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Reading this book as an adolescent was very eye opening to me. It was charming on the whole and made me think about spirituality in a way I had never considered. This was exactly what I needed at that age.
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since it was recommended to me as a book I should assign to my middle schoolers. Of course I wouldn’t assign a book to my students that I hadn’t read so it stayed in the back of my mind for 15+ years. Maybe it’s the current political climate but this book was really hard to take. The Southern customs of the town of Cold Sassy weren’t charming, they were cruel and I had a feeling the author was pushing hard for us to be entertained. In one particular instance, a young man commits suicide after the entire town makes fun of his slow, dull ways. The patriarch of our story buys him a wonderful funeral and shames people to attend although everyone is convinced the deceased is in Hell for putting a gun to his head. Warms the heart doesn’t it? Children that are born into horrible poverty are identified as Lint Heads because they are forced to work in a cotton factory full of choking cotton thread. These children are shunned and no one wants their children to go to school with them. Sound familiar? One boy is given a job as an act of charity and then he is informed he must cut his hair to get rid of any cooties. None of this was funny and it didn’t make me feel proud of my roots. I live in Kentucky and we lean more to the South than to the East, although we are technically a southeastern state. We still see too many Confederate flags flying and hear too much talk about how people are supposed to act. I didn’t enjoy this book although the author pulled me along with some intriguing subplots. I’m glad I chose to read something other than Cold Sassy with my students.
I grabbed this book at a second-hand shop, knowing nothing about it. I had lukewarm feelings about it at first- the Southernness (is that a real word? Don't use it in Scrabble) seemed too molasses-thick. Since I am from Alabama, I am sensitive to portrayals of the South. But somewhere in the middle of this fantastic story, that all changed. I ended up really loving this book. It started to ring true, and the characters started to be important to me.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Cold Sassy Tree is set in a small town in the South in the early twentieth century. Will Tweedy’s grandfather provokes quite the scandal when he remarries- and to a young Yankee woman at that - just three weeks after the death of his first wife. This has got lots of humorous charm and plenty of quirky characters, even if some of it feels perilously close to stereotype. But there is heavier content as well - incest, suicide and class discrimination - which gives the story a little heft.
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Incest
Cold Sassy, GA, turn of the 20th century. Will Tweedy tells us all about the people he knows, the people he loves, the people he doesn't care for. We follow along as he learns more about life and death and love than most 14-year-olds might know...but most of it comes to him as he overhears (read eavesdrops) on others' private conversations. Interesting plot device, but lousy trait in a person.
The book begins with death and ends with death. Along the way, there is a marriage, a suicide, a disaster of a Christmas play. Pranks and stories, new-fangled automobiles.
At the center is Will and his grandfather...Maybe Grandpa knows Will is listening and talks to the boy hiding behind the door.
The audible book was excellent. The narrator never stumbled on the dialect, and may have added some flourishes.
The book begins with death and ends with death. Along the way, there is a marriage, a suicide, a disaster of a Christmas play. Pranks and stories, new-fangled automobiles.
At the center is Will and his grandfather...Maybe Grandpa knows Will is listening and talks to the boy hiding behind the door.
The audible book was excellent. The narrator never stumbled on the dialect, and may have added some flourishes.
A touching novel about life, love, and death. Its another book in which I can see why its so well loved, but was a bit slow for me and didnt capture me as it did for others. Still a good read.
When I was a kid, there was a program on public radio called "Radio Reader" in which a man read books in one-hour segments, day after day. It must have been 1981 that we heard this story, because that was the year my family moved to a new house. That first summer we didn't really have any TV, so I think this was one of the things we did.
I remember really loving it in the way that I loved Anne of Green Gables, never wanting the story to end.
Correction: It was 1985. I found the RadioReader.net website. The program still exists!
I remember really loving it in the way that I loved Anne of Green Gables, never wanting the story to end.
Correction: It was 1985. I found the RadioReader.net website. The program still exists!
Not enjoying this one much....someone else chose it for our club. It's usually read by middle-schoolers but hey...we didn't have to pay for them through the book club. Thank you middle school! haha. But...I keep falling asleep whilst reading...
For some people, there are short periods in their lives when they have to do a lot of growing up, very quickly. For Hoyt Willis Tweedy, that time is the summer, fall, and winter of 1906. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns, tells the story of the summer that Will stopped being a child. The blurbs on the front and back of the edition I read told me that this was a hilarious book. While there are parts of this book that made me laugh, Cold Sassy Tree mostly made me angry or sad. That said, I can understand why the other blurbs of this book call it “one of the best portraits of small town southern life ever written” (Pat Conroy)—though I have to point out that this book is very much a portrait of white southern life...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.