Near the end to much religion for me. Strong women. Warm and fuzzy story I thought would be somewhat darker. ( )

This is the story of a young woman named Vine, from an assimilated Cherokee family living in Kentucky in the early 20th century. She falls in love and marries a white man named Saul Sullivan, who takes her to live among his family, far enough away from home to make visits a rare occurrence. She finds life among these strong descendants of Irish immigrants different from what she has been accustomed to, and she misses her parents, but she builds strong relationships with her mother-in-law, and other women of God's Creek. The character development is good, the regional history and culture very well presented, but there isn't an awful lot to this story, until a traumatic event threatens to destroy Vine's composure and possibly rip her new family apart. I enjoyed spending time in this place, with these people, but the ending was a bit abrupt and unsatisfying. This is considered to be the first of House's Appalachian trilogy, but he wrote these books chronologically inside out, starting with Clay's Quilt set in the late 20th century, then A Parchment of Leaves which takes place during WWI, and ending with The Coal Tattoo set in the 1960's. I'm reading them in publication order by happenstance, not choice. ( )

That's all anybody can ask for, if you think about it--to have somebody love you and depend on you and take care of you when you're sick, and mourn over your casket when you die. Family's the only thing a person's got in this life.

This is a story of family, of how one comes to be, how the roots we receive from our parents define us, how unconnected people form one, how complicated the interactions can be, and sometimes how tragic. The character at the heart of this tale is Vine, a Cherokee whose family hid in the North Carolina mountains and avoided the Trail of Tears, who marries a white man, Saul, and she is so perfectly drawn that I felt I knew her soul by the end of the book.

The most immediate thing I noticed about Silas House is the authentic voice with which he portrays his characters. They speak the vernacular of the Kentucky mountains with a ring of truth that can only come from a writer who knows the place and its people intimately. There is a minstrel quality to the writing, like that of an ancient storyteller singing his song. And, there is description of the mountains and nature that reminds one of how close our ancestors lived to the natural world that we so frequently ignore.

I walked out to the tree and put my finger to a leaf, smooth like it was coated with wax. I could feel its veins, wet and round. I had always found comfort in the leaves, in their silence. They were like a parchment that hold words of wisdom. Simply holding them in my hand gave me some of the peace a tree possesses. To be like that--to just be--that's the most noble thing of all.

I knew that I wanted to read Silas House, but somehow this book kept being pushed behind others. When I drew up my Old and New Challenge this year, it was the first book I put on the list. I did it to ensure that another year could not elapse without my reading it. My only regret is that I waited this long to discover what I always knew I was missing. ( )

Beautiful story, plaintively told. This passage especially moved me, and I don't want to forget it: "Terror does things to you. It hardens a part of you. I have heard people call that hard-hearted, but it's not your heart that turns to stone when something awful happens. It's your gut, where all the real feelings come from. That was froze up inside me and I didn't long to thaw it." ( )

Review: A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House. 07/10/2018

The story takes the reader back to the early 1900’s where the beauty of the Appalachia Mountains in Kentucky was home to Native Americans until one day when their homes and land was taken from them. The flow of descriptive words and the writing style of Silas House captivated me almost to the point of being there myself. At times it was emotional but the characters filled their roles as expected.

The Native Americans couldn’t come up with a deed for the land because it was done with a hand shake. The area of the mountain was called Redbud Camp where rumors travel that a young Cherokee girl named Vine scared people. Others in town called her a witch, a mystical woman and she could make snakes dance at her command. The town’s wealthy irritating man named Tate Masters decided to build a mansion near the top of the mountain area they called Redbud Camp pushing the American Natives out. By that time Vine and a brave young Irishman named Saul Sullivan and his family lived on the same mountain where interaction between the two families emerged.

Soon after Saul and Vine are married and they live down the mountain with Saul’s family until they can build their own home. Vine got along real well with Saul’s mother, Esme and the surrounding neighbors, especially Serena, the midwife of the mountain and the small town below becomes Vine’s best friend. Vine struggles with missing her family, and now they are moving two States away where Vine communicates back and forth by mail to stay connected, and she soon gives birth to her daughter Birdie. At the same time Saul who works for a lumber company is asked to be the foreman of another crew working far away where he would be gone for a great amount of time. Saul leaves after their home is built and asked his younger brother Aaron to watch over his wife and daughter. However, that didn’t go-over well with Vine who was already complaining about Aaron’s obsessive behavior when around her.

The story has more to offer including Aaron’s marriage to Aidia and their child Matracia and Vine’s forbidden secret. ( )