- Hardcover: 318 pages
- Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Printing edition (Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385335164
- ISBN-13: 978-0385335164
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
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- #83 in Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > United States
The Coalwood Way: A Memoir
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Product Description
Product Description
It's fall, 1959, and Homer "Sonny" Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, launching handbuilt rockets that soar thousands of feet into the West Virginia sky. But in a season traditionally marked by celebrations of the spirit, Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads.
The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered HomerSr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife Elsie is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness.
Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it most needs to come together. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger-and more rewarding-challenge than he has ever faced.
The result is pure storytelling magic- a tale of small-town parades and big-hearted preachers, the timeless love of families and unforgettable adventures of boyhood friends-that could only come from the man who brought the world Rocket Boys
The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered HomerSr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife Elsie is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness.
Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it most needs to come together. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger-and more rewarding-challenge than he has ever faced.
The result is pure storytelling magic- a tale of small-town parades and big-hearted preachers, the timeless love of families and unforgettable adventures of boyhood friends-that could only come from the man who brought the world Rocket Boys
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First Sentence
OF ALL THE lessons I learned when I built my rockets, the most important were not about chemistry, physics, or metallurgy, but of virtues, sins, and other true things that shape us as surely as rivers carve valleys, or rain melts mountains, or currents push apart the sea. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
OF ALL THE lessons I learned when I built my rockets, the most important were not about chemistry, physics, or metallurgy, but of virtues, sins, and other true things that shape us as surely as rivers carve valleys, or rain melts mountains, or currents push apart the sea. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Several years ago, ex-NASA engineer Homer Hickam published the first volume of his memoirs, ROCKET BOYS, which was subsequently made into the hit film OCTOBER SKY. In these, the author remembers growing up in the West Virginia coal town of Coalwood in the late 1950s. From the moment he saw the first Soviet Sputnik traverse the night sky in 1957, Homer became obsessed with space, rockets and his hero, Werner von Braun. Along with several high school chums, Hickam built and, after some initial failures, launched several dozen rockets. As high school seniors, the group won a national science fair for their achievements in rocketry.
In THE COALWOOD WAY, Homer expands on that period during his final high school year when he was steadily improving the design and performance of his missiles, but before he won the national competition that was the culminating triumph of his first book. This second volume of memoirs focuses less on rocketry than the other challenges Hickam faced in his hometown and personal life. His father, the mine superintendent, is a stern workaholic who demonstrates little overt love for his second son (while being more lavish with his firstborn, Jim). His mother, Elsie, is increasingly disenchanted with her marriage and life in Coalwood, and wants to move to Florida to sell real estate. Miners are being laid off by the parent company, an Ohio steel manufacturer. Families are going hungry. There's talk of a strike. Homer is driven to get all A's in school to be able to escape his environment, go to college, and ultimately work at Cape Canaveral. And, of course, there's the distraction of girls, and deciding whom to take to the Christmas Formal. After all, Melba June did sidle up close and say in a throaty voice, "I just love your rockets."
That THE COALWOOD WAY is less inspiring then its predecessor, and that Hollywood is unlikely to consider it material for the silver screen, shouldn't detract from the fact that it's a poignant coming-of-age story with an attractive hero. Delightfully, the author can be occasionally humorous in a homespun sort of way, as when he observes of preachers:
"Did failure to volunteer information count as a lie? I didn't think it did though I wouldn't have wanted to put that question to a preacher. It was my experience that preachers could get snagged on the details and miss the big picture entirely."
Perhaps my favorite character in the whole book is Elsie. As Moms should be, she seems eternally wise. She doesn't hesitate to occasionally tweak her husband's stiff-necked obstinacy, and there are no shenanigans that Homer is getting into, or considering, that she doesn't know of. It is she I most look forward to reading about in Homer's next volume of memories, SKY OF STONE.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this a delightful book. It is a memoir of the little mining town of Coalwood in the hills of West Virginia, USA. I love the people in it, especially the Reverend Little Richard and Chipper the Squirrel (who is not a "people," of course but a major character in the story). Homer Sonny Hickam is a wonderful writer who makes you think about many things. He even tells how he understood his "sad" feelings and was able to overcome them. I found this particularly helpful. I have many friends who do not seem to get much joy from life. They will be certain to get this book from me as a holiday gift.
Format:Hardcover
I loved October Sky so much I lost sleep reading it - couldn't put it down. Homer's done it to me again. I think my holiday gift problem is well solved. This book is so much more spiritual than the first memoir. It's one I know I will read again and again.
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