The Winter People - Softcover

Ehle, John

4.02

239 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 187808674X ISBN 13: 9781878086747

Publisher: Down Home Pr, 1999

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While sitting in her 150-year-old cabin in the mountains of North Carolina at the beginning of the Depression, Collie Wright sees furtive figures emerging from the woods on a chilly, near-winter evening. The figures turn out to be clockmaker Wayland Jackson, a widower on his way to Tennessee to seek work, and his 12-year-old daughter, Paula. Wayland's truck has broke down, and the two have lost their way. Collie allows them to stay the night, and Jackson is immediately taken with her. But she is an unmarried woman with a newborn baby and dark secrets, the object of tawdry talk although her family is the most prominent in the community. Jackson stays to become a clock repairman, to build a clock tower for the community_and to court Collie. But the father of Collie's child, a wild young man from a mountain clan long in conflict with her family, soon returns to claim his rights, and a violent showdown forces Collie into the most painful decision of her life. The Winter People became a feature film starring Kurt Russell, Lloyd Bridges, and Kelly McGillis.

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Review:

“A lovely novel . . . about families, about the fragile yet durable ties that we establish among ourselves . . . Ehle’s people, all of them, are splendid. Collie, her emotions seesawing as she tries with mounting frustration to keep her life on an even keel, is a person of striking good humor and endearing independence of mind. Wayland, gentle and decent and wry, has a strength that is as quiet as the novel’s. Each of Collie’s three brothers emerges, quickly yet subtly, as a clearly definable individual and, at the same time, a member of a family that is itself a clearly definable entity . . . his descriptive prose is quite marvelous . . . a very substantial piece of work, thoroughly satisfying in every important respect.” —Washington Post

“A spare, funny, harrowing, moving novel drawn with sure, swift strokes.” —Newsweek

“A fine book, rich and haunting and a source of great, deep pleasure.” —Kirkus Reviews

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