A slice of life from the mountains of Kentucky. Really reads like a love letter to the people who live in those hills. In a way, nothing much happens, while everything happens. Love happens, love is destroyed, new life is created, life is destroyed. The important things are love, family, religion, a sense of place and fiercely belonging to that place.I found the character of Dreama to be interesting. At the beginning, she tells Clay that she loves Darry, and that nothing in her life will mean anything if she can't marry him. He tells her that marrying Darry will mean she never makes anything of her life. And it's pretty much exactly what happens. She's pregnant in a whipstitch, and before the baby is born, she has kicked Darry to the curb for stepping out on her. And there she is...19 years old, divorced, single mother, no education, receiving government handouts. And yet, she once again tells someone that if she had not married Darry when she did, she'd never have been happy. She realizes that even though it was a stupid thing to do, the Dreama of a year before HAD to make her own mistakes. I wonder what happens to Dreama more than I really care about Clay. Maybe that's because as a woman, I feel more for the challenges Dreama is going to face. Will she get Easter or someone to watch the baby while she gets a nursing degree? Will she become strong and self-supporting? Or will she become one of these broken-down women, old before her time, living in poverty, drifting into a relationship with Cake, an alcoholic drug addict who loves her even though he can't take care of himself, much less Dreama and the baby...House obviously loves Kentucky and loves and admires the people who live there...but he's not blind to the problems they cause themselves. Pride can be a good thing or a destructive thing. A culture of drugs, alcohol, and poverty persists. Violence is pervasive, and when guns are around people with certain attitudes and problems...disasters happen.
I just returned from a week-long nerd-summer-camp-dream called The Appalachian Writer’s Conference held the first week of August at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, KY. It was a-mazing. I didn’t speak much with the star pupil to come out of this workshop, Silas House, but I watched him from a short distance over the week. He’s not a big man, but boy does he have an enormous voice, both on the page and out loud. He read from his latest work, a novel in letters between two young people, one living in the mountains of Appalachia and one living as the daughter of recent immigrants in New York City (Same Sun Here, co-written with Neela Vaswani).His debut novel, Clay’s Quilt, was work-shopped at this conference. And it’s fabulous. I’m fresh off the last page and want to read it again. The writing is deeply felt, so moving, so fresh, so easy on the eye and ear but hard on the heart, like all good writing ought to be. The story is of humble origins: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, conflict arises, boy triumphs. Scenes of drunken honkytonks and poker melt into images of cornbread burning in an oven while the couple who stirred up the batter are stirring up the dust on the kitchen floor. And while I’d love to tell you it is elegant, what I have to say is that it is brutally beautiful. House was generous with his time and ear during the writer’s conference; I saw him commune with writers of every level and aspiration with an equally keen expression. This is why I love getting to know the artists behind this magic; House’s book is so alive beneath my fingers now that I’ve heard him speak with his own brilliant, beautiful, tender voice.∫ Edit ∫
What do You think about Clay's Quilt (2002)?
Wow. Silas House is officially on my list of favorite authors. This book is so beautifully written. If you love Appalachia--the mountains, culture, and people--you have to read this book. You should read it anyway, because the writing is so spectacular. It made me feel the way I felt the first time I read Eudora Welty's "Delta Wedding." Like I was reading a painting. The words so beautifully capture the characters, the place, the events. I think this book also appealed to me because it is about a boy who loses his mother when he is very young and then spends many years trying to piece his life back together. His bonds with his family and their Appalachian roots ultimately make it possible for him. I also love the way music is woven through this book--if you don't already have these songs on your I-pod, you'll be downloading songs right and left as you read this.A couple of my favorite quotes..."There is a cool that sometimes comes down over the mountains in the evening. The day slips away slowly, so quietly and secretly that no one really notices until it is gone...It was an evening like that."And..."If there is anything that I wish you could keep of me, it would be my voice to play in your head--I wish I could leave you beautiful words to come to mind when it is a mother's gentle voice that you need...I'm setting by the open window and I've just now heard a whippoorwill. I have always loved their songs. There's a piece of me you can hold on to." Anyway...read it...you'll be glad you did.
—Kelsey Burnette
This is a story of family; blood relation, unrelated folks who earn the title, and those who are family simply because their lives are combined within an identical setting. For some, that setting of identity is the Pentecostal church, for others it's a reserved table at the local highway cash bar, for some it's both. Mostly, it accomplishes its message by describing a journey through a sometimes pain filled discovery; reopening of wounds from the past- stories known to some characters and fresh to others. As the reader, you find yourself caught up in a small, rural, Kentucky mountain community which bonds sometimes seemingly opposite people into a great story. This brings many of the pieces of typical Southern literature (love, divorce, death, religion, blood thicker than water, murder fueled by passion, the consequence of decisions) to the surface but in very non-typical ways. Primarily the story is one of deep character development, and by the end of the book I was rooting for almost everyone of them while in everyday life I might discount some of them as hopeless wanderers for whom I might not cheer for quite so strongly.
—Josh
This is the third book I’ve read by this author, and probably my least favorite but that is not to say it is not worth reading because it is. House’s books are very lyrical and full of beautiful imagery and strong non-cliché country folk. I don’t think his books are commonly referred to as a trilogy, because each can be read on its own independent of the others, but the books relay stories from three generations of the same family and it is interesting to finally know where the end of one character’s story led into or shaped the life of another. House really captures the people and way of life of the Eastern Kentucky mountain region.
—DeAnna Rigney
