Shady Grove - Softcover

Giles, Janice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813190231 ISBN 13: 9780813190235

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2002

Synopsis

Broke Neck, Kentucky, lies deep in Appalachia. Its people are descendents of the men and women who settled the country in Revolutionary War times, and their ways have not changed much in the past two hundred years. Shady Grove chronicles the riotous adventures and misadventures of Broke Neck's Fowler clan, among them Frony, the feisty and articulate widow who narrates the tale, and Sudley, a farmer whose hound dogs tree a visiting preacher. Janice Holt Giles, a transplant to Appalachia, shows us the region's character through the story of a people who don't like to walk proud but will always stand by their own. Shady Grove, her last book of fiction about her adopted Kentucky homeland, is engaging not only as a cultural document, but also as a novel that makes us laugh and touches our hearts. Long out of print, Shady Grove is available again for new and veteran readers of Janice Holt Giles.

About this title

Review:

"Giles's most funny, and most favorite book is finally back in print. How delighted followers will be to find this formerly hard-to-find novel easily accessible." -- Appalachian Heritage

"Provides its readers with fun as well as an expose on the abuses of the nation's poverty program, not just in Appalachia, but across the nation." -- Bowling Green (KY) Daily News

"The culmination of her years of observing the region and its people and one of her most brilliantly staged works." -- McCormick (SC) Messenger

"A book rich in incident and humor." -- Mountain Eagle

"In Shady Grove, Janice Holt Giles attempts to smash media caricatures while portraying the ridge people honestly and realistically, dirt and warts included. It is her final tribute to her husband's people and culture, which she had learned to respect and love. She took his old-timey people and their colorful metaphors, folkspeech, and wild humor, combined them with generous pieces of folk wisdom, and threaded them into a story as warm and comfortable as a homemade quilt." -- Wade Hall, from the Foreword

About the Author:

Wade Hall is emeritus professor of English at Bellarmine University and served as the editor of the Kentucky Poetry Review for more than fifteen years. The author or editor of numerous books, including Conecuh People: Words of Life from the Alabama Black Belt and Passing for Black: The Life and Careers of Mae Street Kid, Hall lives in Louisville, Kentucky

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0813190231
• ISBN 13: 9780813190235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272