Download or read book Understanding Fred Chappell written by John Lang and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Lang evaluates Chappell's major works, including the four novels preceding Midquest, the first five volumes of poetry, the remarkably different books of poems published between Castle Tzingal and Spring Garden: New and Selected Poems, and the two collections of short stories. An investigation of the varied connections between and achievements of the Kirkman tetralogy and Midquest concludes this analysis."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book I Am One of You Forever written by Fred Chappell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1987-07-01 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wonderfully funny and also deeply touching, I Am One of You Forever is the story of a young boy's coming of age. Set in the hills and hollows of western North Carolina in the years around World War II, it tells of ten-year-old Jess and his family -- father, mother, grandmother, foster brother, and an odd assortment of other relatives -- who usher Jess into the adult world, with all its attendant joys and sorrows, knowledge and mystery. Jess's father is feisty, restless, and fun-loving. His mother is straitlaced and serious but accepts with grace and good humor the antics of the men of the family, a trait she learned from her own mother. Johnson Gibbs is the orphaned teenager who comes to live with them on their mountain farm. Life on the laurel-covered mountain is isolated and at times difficult, but for Jess it is made rich and remarkable through his relationship with his father and, especially, Johnson Gibbs. Visiting the farm from time to time is a gallery of eccentric relatives who are surely among the most memorable creations in recent fiction. Uncle Luden is a womanizer who left the mountains years ago for a job in California that "paid actual cash money." Uncle Gurton has a spooky way of appearing and disappearing without ever seeming to enter or exit, but it is his flowing beard, which he has apparently never trimmed and which he keeps tucked inside his overalls, that is of most fascination to Jess. Uncle Zeno is a storyteller. With the words "That puts me in mind of..." everyone around knows that he is about to launch into another of his endless tales. Uncle Runkin, who always brings his handmade coffin to sleep in whenever he visits, spends his time carving intricate designs into the coffin and trying to find just the right epitaph for his tombstone. Aunt Samantha Barefoot stops by for a brief spell, too. A country singer and cousin to Jess's grandmother, she is a woman of uncensored speech (Jess learns a lot from her) and honest emotions. Chappell tells the story of all of these characters in a series of chapters that range from fantasy and near farce to pathos. As notable for its lyrical descriptions of the rural settings as for its finely honed vernacular dialogue, I Am One of You Forever shows us a world full of wit and wisdom and the sadness at the heart of things. As one would expect from a poet like Fred Chappell, every line offers its own pleasures and satisfactions.
Download or read book Dagon written by Fred Chappell and published by Bitingduck Press LLC. This book was released on 1996-12 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yellow light filled the attic. The light locked with the dust tons of dust up here and the atmosphere of the place stuffed his head like a fever. It seemed that he perceived this light with every nerve of his body. The attic was mostly empty but toward the south wall was a queer arrangement of chains; the ends dangled about seven feet from the floor and had broad iron bands attached. The bands were hinged on one side so they could open and shut. The chains looked red in the yellow light. He held one of the bands and stroked his finger along the inside and it came away reddish. Rust, he thought; but it didn't flake; it wasn't gritty like rust. It was old, caked blood. . . Peter is mesmerized by his find and he begins a journey to where a bloodstained god awaits the last of the Lelands. ""I am honestly convinced that Fred Chappell is one of the finest writers of this time, one of the rare and precious few who are truly 'major.'"" George Garrett, author of "Death of the Fox"and "The Succession." Fred Chappell is a past Poet Laureate of North Carolina. Boson Books also offers "Dagon" "The Gaudy Place" and "Moments of Light"by Fred Chappell.
Download or read book The Fred Chappell Reader written by Fred Chappell and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fred Chappell is one of our most brilliant and versatile authors, with many novels, short stories, and volumes of poetry to his credit. This anthology bears witness to the scope of his career: a rich body of narrative and lyrical fictions ranging over history, mythology, science, philosophy, and Chappell's own life. He has been recognized as a storyteller "to put on the shelf with Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty" (The Washington Post). The Fred Chappell Reader is full of stories, including a complete novel, Dagon; substantial portions of four other novels; several short stories (two of which are previously uncollected); and poems culled from his books, an achievement for which Chappell shared (with John Ashbery) the prestigious Bolligen Prize in 1985. Here is an important and thoroughly rewarding selection of work by a major American writer.
Download or read book It Is Time Lord written by Fred Chappell and published by Bitingduck Press LLC. This book was released on 2005 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daring to recall the events of his childhood, James, obsessed with is past and it's deception, struggles to truly understand his history and it's influence on the man he has become.
Download or read book Backsass written by Fred Chappell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of humorous and satiric verse takes its title from that thoroughly southern term meaning irreverent retort, ironic remark, or scoffing observation. The ancient Roman poet Juvenal noted that his world made it hard not to write satire. Fred Chappell, finding his contemporary era analogous to that of imperial Rome, has in Backsass given in to the impulse for invective and mockery. The aim of satirists is to improve the moral tenor of society, and they approach this goal by first causing us to laugh at ourselves. Brandishing his lexical sword, Chappell ribs our shortcomings, offers tonic advice, and occasionally sheds a tear for our fallen ideals. Some poetry is fine wine. Backsass is the driest of martinis.
Download or read book North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame written by Marsha White Warren and published by Palala Press. This book was released on 2018-03-03 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Farewell I m Bound to Leave You written by Fred Chappell and published by Picador. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You is rich with the music of the Southern mountains and the stories of their people. In this novel from acclaimed author Fred Chappell, Jess Kirkman's grandmother is dying, and Jess remembers the tales she and his mother have passed down to him--a chorus of women's voices that sing and share and celebrate the common song of life.
Download or read book The Inkling written by Fred Chappell and published by Bitingduck Press LLC. This book was released on 2003 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Inkling by Fred Chappell is, says the New York Times, A work of genuine talentOC . Chappell writes with power and passion and with flashes of humor. This early novel of Chappell's takes sixteen-year-old Jan to where we often try to goOCothe place where all is right just before it goes wrong. The novel begins and ends with Jan's vision in just that place and with his searing pain of ignorance and failure. Chappell gives us characters for tragedy: a mother, bereaved and weak; her two children, a retarded older girl and, in contrast, a bright younger boy deeply frightened by what he perceives as his responsibility to take care of his mother and sister in the absence of his dead soldier father. Uncle Hake, the mother's brother, is the intruder whose admittance stems from an idea of necessity and family decency. It is this outsider, his desires, and death (always the intruder), who tear at the tenuous family bonds of mother, dead father, and starkly contrasted children. Chappell skillfully and quickly catches us in the artful net of his concept and his lucid and vibrant prose. Fred Chappell is a past Poet Laureate of the state of North Carolina. Boson Books also offers Dagon, Moments of Light, The Gaudy Place and It Is Time, Lord by Fred Chappell. For an author bio and photo, reviews and a reading sample, visit bosonbooks.com."
Download or read book Shadow Box written by Fred Chappell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sharply innovative collection, renowned poet Fred Chappell layers words and images to create a new and dramatic poetic form—the poem-within-a-poem. Like the shadow box in the volume’s title, each piece consists of an inner world contained, framed, supported by an outer—the two interdependent, sometimes supplementary, often contrary. For example, the grim but gorgeous “The Caretakers” is a landscape that reveals another image inside it. Chappell also introduces sonnets in which the sestet nests within the octet. Play serves as an important component, but the poems do not depend upon gamesmanship or verbal strategems. Instead, they delicately or wittily trace human feelings, respond somberly to the news of the world, and rejoice in humankind’s plentiful variety of attitudes and beliefs. Just as an x-ray can show the inner structure of a physical object, so the techniques in Shadow Box display the internal energies of the separate works. With this new form—the “enclosed” or “embedded” or “inlaid” poem—Chappell broadens the expressive possibilities of formal poetry, intrigues the imagination in an entirely new way, and offers surprise and revelation in sudden flashes. At once revolutionary and traditional, Shadow Box contains an Aladdin’s trove of surprises.
Download or read book More Shapes Than One written by Fred Chappell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1992-07-15 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich and varied collection of stories about seekers of truth, who find it manifests itself in wonderful, humorous, and terrible forms. "One of the South's and indeed the country's finest writers . . . a novelist and poet of great range and talent".--Los Angeles Times.
Download or read book Brighten the Corner Where You Are written by Fred Chappell and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brighten the Corner Where You Are is the riveting story of a day in the life of Joe Robert Kirkman, a North Carolina mountain schoolteacher, sly prankster, country philosopher, and family man. This novel from award-winning author Fred Chappell has won the hearts of readers and reviewers across the country.
Download or read book Look Back All the Green Valley written by Fred Chappell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1999 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As he cleans out his dead father's workshop, Jess Kirkman of North Carolina discovers a treasure map with the names of women. He goes to see them and obtains new insights into his father's character. Fourth installment in a family saga by the author of Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You.
Download or read book The Gaudy Place written by Fred Chappell and published by Bitingduck Press LLC. This book was released on 2002 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violence and sex in a small Southern city. Arkie, Clemmie, Oxie, and Johns are linked by a schoolboy's prank. Arkie, Clemmie, and Oxie are three of a kind: cons who grub for small change. They have no history and no future. Johns is their counterpart in a brighter universe. His thievery is sanctioned because he's Family in a small Southern city. Arkie: Suddenly it occurred to him that this street, Gimlet Street, could take you anywhere in the world, it was joined to all the other streets there were. He shook his head, grinning. This was his territory. He was chained to Gimlet and he was chained to Clemmie, that green-eyed girl he was so helplessly in love with. Chappell has outstanding gifts as a writer! - Southern Observer Chappell writes like a whiz! - Book Wee Chappell writes with imagination and descriptive grace! - Los Angeles Times Chappell is a powerful and demanding and uncompromising writerOC very powerful and impressive! - Greensboro Daily News Fred Chappell is a past Poet Laureate of North Carolina. Boson Books also offers The Inkling, Dagon, Moments of Light, and It Is Time, Lord by Fred Chappell.
Download or read book Moments of Light written by Fred Chappell and published by Bitingduck Press LLC. This book was released on 1996-12 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Moments of Light' proves that the mythic powers of the balladeer and the story teller survive even in this fragmented and unmysterious day. In eleven stories gathered here, Fred Chappell engages and entertrains our minds and sends us away singing in our hearts, more knowing, more understanding of ourselves.
Download or read book A Shadow All of Light written by Fred Chappell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Upon arriving in the port city of Tradocco, Falco becomes apprentice to master shadow thief Maestro Astolfo, and as his education progresses, he is plunged into the company of con men, monsters, pirates, and the King of the Cats.
Download or read book I Am One of You Forever written by Fred Chappell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1987-07 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells of a father-son relationship in the North Carolina mountains. It is of a family whose men work in the paper mill.
