Crossing the River
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A spirited Southern woman upends the insular world of her small Kentucky town in this acclaimed debut novel by “a storyteller of distinction” (Publishers Weekly).
Kentucky, 1944. Though she hails from a Fundamentalist Baptist family, there is nothing conventional about Martha Bragg Pickett Miracle. In her youth, she smoked cigarettes, rode motorcycles, and snuck across the Knob Fork River to buy beer from Catholics—and fall in love with one. Twenty years later, Martha has settled into marriage. But deep down, she’s just as rebellious as she ever was.
The arrival of a smooth-talking Yankee contractor leads Martha to turn her life upside down—unaware that her son will follow suit. Both heartfelt and shrewdly humorous, this widely acclaimed first novel from author Fenton Johnson is an affecting look at one woman's reawakening and her son's coming of age in the American heartland.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Martha Bragg Picket is an original. Brandishing her confederate lineage and tossing her red hair, she crosses the river near her Kentucky home in the mid-1940s, stepping out of her fundamentalist Baptist world, and setting convention on its ear. Across the river, Martha crashes the sacrosanct male preserve of the Miracle Inn, orders a beer, and seduces owner Bernie Miracle, a Catholic. Their unlikely marriage endures for 20 years, puzzling their Catholic neighbors because it produces only one offspring. Martha's dormant expectancies of life are stirred by a slick, philandering Yankee contractor, with whom she enjoys a liberating though scandalous affair. Though this is essentially the story of a woman's awakening, not so much sexually as in terms of her identity, there are other battles between the sexes here. Johnson, recipient of numerous literary awards, is a storyteller of distinction. He knows the regional, religious and emotional insularity of his Kentucky characters and reveals them with sly humor.
