Witches on the Road Tonight
A novel about an Appalachian family, witchcraft, and the tangled pull of love, fear, and betrayal across generations.
Work Information
A novel about an Appalachian family, witchcraft, and the tangled pull of love, fear, and betrayal across generations.
A novel about an Appalachian family, witchcraft, and the tangled pull of love, fear, and betrayal across generations.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Grove Press
- Published
- 2012-01-10
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.72 x 2.29 x 20.57 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780802145710
- ISBN-10
- 080214571X
- Price
- 6703 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Horror/Ghosts
As a child growing up in Depression-era rural Virginia, Eddie Alley’s quiet life is rooted in the rumors of his mother’s witchcraft. But when he's visited by a writer and glamorous photographer researching American folklore for the WPA, the spell of his mother’s unorthodox life is violently disrupted, and Eddie is inspired to pursue a future beyond the confines of his dead-end town. He leaves for New York and becomes a television horror-movie presenter beloved for his kitschy comedy. Though expert at softening terror for his young fans, Eddie cannot escape the guilty secrets of his own childhood. When he opens his family’s door to a homeless teenager working as an intern at the TV station, the boy’s presence not only awakens something in Eddie, but also in his twelve-year-old daughter, Wallis, who has begun to feel a strange kinship to her notorious grandmother. As the ghost stories of one generation infiltrate the next, Wallis and Eddie grapple with the sins of the past to repair their misguided attempts at loyalty and redemption. In Witches on the Road Tonight , bestselling author Sheri Holman teases out the dark compulsions and desperate longings that blur the line between love and betrayal.
Sheri Holman is the author of A Stolen Tongue , which was translated into thirteen languages; The Dress Lodger , which has sold over 300,000 copies nationally and was named a New York Times Notable Book and one of the New York Public Library’s Books to Remember;” and The Mammoth Cheese , short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction and named a San Francisco Chronicle and Publishers Weekly Book of the Year. Holman is a founding member and currently serves on the curatorial board of The Moth. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Visit Sheri's website at sheriholman.com
Reviews
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Spellbound
There will be a moment, early on in Sheri Holman's Witches on the Road Tonight, when some little part of your conscious mind may push forward to ask, 'Am I reading about these spells and magic, or am I the object of them?' You have two choices when this moment comes. You may lay the book aside and find something less captivating, less atmospheric, and less powerful in its storytelling. Or you may choose to be in Holman's thrall until the final, heartbreaking page and beyond. It is a rare writer who can pull us effortlessly across time and character and geography with the conjuring power that Holman demonstrates here. From a dogtrot cabin in Appalachia on the eve of the second world war to 1980s suburbs still scented with a rural perfume to post-Apocalyptic corners of contemporary New York, there is no false note. This is a dark family epic in which fear must be mastered and never quite can be. Holman is an enchantress, whose knack for detail and narrative power will transport you. Witches on the Road Tonight is disturbing and enthralling and worth the deep and diligent reading that its careful conjuring on the page invites.
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Not quite what I expected, but interesting and well-written...
Sheri Holman's Witches on the Road Tonight is an interesting and well-written book about the ties of family and heritage, and how the past affects our future. In rural Virginia during the Depression, young Eddie Alley and his mother live a tremendously humble existence, hunting for ginseng and other roots, while his father works in the Civilian Conservation Corps. One day, he encounters a writer and photographer who are profiling rural life for the WPA, and this visit awakens Eddie's ability to dream of a life away from his poor existence and his mother, who is rumored to be some sort of witch. Years later, Eddie is the host of a campy late-night horror show on television, living with his wife, Ann, and 12-year-old daughter, Wallis. When Ann and Eddie open their home to Jasper, a homeless teenager who has been living at the station, Jasper's presence awakens feelings in Eddie he had long kept hidden, and in Wallis, who wonders if she could use her grandmother's powers of witchcraft to make someone love her. I'll admit that this book wasn't quite what I expected, as reviews I had read intimated that the ghost story-angle would figure more prominently. But even without that, the story is a very interesting one, and I found myself wanting to keep reading to see what happened. The sections of the book that told of young Eddie and his mother I actually found the most interesting, because I felt a few of the other characters weren't quite as complex, and their actions and motivations were fairly confusing from time to time. But all in all, this a thought-provoking and intriguing book, with characters that you'll remember after you've finished reading.
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The Witches on the Road Tonight
A really fun read. Held together in detail. Thought about it a lot after finishing it. My daughter read it and liked it also. Recommend.
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Hallelujah-finest-kind
Finally, the first drop-my-jaw-in-awe book of 2011. Some writers are a "brand" which is to say you know exactly what you're going to get when you pick up one of their books. So not so with Holman; you don't even know what time frame you might be inhabiting: the 15th century of "A Stolen Tongue," the 19th century of "The Dress Lodger" or the 20th century of "The Mammoth Cheese." Another Holman hallmark: her books invariably sport unusual titles. I cannot fathom why there has been little buzz around this new novel. So far. Maybe I'm too eager and missed the opening reviews. The PW and Booklist reviews here on Amazon don't reflect the book I read and they're good reviews overall but lack the excitement of readerly greed satisfied so richly and rarely. "Witches on the Road Tonight" is hallelujah-finest-kind. I had to rise early on a Saturday morning expressly to read the last 50 pages. Why was I mesmerized (eponym alert)? Holman specializes in story telling and in this book she exceeds the bar. At the same time, the writing, language, depictions, evocations, great heart put flesh on her story and I don't mean it to sound muscular because the result delivers distilled but non-fussy elegance uncommon in a very good story. The WPA element doesn't hurt, either. (Yes, we're in the 20th century again but roaming about some.) Tired Appalachia here is fulsomely rendered -- luscious, gorgeous and time-out-of-mind dangerous. I expect I've found the book I'll be evangelizing this year.
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Umm, Ms Holman...
Witches on the Road Tonight is a bit of a puzzle. Well written, it begins with intriguing characters and the promise of a fascinating storyline. The book soon plateaus, and one is left waiting for the story to begin. It's like the longest introduction ever. Apparently only one witch was on the road, she died, and her annoying granddaughter is an adulteress with a dying father. That's it, boys and girls.