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Title: Where the Water-Dogs Laughed: The Story of the Great Bear by Charles F. Price ISBN: 1-932158-50-2 Publisher: High Country Publishers Pub. Date: October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Book about Grace
Comment: This book is about grace. Where the Water-dogs Laughed is peopled with characters so real I experienced their triumphs, failures, and thoughts as my own. Set in the late 1800's in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the characters are engaged in struggles that echo many of today's troubles including the devastation of the environment, the need to make money from the land, domestic emotional abuse, and hard economic times. The Great Bear and Cattywampus Dog are as real as the people. The Cherokee belief about the covenant between bears and man is told through the Great Bear. I found this a surprising approach and became intrigued with the Bear's voice and experience of his world. My favorite character is Hamby McFee, an ex-slave, who takes over the book from beginning to end. He struggles with feeling separated from others and yet bound to them through their shared place in the Hiwassee valley. His desire to maintain his integrity by protecting himself from the judgment of others with a hard, bitter attitude results in a loneliness I found familiar. Hamby is one of the most original characters I've encountered and I found myself wanting to defend him whenever he was misunderstood by the other characters. Price incorporates the romance of his own grandparents, Lily Carter and Will Price, into the story. Their courtship is formal and old-fashioned and ultimately inspiring as they overcome the obstacles laid out for them by Will's adopted father. Another love relationship takes place between Absalom Middleton and Cassandra Weatherby; Price does an incredible job of evoking an erotic, passionate relationship without ever depicting a sexual encounter. Adding balance, humor, and grace is Irish Bill Moore who is as rooted to the land as the Great Bear. Like an elf who lives in the forest he emerges from the mountain mists beating his Civil War drum, gaily teasing the wife he adores, mourning his two sons who are lost to a typhoid epidemic, longing for his youth, and wisely seeing the ability of man and Mother Earth to endure. This book is gritty, true, and full of the struggles of daily existence and it raises us up to taste something larger than ourselves.
Rating: 5
Summary: Inside the Mind of a Great Bear
Comment: In WHERE THE WATER DOGS LAUGHED, the last in a series of four books by Charles F. Price, the author has reached his full stride as a writer. His characters, especially the protagonists, Hamby and the Great Bear, are finely drawn and the way their minds work, is the most fascinating part of the book. In addition, his skillful blending of Cherokee legend and family history creates an accurate and telling picture of that part of western North Carolina that never seems to be included, on a map, with the rest of the state.
The time is the turn of the last century, when the first glimmerings of antipathy between "progress" and "ecology" become apparent. As often happens, the need to provide a livlihood for one's family, is frequently at odds with what is good for the land and its' inhabitants, including bears. This Bear is the standard bearer for his race and his thoughts and memories form his purpose.
Hamby, the main human character has appeared in the earlier books, but without the sensitivity and definition given him in this novel. He is a man who lives alone, spiritually, from the rest of the world and has his own set of standards, from which he never deviates. As a result, he misses some of the gentler experiences, of human life. These two uncompromising characters are brought together in a stunning, yet trimphant collision, that will ring through the mountains for years.
Charles Price is considered a regional writer, but this book makes him a universal one, in my opinion. No matter where you live, this book is a great read. Don't miss it.
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Title: Hiwassee: A Novel of the Civil War by Charles F. Price ISBN: 0897335171 Publisher: Academy Chicago Pub Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Freedom's Altar by Charles F. Price ISBN: 0895872625 Publisher: John F Blair Pub Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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