Icy Sparks (Oprah's Book Club) [Paperback]

-- Fred Chappell, author of Moments of Light, Brighten the Corner Where you Are, and Farewell, I'm Bound To Have You

"ICY SPARKS speaks to us in an entirely new voice, painfully wise and wonderfully peculiar. In her original first novel, Gwyn Rubio makes us see that the tics and noises her remarkable heroine can't suppress are the pure expressions of a brave and lively spirit." -- Francine Prose, author of Hunters and Gatherers

"Gwyn Hyman Rubio twists together her dark and comic visions to create a world so marvelous and strange that it takes one's breath. Her subject is the entanglem! ents of order and disorder in a rural Kentucky setting of the 1950s, and she turns them upside down in a way that challenges our own definitions of where and how we live. She is an extraordinary writer." -- Stephen Dobyns, author of The Church of the Dead Girls

"ICY SPARKS is a work of imagination, about being different in a world whose difference brings separation and pain. Icy, in 1950s Appalachia, finds community with others who also don't fit in and acquires an outlook that is wise, serious, and yet comic." -- Loyal Jones, editor of Reshaping the Image of Appalachia

"A most original work of fiction. ICY SPARKS is an important contribution to the literature that helps us know the emotional realities of wounded people. It is also one of the few novels of the Appalachian region that goes beyond the description of external reality and places the reader in direct touch with the interior lives of its characters. Brilliant." ! -- Gurney Norman, author Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stori! es

ICY SPARKS (Viking) is the sad, funny, and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950s. Gwyn Hyman Rubio's beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Tweedy in Cold Sassy Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her "secrets" -- verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms -- keep afflicting her. As an adult, she will find out she has Tourette's Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation.

Narrated by a grown-up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, tale! nted, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers -- physical, mental, and spiritual -- in order to find community and acceptance.

Along her journey, Icy faces the jeers of her classmates as well as the malevolence of her often ignorant teachers -- including Mrs. Stilton, one of the most evil fourth grade teachers ever created by a writer. Called willful by her teachers and "Frog Child" by her schoolmates, she is exiled from the schoolroom and sent to a children's asylum where it is hoped that the roots of her mysterious behavior can be discovered. Here Icy learns about difference -- her own and those who are even more scarred than she. Yet it isn't until Icy returns home that she really begins to flower, especially through her friendship with the eccentric and obese Miss Emily, who knows first-hand how it feels to be an outcast in this tightly knit Appalachian community. Under Miss Emily's tutelage, Icy learns about life's struggles and rewards, s! urvives her first comical and heartbreaking misadventure wi! th romance, discovers the healing power of her voice when she sings, and ultimately -- takes her first steps back into the world.

Gwyn Hyman Rubio's ICY SPARKS is a fresh, original, and completely redeeming novel about learning to overcome others' ignorance and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique.

About the Author Gywn Hyman Rubio was born in Macon, Georgia. She is the daughter of Mac Hyman, the author of No Time for Sergeants, the bestselling novel which was later made into a film starring Andy Griffith. She has had short fiction published in literary journals and anthologies, and her writing has been awarded grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She and her husband, Angel, live in Berea, Kentucky. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.