Shady Grove - Softcover

Giles, Janice Holt; Hall, Wade

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 during the Revolutionary War, 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, the thrice-married farmer and quintessential "ridge man." Sudley, who wields considerable political influence among his kin and community, isn't happy when a new preacher from "outside" comes in from his city-based denomination with ideas about what's wrong in Broke Neck. What follows is a compelling example of the tension between urban viewpoints and rural traditions, a central conflict in Appalachia.

The town's delicate balance is disturbed when other outsiders―federal revenue officials and four suitors responding to a personal ad―converge in an unlikely climax that is both comic and telling. In her last book of fiction about her adopted Kentucky homeland, Janice Holt Giles cleverly dispels the common stereotypes of rural peoples by creating honest, believable characters who cherish their soil, churches, songs, and lines of kin. Shady Grove is a novel that makes us laugh and touches our hearts.

Janice Holt Giles (1905-1979), author of nineteen books, lived and wrote near Knifley, Kentucky, for thirty-four years. Her biography is told in Janice Holt Giles: A Writer's Life.

About this title

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

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 this edition

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