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Author to read from book set in Smokies
Kerry Madden knows something about being a misfit kid within a loving family, and it’s that core truthfulness that breathes life into her new young adult novel, “Gentle’s Holler.”
Set in Maggie Valley in the early 1960s, the book tells the story of a family short on money but long on love – and kids.
The narrator, 11-year-old Livy Two Weems (named after her older sister Olivia who died at birth), devours every book available from the bookmobile that comes to town once or twice a month. Though she dreams of visiting the exotic places she reads about, she keeps her mind off the bleakness of her everyday life by writing and singing songs about what she sees around her family’s mountain home.
Livy Two spends much of her time perched in a red maple tree, observing and commenting on the activities of her sisters and brothers.
The daughter of a college football coach (Joe, not John), Madden’s first novel was “Offsides.” In an April 2000 article for Salon, “Of football and flamenco,” Madden describes a childhood spent in stadiums – but with a novel in her hand.
That disconnect likely helped her create the character of Livy Two, whose feet are anchored to her mountain home while her hopes and dreams are a million miles away.
The book draws its name from Gentle, Livy Two’s 3-year-old blind sister. For the first half of the story, the family tries to pretend that Gentle’s eyes will get better, or that she simply sees things differently from the rest of them. A visit to an eye doctor in Enka removes those shreds of hope.
That trip Livy Two took with her parents and little sister in her grandmother’s car also reveals one detail of the book that doesn’t ring true with regard to regional history. On the way from Maggie to Enka, Livy Two spies a “seam of coal along the mountainside where some of the mining companies have set up strip mines.”
None of us at The Herald can remember hearing of any coal mining in Buncombe or Haywood counties, much less of seeing strip mines along the main roads.
Otherwise, Madden is flawless in portraying the sights of Livy Two’s world. Helped along by descriptions of paintings by another sister, Louise, the colors of a mountain summer almost shimmer off the pages. And the sounds of life in the family’s small cove ring just as true.
Madden, who now lives in Los Angeles, will be at City Lights for a 3 p.m. reading and booksigning Saturday, April 16.
“‘Gentle’s Holler’ tells the story of the Weems family and highlights the musical heritage of the mountains,” said City Lights staffer Jenifer Ross. “This reading will be a unique opportunity for older children to meet an author and ask questions about the writing process and story line.”
For more information about this event, please contact City Lights at 586-9499.
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