"Madden has a lyric, a magical tone . . . and he is at his best
with dialogue. The words in this novel are very nearly musical. . .
. Eastern Kentucky is perhaps not all beautiful, but it is
beautifully felt in this novel."--Joyce Carol Oates, The Southern
Review
"Cassandra Singing successfully combines crude animal vigor with
intellectual force. Maintaining a sure, steady hold on its subject,
it takes us into a strange world and brings that world to
life."--Peter Wolfe, New York Times Book Review
Set in the exotic coal country of eastern Kentucky's mountains,
Cassandra Singing centers on a brother and a sister and their
contrasting ways of coping with life. Lone McDaniel is drawn to a
life of action, riding a motorcycle with his friend Boyd Weaver,
the wildest and most dangerous boy in town. Cassie McDaniel,
bedridden for most of her life with rheumatic fever, lives in the
world of her own imagination, feeding vicariously on her brother's
stories of his adventures with Boyd and Boyd's girlfriend, Gypsy.
Cassie's strange imaginings and the folk songs she sings are her
efforts to communicate with Lone, and they affect him in two ways:
They pull him unwillingly into the tangled emotional terrain of his
family, and they fuel his urge to escape from the nearly incestuous
relationship he has with Cassie. When a willful act of destruction
lands Lone in jail, Cassie decides to go out into the world, where
she finds herself drawn gradually to Boyd. Both are isolated from
others--Cassie by her vision of life, Boyd by his hostile
actions--but they have one thing in common: their strange love of
Lone. Cassie's attempts to become Lone hurl this searing novel
toward its dramatic climax.
The Author: David Madden is creator and Director the U.S. Civil War
Center at Louisiana State University. Cassandra Singing, his second
novel, was originally published in 1969. His other highly praised
novels and short story collections include The Suicide's Wife,
Bijou, The New Orleans of Possibilities, On the Big Wind, The
Shadow Knows, and Sharpshooter (Tennessee, 1996). He is a native of
Knoxville, Tennessee.
General
Imprint: |
University of Tennessee Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 1999 |
First published: |
April 1999 |
Authors: |
David Madden
|
Dimensions: |
228 x 153 x 20mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
288 |
Edition: |
1st paperback ed |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-57233-035-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
1-57233-035-X |
Barcode: |
9781572330351 |
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