Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.15 You Save: $3.84 (48%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.19 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Storming Heaven
Book Review: A Must-Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This book tells a story, based on actual events, that is little known to those outside of the Appalachian coalfield area. It is told through the eyes of four characters, and is both moving and chilling. The South was built on the backs of slaves, the railroad on the backs of Chinese and other immigrants, but many Americans are unaware that our industrial progress was fueled by the coal out of West Virginia and Kentucky, mined by "mountain folk" who were brutalized by our own government, as well as the coal operators who kept them in abject poverty. A tremendous book.Book Review: A Richness Only Found in West Virginia
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a native of West Virginia, this book is your heritage. The most fascinating element of the novel is the fact that Giardina captures the raw, gritty nature of the Appalachian culture while still displaying its beauty and surprising complexities. By the way, Giardina is the only author which I have ran across that has successfully captured the dialect of southern West Virginians. This novel is the most honest portrayal of the type of culture which modern Appalachia's problems and striking richness is rooted in.Book Review: A good true mountain story,but a hard read.
Summary: 3 Stars
Denise Giardina is an extremely good historian and researcher, but is not eloquent in her writing. She writes long sentences like William Faulkner, but is not as clear as he. This is a good story about the poor coal miners in Tennessee and Virginia and Kentucky, and even Colorado. Overall, it is an okay book.Book Review: A moving, authentic novel.
Summary: 5 Stars
The West Virginia Mine Wars were long one of the untold chapters
of American History. Denise Giardina tells the tale unflinchingly
in Storming Heaven. It is an intense, moving novel about a time
which still makes Appalchians wring their hands and should make
other Americans wonder that this went on in the "land of the free."
Characters' voices are interwoven with the narrative in such a
way that there is no doubt that this is not just historical fiction
but the story of the human struggle.Book Review: An engaging story about strong Appalachian heroes
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a truly amazing piece of fiction that I absolutely could not put down until I was finished. I read and analyzed this book for one chapter of my master's thesis on Appalachian literature and ecofeminist theory. I found it to contain very powerful messages about the human connection to the earth. The conflicts in the book between the human characters are reflected and echoed in nature. In this book and its sequel, Giardina paints such an accurate picture of how oppression of any sort spreads and touches all corners of life.