonderful minister; he loved his God, knew his bible and had a passion for sharing the Biblical Truths of his God with others through his work. He managed to reach the very far corners of the earth with his renditions of Adam & Eve in Garden of Eden, Their Fall, and Noah's Ark among a few--how many ministers can stake that claim. He carved what was upon his heart to carve. He was discovered by others who marketed it to a world who craved his carvings and what they represented to them. I am so pleased that Ms. Ardery managed to compile so much ! of his life and work into this book. It makes for really good reading and gives the reader the opportunity to linger with story and photo's of Edgar Tolson and his artwork long enough to gain an understanding of why so many are so drawn to it, him and living upon this earth. Thank you Ms. Ardery for a job well done.

This is not a book to start with when reading about the Holocaust. Theresienstadt, the Potemkin village ghetto, was an unusual place and Redlich's experience there is not as universal as some, like Elie Wiesel. The book demands a fair amount of knowledge about the events of the Holocaust. That said, it's one of the most moving documents I've read from the period.

Unlike Anne Frank, Redlich writes from within the eye of the hurricane, rather than at its edges. His hope, tempered with his ignorance of his own fate, is wrenching, especially when his child is born and he writes the last few chapters as his son's diary. It literally brought me to tears. Highly recommended.

The Diary of Gonda Redlich is an enlightening tale of life and death within Theresienstadt, the "resort" or "paradise" concentration camp of the Jewish Holocaust. Throughout the course of the diary, we see Theresienstadt from the first hand experiences of Gonda, the head of children's affairs and the transports. We learn of all of the great cultural activities of Theresienstadt, while we learn of the transports east to Auschwitz, the greatest death camp of all. The first hand experiences and writings of Gonda provide envaluable information to any serious historian of the Jewish Holocaust. Can any person read this book? Must you be a historian? No, I believe that this book can be read by anybody. It is a timeless tale of life (with the birth of Gonda's son and the activities in Theresienstadt) and death (Gonda eventually was sent to die in Auschwitz) in the final solution. It is first hand proof for the world of the horrors and sometimes joys in the Jewish Holocaust.