Running on Red Dog Road And Other Perils of an Appalachian Childhood [Paperback]

Every once in a while, a voice comes along that makes you yearn for a childhood you never lived. Author Drema Hall Berkheimer invites you to skip along with her, big sis Vonnie, and best friend Sissy into the coal mining hills and hollers of West Virginia, at a time when gypsies and hobos were as common as doctors who made house calls.Running on Red Dog Road took me away to a time and a family that I will never forget. Drema Hall Berkheimer is a masterful, joyful, humorous storyteller who is just getting started. What a great book.Time and again I have been carried away by these stories, by the observations of a very shrewd little girl of her elders, both wise and the foolish. But dont let the sly humor fool you. Like the West Virginia coal country Drema Berkheimer writes about so affectionately and beautifully, there is always something going on here just beneath the surface, something grave, firmly rooted, even eternal.Drema Hall Berkheimer is a pure storyteller, one of the most wonder- fully gifted Ive ever read. As they make their way through Running on Red Dog Road, readers will smile continually, laugh out loud occasionally, and turn misty-eyed at times of joy or sadness as this child of Appalachia shares so lovingly her growing-up experiences with her cherished family and friends. Her phrasing is so exquisite and her words so perfectly chosen that her writing is a mixture of prose and poetry. Its best read in private, so there will be no distractions as the reader travels hand in hand with the author from beginning to end.Running on Red Dog Road is an American treasure. Echoes of Mark Twain resonate in Ms. Berkheimers tales of life in West Virginia in the care of loving and wise grandparents while her widowed mother helps save the world as a Rosie the Riveter. This family is an icon of what we should wish to be. Truly a needed voice in our world.I love this memoir. The voice is masterful. Berkheimer layers into a perceptive child narrator an understated ll³Ž