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Summary: This book ROX!!!!!!!
Review: I absolutely love this timeless classic by Homer Hickam! I'm just 17 years old, but know an awesome story when I read one! Homer's first book Rocket Boys changed my life. His book made me realize what life has in store for you when you take risks! The Coalwood Way is an excellent 2nd book in this "series". Mr. Hickam writes in such a way that it grasps you and wont let you quit reading. His style is perfect to read out loud to students in a classsroom setting. In fact, I plan on reading these books to my class when I become the band teacher I've always wanted to be. Thanx Mr. Hickam for this truly generous and awesome look into your exciting life as a coalwood boy!
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Summary: A Wonderful Book for Everybody
Review: "Rocket Boys" was indeed a great novel with a fantastic story. Its sequel is as well, although it is a decidedly different book, both in content and tone. I loved both and marvel anew at Mr. Hickam's ability as a writer to turn the mundane into glory.The novel begins with a brief retrospective (although Hickam is clever to place it within the action so it doesn't seem as if he's bringing the reader up to date, especially the reader who hasn't read October Sky). All his main characters are firmly in place by the end of Chapter One. Where October Sky was really about Sonny's relationship to his father, The Coalwood Way is really his mother's book so keep an eye on Elsie! It is important to realize that The Coalwood Way actually takes place during the same timeframe as October Sky, actually before the science fairs. Readers who think they know the October Sky book because they've seen the movie are often confused by this if they start the series with The Coalwood Way. People, the movie is filled with errors about this story - Sonny (Homer) didn't win a scholarship! Sonny didn't quit school! Sonny didn't go to work in the mine! The true October Sky story is vastly richer than the good but essentially simple-minded story told in the movie. In the Coalwood Way, we learn so much more about the Hickam family, its relationship to Coalwood, and the really harsh rules that govern the people who live there. Although she actually occupies only a small part of the story, probably the most fascinating character is Dreama, the girl from the rough town of Gary. All she wants to be is a Coalwood girl. I won't reveal what happens to her except to say her tragedy represents all the is wrong with Coalwood society although its aftermath represents all that is good. To sum up, this is a grand book. For Jan Karon fans, this is the Mitford tale told true, and far, far richer than those books. Still, if you like Karon, you'll love Hickam!
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Summary: "Coalwood Way" is a proud, stirring and profound sequel
Review: After having finished Homer Hickam's "The Coalwood Way," I am even more convinced that the author is a true national treasure, a man so good and wise that his moral compass should be the one we as a people use to set our public and private ethics. Not only is "The Coalwood Way" a noble and vigorous sequel to "October Sky," the memoir can stand on its own merits as it explores how an ever-growing and conflicted teen-ager struggles with incipient manhood and dissects the hiddent strengths and weaknesses of a small West Virginia mining town. Hickam's graceful narrative style includes absolutely marvelous dialogue and vivid, memorable characterizations. Towards the conclusion of the work, Hickam could well be describing his own work: "Sometimes a writer has to trust his audience to understand that words are as much art as definition." "The Coalwood Way" permits Hickam to thoroughly explain the first semester of his senior year in high school, the seminally important fall and winter of 1959. Having experienced initial successes (after numerous failures) in rocket design and propulsion, Homer Hickam must come to grips with a series of anxieties which defy his understanding and sap his confidence. Increasing doubts ultimately lead to an uncharacteristic submission to self-pity; Homer determines to quit...to quit his dreams, his aloof, demanding father, his own commitments to himself. Yet, it is a late epiphany which gently guides the maturing young man to a true acceptance and glorious affirmation of the Coalwood way...of commitment to a task, a loyalty to friends and family, a sense of interdependence with local and global community. The narrative drive of the last one hundred pages is breathtaking and wrenching. I unabashedly was weeping the last third of the memoir. Yet, "The Coalwood Way" vibrates with humor, irony and humor. Hickam's characterizations ring with truth, and several characters emerge as even more compelling people than they had in his marvelous initial memoir. Elsie Hickam, Homer's mother, is simplyan extraordinately admirable woman; her resolute strength in the face of her own dashed expectations and her prescient knowledge of the demise of Coaltown matches her commitment to her beleaguered husband and two sons. She is fierce in her love and unbreakable in her resolve to see Homer reach his full potential. The intellectual Quentin receives royal treatment; he blossoms as a young man acutely aware of his physical poverty and mental acuity. Hickam provides numerous examples of Quentinese (conveniently translated for us) and quietly holds up his friend as a model of steadfast dedication to the life of the mind. Homer's sex life receives wry (and often unheeded) guidance from the redoubtable Big Creek lovemaster, Roy Lee Cooke. Since Hickam is serious about his personal and social analysis, he draws the character of Dreama with enormous tenderness and compassion. Slandered by most of the conventional women in town, Dreama yearns to be accepted. This young adult woman, an outsider without credentials, so wishes for acceptance by the community that she submits to a catastrophic abusive relationship. Hickam painfully records her life and notes the intersections between Dreama's unfulfilled hopes and his own growing fears about his own self-sufficiency. Dreama will remain in our literary memory for a long, long time. "The Coalwood Way" affirms Homer Hickam's importance as an interpreter of our national character. This sure-handed, deeply satisfying memoir should find a place in our personal libraries.
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Summary: From a teacher of American Literature
Review: My heart and soul have been stirred by this book and now I have the experience of hearing from my students to whom I assigned it this past year. You see, I had been trying to figure out some things about myself and then somebody gave me this book. I hadn't read October Sky but I have since - it's magnificent, too. Homer (Sonny) Hickam tells a story here of true values, of miracles, of passionate truth. I'm in love with all the wonderful people of Coalwood. I intend to attend the October Sky Festival there this year. I especially liked the story of the deer on Christmas Eve. I will be assigning this one to my class permanently so that my students can appreciate how a memoir should be written. I believe Homer Hickam will ultimately be classified as among the greatest of American authors. May there always be another in this wonderful series!
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Summary: A page-turner filled with delights and wonder
Review: I read Rocket Boys (also known as October Sky) and fell in love with it. Then I read The Coalwood Way and I have to say Hooray for Sonny, the Rocket Boys, and Coalwood! May they forever live! This novel is a bit different than the first in the series but in its way as absorbing and more fun. I found myself laughing out loud many times, then reaching for the Kleenex at others. Sonny Hickam is a boy who is reacting to his environment - his father's coldness toward him, his mother's arch determination to let him figure out his own way, his discovery of the little fawn in the woods, his faltering love for Dorothy Plunk and his growing love for Ginger, then the aching reality of Dreama who only wants to be a "Coalwood girl" but never can be. I recommend this book for anyone who loves a good read. You will also grow in understanding of the general human condition. As Sonny says, the wheel keeps turning for us all. If you care for anyone, buy this book and present it to them with your love. They will always thank you for it.
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Summary: Certainly No "Rocket Boys"
Review: To Win Idle: I must say that I disagree with several of the points you make in your review. First of all, I loved "Rocket Boys," and that is why I decided to read "The Coalwood Way." "Rocket Boys" is a great novel with a fantastic story. It is unfortunate the sequel couldn't live up to the original. Where you love the "return to the fullness of [Sonny's] senior high school year," I find it boring, and often confusing. The timeframe keeps switching throughout the memoir. Sometimes Hickam refers to things that he had already discussed in "Rocket Boys," and sometimes he introduces new material. It is constantly hard to tell exactly what's going on, and where the story is taking place. Especially towards the beginning, I find this to be far from the great novel that you describe. Maybe the difference in opinion comes because you enjoy the detail that Hickam uses in this second book, and I find it tedious. It seems fairly obvious to me that all the action was used up in the first book, and nothing "good" was left for the sequel. This story is made up of filler material that was (rightfully) omitted from "Rocket Boys." I, too, see the message you write of (what it's like to fight through the hard times), but I don't find the story as emotionally intense as you do. In this sequel, we learn only about some of Sonny's schoolboy crushes, but we don't discover anything more that really lets us come to a better understanding of Sonny as a person. It is true that the ending of the book is far superior to the opening. However, Win Idle, you are over exaggerating the amount that the reader will learn about himself by discovering Coalwood. You also over emphasize Hickam's use of emotion. For the most part, I see "The Coalwood Way" as a rather dry narrative. To everyone: If you want to read the "meat" of the story of Homer Hickam and his amazing accomplishments, pick up "Rocket Boys," because that's where the real excitement is.
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Summary: Outstanding!
Review: The book took me on a magical, nostalgic trip back in time when I lived my childhood in a small town just a few miles from Coalwood...such a wonderful trip! Delightful reading!
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Summary: A thoroughly pleasing "equal"
Review: The Coalwood Way is a wonderfully written, engaging book. I am a bona fide Homer (Sonny) Hickam "groupie," I'll confess. I eagerly look forward to all his books but especially his memoirs about Coalwood. This book is simply wonderful entertainment written in such beautifully flowing prose that it's easy to forget you're reading a book. Instead, you find yourself lost in the magnificent little town of Coalwood and its colorful and engaging citizenry. If all you know of this story is the movie October Sky, forget it. The movie is a surface treatment of a magnificent and deep story of life and love in Coalwood in the 1950's and early 1960's. The movie was a Hollywood treatment that left out the better parts of Homer's books. Homer is called Sonny in these books and, of course, his dad is Homer (Senior). It's just one place the movie got it all wrong. There is a Christmas aspect to The Coalwood Way that is exciting and strangely satisfying (I'm Jewish). For one of the few times in my life, I was able to understand the Christmas spirit. Sonny Hickam taught me that in his delightful way. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. What else could possibly be wanted from a book than that? Highly, highly, highly recommended.
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Summary: Rocket Boys Redux-a Nice Trip!
Review: I liked The Coalwood Way very much. It is every bit as good as Rocket Boys. I found myself laughing in many places and sad in others. In this book, Hickam revisits incidents covered only briefly in Rocket Boys, but don't worry. There's plenty of new material here to entertain. This time, though, the town of Coalwood takes more of a major role. We get to know both new and familiar characters as they alternately cope with and enjoy life in Coalwood. It is a vastly satisfying read!
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Summary: WV resident
Review: This is an excellent read--especially about a place we can all relate to. There is a little of Coalwood in us all. I recommend this book to anyone interested in life's lessons from a practical point of view. Although, I must admit I did enjoy "Rocket Boys" much better, this is more enjoyable than most follow-up books. In addition, the movie "October Sky" is a must see.
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