Winter Run
Stories of an Enchanted Boyhood in a Lost Time and Place
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This novel of a boyhood in 1940s Virginia offers "a graceful, compassionate ode to farm life in a bygone era" (Publishers Weekly).
Charlie Lewis is the only child of metropolitan parents who, after World War II, decide to move to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and live on a "gentleman's farm" near Charlottesville. Just six years old when his family settles in to their new life, Charlie discovers his personal version of heaven.
Charlie has a natural—almost supernatural—affinity for the land and its animals. His encounters with an ancient, half-blind mule, a boar hog and his harem, a mother fox, and four domestic dogs gone wild educate and intrigue him—and lead him to contemplate the mysteries of their Maker. Wanting to learn all he can, he instinctively turns to a group of older black men, some of whom work the farm, others who are neighbors. Jim Crow laws are still very much evident, but Charlie's passions endear him to these men, who understand that he is lonely even if he does not. They watch out for him, and more—they love him.
Capturing the innocence and wonder of childhood, Winter Run is "a very sweet, almost mystical tale of a boy who was amazed by what nature brought him, his growing up, and his understanding that all things, even life as he knows it, are passing" (Booklist).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ashcom uses a young boy's love of animals as the vehicle for a graceful, compassionate ode to farm life in a bygone era in his elegiac debut novel. The book revolves around the childhood of Charlie Lewis as he grows up on a Virginia farm in the 1940s, with each chapter constructed around a different incident involving the various farm animals and local critters. It takes a few chapters for Ashcom to find his prose rhythm, as he presents some background on Charlie's father, a logger, and an episode of animal abuse by a neighbor that infuriates both the boy and the community. Next follow accounts featuring wild dogs and a boar, followed by the story of a hunt for a mysterious gray fox, and finally an especially touching yarn about the death of the family mule as Charlie goes to extraordinary lengths to give it a proper burial. The dark side of farm life is portrayed when a fire threatens the small town, but Ashcom balances that incident with a humorous story in which Charlie is given a pony that turns out to have a serious rebellious streak. The subtext of the book is the boy's unique but understated relationships with the town's second-class African-American residents. Ashcom is a smooth, compassionate writer who displays a nice feel for nature, local color, his animal and human subjects (though strong female characters are noticeably lacking), and a flair for tweaking the heartstrings without crossing the line into mawkishness. This is more a collection of related stories than a true novel, but there's enough talent and charm in these rural yarns to mark Ashcom as a promising newcomer.
