Full of heart, but full of clichés as well | Roseflower Creek: A Novel

A Haunting and Inspirational Novel | Roseflower Creek: A Novel | J. L. Miles

books:


	• Roseflower Creek: A Novel J. L. Miles Cumberland House Publishing, 2001 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Part of that great Southern literary tradition

I must admit I was mermerized for the first half of the book, captivated by the very first words, and so in awe of this story of these "real" people. I was a poor little small town girl in Georgia in the 50's. I know these people! There are lines in this story that are priceless--so full of truth and insight that they brought tears to my eyes. MeeMaw's wisdom alone is worth the price of the book. Roseflower Creek should be taught in Southern literature classes in universities. It is about perfect--the place, the people, and their language. True, it is a tragic story. Yet, I felt Lori Jean wanted me to understand her story, which she tells with her sweet innocence, always full of hope, love, and forgiveness. I had a sense of closure and peace at the end, rather than an overwhelming sadness that you might expect. I don't know when I've read a better piece of fiction. I've already recommended this novel to family and friends. I think this one is destined to be a classic in Southern literature.

for more information click here

Full of heart, but full of clichés as well

Writing an entire novel in Southern dialect--any dialect, for that matter--is difficult work. Props to the author for keeping up the energy in that regard. However, clichés abound within the lines as well as the story line, which was disappointing. We get alcoholism, abuse, murder, the poor South, a dash of religion and race, etc. All the things you'd expect. That said, the narrator has heart and you will grow to care about her.

A Haunting and Inspirational Novel

Roseflower Creek grabs at a raw nerve of human experience and brings a new perspective to abuse, poverty, alcoholism and above all, forgiveness. Told in the most wholesome and honest of voices; that of a 10-year-old child.
Lori Jean's curious and optimistic narrative breathes life into her world of rural Georgia in the 1950's. This novel dives into subjects and situations many people refuse to acknowledge. This book will break your heart then leave you believing in the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit.
Lori Jean will stay with you long after the last word has been read.

for more information click here

Wonderful!

This was one of the best books I have ever read. But.....it is with mixed emotions that I say this. It was sad, but uplifting. The main character was absolutely amazing. Her whole life was so bad, but she still had such a sunny attitude. A quick read, but very well worth it.

"The morning I died it rained. Poured down so hard it washed the blood off my face."

Thus begins the story of Lori Jean, whose short life and death are woven into this poignant, heart-wrenching novel set in the rural South of the 1950s. Told from the point of view of ten-year-old Lori Jean, a sensitive dreamer of a child who longs for a "normal" family, Roseflower Creek is raw with the emotions of a child burdened by the harshness of her life. Abandoned by her father when she was five, her world is filled with a self-absorbed mother who can't seem to hold her life together and an abusive, alocoholic stepfather who can't-or won't-keep a steady job. Yet Lori Jean is filled with the curiosity and hope common to all children.

After Lori Jean's stepfather , Ray, begins attending AA meetings, he seems like a changed man, and Lori Jean begins to think that finally she and her mama are going to experience some long-overdue happiness-be a real family. But tragedy strikes anew, and Ray, unable to cope, returns to the bottle and his shiftless ways. Fired from his job at the cotton mill, he resorts to stealing, and when Lori Jean uncovers his secret, things begin to spiral out of control. Unable to keep silent, Lori Jean pays the ultimate price for what she knows.

Poignant and bittersweet, Roseflower Creek is a story of the loss of innocence. Told with an honesty and authenticity that only a child narrator could achieve, it is a remarkable first novel that will move readers with profound emotions and haunt them long after the last paragraph has been read.

"Finally, we was gonna be a family. Have ourselves some happy times to look back on. Git ourselves one of them futures-just like regular folks."

for more information click here