Miss America kissed Caleb : stories / Billy C. Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clark, Billy C. (Billy Curtis)

Series:

Kentucky voices

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kentucky--Social life and customs--Fiction.

Kentucky.

Manners and customs.

Appalachian Region, Southern--Fiction.

Appalachian Region, Southern.

Southern Appalachian Region.

Mountain life--Fiction.

Mountain life.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

173 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2003]

Summary:

Welcome to Sourwood, a small Kentucky town inhabited by men and women unique and yet eerily familiar. Among its joyful and tragic citizens we meet the crafty, spirited Caleb and his curious younger brother; Pearl, a suspected witch, and her sheltered daughter, Thanie; superstitious Eli; and the doomed orphan Girty. In Sourwood, the mountain is both a keeper of secrets and an imposing, isolating presence shaping the lives of all who live in its shadow. Strong in both the voice and sensibilities of Appalachia, the stories in Miss America Kissed Caleb, the newest collection of short fiction by Billy C. Clark, are at turns heartbreaking and hilarious. In the title story, young Caleb turns over his hardearned dime to the war effort when he receives a coaxing kiss from Miss America, who sweeps into Sourwood by train, "pretty as a night moth." Caleb and his brother share in the thrills and uncertainties of growing up, making an accidental visit to a brothel in "Fourth of July" and taming a "high society" pooch in "The Jimson Dog."

In the novella "The Ring," Caleb's brother befriends the quiet Thanie. As the boy learns to see past rumor and gossip into the heart of a person, Thanie becomes more and more trapped by her love for her invalid mother. For Thanie, a ring and all it stands for is a dream too perfect to be real, even when she is presented with an opportunity for escape. As in many of the stories in this collection, love and loneliness are too closely entwined to separate. The fourteen stories in Miss America Kissed Caleb invoke a place and a time that have long passed, celebrate a way of living nearly extinct. Clark's masterful fiction resonates with the beauty of language and the truth revealed in the everyday happenings that comprise a life.

Contents:

Miss American Kissed Caleb 1

The Ring 9

Fourth of July 39

A Pair of Shoes 47

The Jimson Dog 67

On Joe Carter's Mule 95

The Cornstalk Fiddle 107

Girty 125

To Plant a Windsong 133

Love and a Can of Worms (An Appalachian Love Story) 159

Reliefing It 167.

ISBN:

0813122961

OCLC:

52301645