A Blue Moon in Poorwater

by Cathryn Hankla

Overview

Cathryn Hankla's first novel is an engaging coming-of-age story set in the small Appalachian mining town of Poorwater, Virginia. It is the summer of 1968, and the narrator, inquisitive ten-year-old Dorie Parks, is getting ready to enter fifth grade when her errant older brother Willie returns to town. A religious fanatic and suspected drug user, Willie represents to the residents of Poorwater the hippie counterculture that threatens their conservative town, and his return is the catalyst for a string of strange and sometimes tragic events. Dorie's father, a miner, begins a dangerous labor rights crusade after a mining accident leaves a close friend dead. Dorie struggles to understand the class differences that separate "holler kids" and trailer park children like herself from her wealthy friend Betty. Hankla's graceful writing evokes the wonder and growing sophistication of a young girl on the verge of adolescence and an unknown future. A Blue Moon in Poorwater offers a moving yet unsentimental slice of life in Appalachian, Virginia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813918464
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	12/29/1998
Series:	The Virginia Bookshelf Series
Edition description:	1ST UNIVER
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Cathryn Hankla is an associate professor of English at Hollins College. Her most recent books are two collections of poetry, Negative History and Afterimages.

What People are Saying About This

Richard Bausch

A Blue Moon in Poorwater is a wonderful, captivating, involving novel. Ms. Hankla never seems even tempted to give in to the urge to render her miners and her mountain folk as 'quaint' or 'folksy.' They are fully drawn, complicated people with dimensions, and the central speaker, Dorie, has an unrelenting eye for the truth of the experience.

From the Publisher

It is Hankla's gift to take material that could be mean and ugly and mine it for beauty, to depict not alienation, but the cruel and tender binding of family and community members one to another. Her feet are planted firmly in the mountains of Appalachia.... Hankla's novel is a book to haunt long after it is finished.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

It is Hankla's gift to take material that could be mean and ugly and mine it for beauty, to depict not alienation, but the cruel and tender binding of family and community members one to another. Her feet are planted firmly in the mountains of Appalachia.... Hankla's novel is a book to haunt long after it is finished.

Editorial Reviews

A Blue Moon in Poorwater is a wonderful, captivating, involving novel. Ms. Hankla never seems even tempted to give in to the urge to render her miners and her mountain folk as 'quaint' or 'folksy.' They are fully drawn, complicated people with dimensions, and the central speaker, Dorie, has an unrelenting eye for the truth of the experience.

--Richard Bausch, author of Good Evening Mr. and Mrs.America, and All the Ships at Sea

It is Hankla's gift to take material that could be mean and ugly and mine it for beauty, to depict not alienation, but the cruel and tender binding of family and community members one to another. Her feet are planted firmly in the mountains of Appalachia.... Hankla's novel is a book to haunt long after it is finished.

-- "Los Angeles Times Book Review"

From the Publisher

A Blue Moon in Poorwater is a wonderful, captivating, involving novel. Ms. Hankla never seems even tempted to give in to the urge to render her miners and her mountain folk as 'quaint' or 'folksy.' They are fully drawn, complicated people with dimensions, and the central speaker, Dorie, has an unrelenting eye for the truth of the experience.

Richard Bausch

It is Hankla's gift to take material that could be mean and ugly and mine it for beauty, to depict not alienation, but the cruel and tender binding of family and community members one to another. Her feet are planted firmly in the mountains of Appalachia.... Hankla's novel is a book to haunt long after it is finished.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Set in the mountains of Tennessee, this evocative and moving first novel chronicles a pivotal year in the life of 11-year-old Dorie Parks, who lives in the Appalachian town of Poorwater. Embarrassed by her poverty, puzzled by her older brother's quixotic comings and goings, Dorie's sense of support comes from her firm friendship with Betty Grayson, a wealthy classmate and neighbor. The two imaginative, inquisitive girls view the confusing adult world with bewilderment. Dorie's father, a miner, is politically active, and both he and his family suffer brutal physical retaliation for his prolabor views. Dorie's brother Willie lives on the fringes of society and is murdered by one of his former associates. Betty, confiding in Dorie, tries to cope with her parent's divorce. As Dorie becomes aware of a larger world outside Poorwater she realizes she has special giftsa mysterious ability to heal and a restless and assertive spiritthat will enable her to move out of her restricted milieu. Sensitive, ably written, though slightly marred by extraneous material about Dorie's father, this novel captures, with sympathy and humor, a young girl's rite de passage. (April)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

An inquisitive 10-year-old's coming of age in a small Appalachian coal town is the subject of Hankla's first novel. Through the eyes and voice of this young miner's daughterlong on spunk, but short on social standing and moneywe learn of both amusing episodes and terrifying incidents. She keeps a notebook filled with questions that trouble her: Why does a billion times zero still equal zero? What motivates her older brother to fluctuate between snake-handling religious fanaticism and equally dangerous criminal activity? She may be fascinated by strange tales from The Arabian Nights , but her own story is as compelling as those of Scheherazade.Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville

Library Journal