Rating: 
Summary: A Great Discovery
Review: I discovered this author after reading an interview with him in _Newsday_. I can't begin to say how glad I am that the article moved me to purchase both his books. _A Parchment of Leaves_ is the best book I read in 2002. The holidays intervened but on Christmas night I treated myself. I was so moved and taken away by this novel that I sat up until 4 AM to finish it. Now, weeks later, I am still thinking about it and wanted other readers to know about this discovery. I came to know--and care for--these characters. It was mesmerizing. Vine, Saul, Serena, Esme, Aidia, and even Aaron will stay with me for a very long time. This one's going on my favorite books shelf. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: As good or better than Clay's Quilt
Review: I really liked this author's first book, Clay's Quilt. This book does not disappoint either. I have recommended it to several fellow book club members, all have enjoyed it as much as I have. You have to admire the courage of this woman. So many of the characters are just pleasant. You don't have to be seeking a read about a particular culture to enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: As good or better than Clay's Quilt
Review: I really liked this author's first book, Clay's Quilt. This book does not disappoint either. I have recommended it to several fellow book club members, all have enjoyed it as much as I have. You have to admire the courage of this woman. So many of the characters are just pleasant. You don't have to be seeking a read about a particular culture to enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Reeled me right in and I didn't want it to end
Review: I was pleasantly surprised by what a good book this was. I didn't actually read his first book, Clay's Quilt. My book club did and by the time finished talking to me about it, I felt as though i did and it sounded too depressing. I loved the characters. I loved the storyline. This is just really an outstanding Second novel.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: I was raised in eastern Kentucky and had close relationships with my grandmother's generation who would have been Vine's contemporaries. This story almost sounds familiar to me, it's so much like the stories Granny used to tell. The beauty of the area, the family ties, the cadence of the language, the customs, the religion, the response to the war...it's all there! A must-read for everyone, but especially for anyone seeking to understand the misunderstood and misrepresented Appalachian Culture.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: I've been hearing about Silas House ever since the debut of his first novel, CLAY'S QUILT and finally decided to see what all the fuss was about when everyone started telling me PARCHMENT was even better than CLAY. If CLAY is half as good as this book, I don't know if I'll be able to stand it. PARCHMENT is one of the best-written books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Not only that, but I was immediately immersed in this world. I came to care for these characters and felt as everytime I opened the book I was being transported back in time. This book has it all: beautiful prose, a surprising and twisting plot, vivid characters, and a perfect ending. Best of all, I also learned about an important lost history: that of the Cherokee people who escaped the Trail of Tears and hid out in the mountains to avoid being removed from the place they loved so much. I recommend this book to everyone now. In fact, I've bought four copies for friends of mine in the last month.
Rating:
Summary: Why didn't I write it?
Review: It started out just a little slow, as the writer, Silas House, tried to acquaint us with the background of the story. By the middle of the book, I was totally absorbed, and by the end of the book I was crying my eyes out, and I am not a crier.....
Vine Sullivan is the protagonist of the story, and she is a strong woman any of us should be happy to have in our family tree. She is Cherokee, and at a very early age she has lost more than most people ever do: her family, her way of life, her absent husband. It becomes her lot to eke out a living with her mother in law, Esme, and her sister in law, Aidia. She has many hard burdens to shoulder as WW11 breaks out and her husband is involved in a woodcutting operation three counties away to make turpentine for the war effort. Today, three counties doesn't seem like a whole lot, but he may as well have been on another planet then. It is well over a year before their paths cross again, and once they do, so much has befallen them that they may never again be able to pick up the pieces of their lives.
This is a beautiful book. Again, I only wish I had written it. Mr. House, you have put me to shame....
Rating:
Summary: Capitvating
Review: My hands trembled as I tearfully read the final pages. Silas has a gift for resonating with the reader. At times, I simply stopped reading and stared out the window and reflected on my own life experiences. He possess a profound and intense awaresness and understanding of the emotions, fear and love. The characters are beautifully developed. Parchment is an outstanding read.
Rating:
Summary: Story! Story! Story!
Review: No matter how original its theme, or innovative its structure, or stunning its prose, it's the story that makes a novel a good, satisfying read. Not to take away from his other skills, but I believe it is Silas House's commitment to the art of storytelling that will keep us reading his novels as fast as he can write them for years to come. In the first sentence or two of 'A Parchment of Leaves' he hooks us. The beautiful Vine, Cherokee girl of Redbud Camp, is said to bring ruination to every man who looks at her. House's deft characterization quickly transforms this mountain Siren into a flesh and blood woman who is a complex, surprisingly believable female protagonist to come from the pen of a male writer. We are invested in her fate right from the beginning. The tragedy that we can see coming but keep hoping against hope will be avoided has a Shakespearean feel to it, it seems so inevitable.
As was his first book, 'Clay's Quilt,' this book is a celebration of the family and of the land, the music, and the culture of Appalachia. It is much to Silas House's credit that he can treat even those themes students of regional literature might discount as stereotypical with such freshness and originality that they give all of us, regional and beyond, new ways of looking at them.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful
Review: Read this book and let it take you away. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down, even though you'll want it to linger on and on. One of the finest novels of the year, filled with poetry and wisdom. Should have been nominated for the major awards, but House is quietly becoming more and more widely known. Vine is one of the best characters to come to life on paper in years.
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