The Only Piece of Furniture in the House

Fiction & Literature, Native American & Aboriginal, Literary
Cover of the book The Only Piece of Furniture in the House by Diane Glancy, Speaking Volumes
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Author: Diane Glancy ISBN: 9781628159660
Publisher: Speaking Volumes Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Diane Glancy
ISBN: 9781628159660
Publisher: Speaking Volumes
Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint:
Language: English

"My father, Wood Hume, worked for the railroad. We followed him from town to town, through Texas and Louisiana in the tomato-red sun that sank into the plains. I learned to read on highway signs." So begins the beautifully told story of Rachel and her itinerant Southern family. In The Only Piece of Furniture in the House, Diane Glancy captures the lan­guage of the rural south in the tradition of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.

Sometimes the Humes lived in the Cajun town of Pole Cat Creek, Louisiana, where the children washed cotton bins, but the most permanent home for the eleven children was with their grandmother in Madill, Texas. There the young and naive Rachel meets and begins an awkward courtship with Jim, a soldier at the nearby army base, whom Rachel’s grandma immediately sizes up and pronounces "the enemy."

Rachel’s rich religious and family background leave her unprepared for married life in the barracks, where the other young women shock Rachel by smoking and having affairs. Profoundly homesick, Rachel almost dies in childbirth. She must resolve the differences in her new adult life with memories of a beloved child­hood.

"A powerful short novel...that maps unusual terrain.... Glancy pulls off the difficult feat of making a seemingly quiet life rich, complex, and deeply moving. A powerful meditation on the manner in which religious and earthy love may reinforce one another, offering something sustaining 'beyond the plainness of our lives.'"—Kirkus Reviews

"Glancy's gift for expressive lan­guage and her courage in explor­ing painful subjects. . .make the reader hungry for more." —The New York Times Book Review

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"My father, Wood Hume, worked for the railroad. We followed him from town to town, through Texas and Louisiana in the tomato-red sun that sank into the plains. I learned to read on highway signs." So begins the beautifully told story of Rachel and her itinerant Southern family. In The Only Piece of Furniture in the House, Diane Glancy captures the lan­guage of the rural south in the tradition of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.

Sometimes the Humes lived in the Cajun town of Pole Cat Creek, Louisiana, where the children washed cotton bins, but the most permanent home for the eleven children was with their grandmother in Madill, Texas. There the young and naive Rachel meets and begins an awkward courtship with Jim, a soldier at the nearby army base, whom Rachel’s grandma immediately sizes up and pronounces "the enemy."

Rachel’s rich religious and family background leave her unprepared for married life in the barracks, where the other young women shock Rachel by smoking and having affairs. Profoundly homesick, Rachel almost dies in childbirth. She must resolve the differences in her new adult life with memories of a beloved child­hood.

"A powerful short novel...that maps unusual terrain.... Glancy pulls off the difficult feat of making a seemingly quiet life rich, complex, and deeply moving. A powerful meditation on the manner in which religious and earthy love may reinforce one another, offering something sustaining 'beyond the plainness of our lives.'"—Kirkus Reviews

"Glancy's gift for expressive lan­guage and her courage in explor­ing painful subjects. . .make the reader hungry for more." —The New York Times Book Review

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