Rating: 
Summary: "Clay's Quilt" sings!
Review: "Clay's Quilt" sings, with a voice as mighty and true as that of the fiery honky-tonk singer, Evangeline, and as sweet and haunting as the music of the passionate and mysterious fiddler, Alma, who grace its pages. I realize that "quilt" is the defining metaphor here, but for me this book was like music - a richly textured, multi-faceted, and infinitely satisfying hymn to life at its utmost. This is an impressive first novel. The writer has created people that live and breathe, and a place so real that I wanted to get out a map of Eastern Kentucky and look it up. Clay Sizemore has only vague memories of the tragic event that brought him to his mother's sister's house on a freezing night over twenty years ago. His Aunt Easter and others in his mother's family have given him a warm, loving upbringing and he appreciates it but he's determined to find some answers about his mother and father. His concentration on the past, though, doesn't prevent him from living wholeheartedly in the present. Along with his family and friends, he loves and worships and fusses and fights with great enthusiasm. These people invest their all in life House's descriptions of the physical world are heart-stoppingly beautiful. His writing is lyrical, but not without bite. I can find very little wrong with this book's construction and pace. It starts with a mystery and builds toward resolution in an altogether satisfying way. I found it refreshing that House confines the preaching and explaining which some young writers can't seem to resist to the dialogue of his coming of age characters, where it's appropriate. Two small things about the book bothered me - the extensive use of dialect, which may be essential, but which I found distracting, and some misspelled words. One of the best things I can think of to say about any book is that it stays with you. This one does. I finished it days ago and I still think about Clay and Alma, and Dreama and Gabe and Anneth and Easter. And about Marguerite and Cake and Darry and Denzel and Evangeline and the others. Did I mention what wonderful names the people in Black Banks have? In the book, it is said of Clay's mother, Anneth, that "A person so full of life couldn't just up and die..." This book is full of life. I wish it wouldn't just up and end.
Rating:
Summary: Song for the Next Generation
Review: A number of reviews have noted this to be a Generation X novel. True. House's novel does deal with the children of the Post-Viet Nam/War on Poverty generation. It is also a novel of family, of music, and of nature. Clay Sizemore's extended family all live near and care for each other, unconditionally. House's writing about nature is almost poetic in its attention to detail, sound, smell, and texture. But the strong underlying theme is music. Music and its power to move, sustain, and heal. The songs mentioned run the gambit from unaccompanied hymns to the High Lonesome of Bluegrass, to pure rock-n-roll. The list of songs mentioned run like a soundtrack throughout the book. Clay Sizemore and his search for an identity and closure to the loss of his mother is moving and never melodramtic. The book perfectly captures the rhythm of southern Appalachian (pronounce it Ap u latch chan, please)speech without dipping into dialect or murdered English. The characters will move and haunt you. A good one!
Rating:
Summary: I Loved This Book!
Review: A wonderful, sweet story about a young Appalachian man's love of life and family. In the Reader's Guide, the author talks about missing the characters when he's finished writing a book - and that's just the kind of book this is. I found myself dreading the end because I would have to leave these characters behind, and found myself thinking about them during the day as if I knew them personally. I'm looking forward to his next book.
Rating:
Summary: Best Surprise of Last Year
Review: As I went back over my list of books I read last year (2001), I found that I had read over 35 novels. There were the ones I had highly anticipated (the new Robert Morgan, the latest Sue Grafton), the ones that got so much hype that I thought I should buy a copy (THE CORRECTIONS), and the ones which had been recommended to me by friends whom I knew to be good, trustworthy readers. One friend would not shut up until I read PEACE LIKE A RIVER, and I have to admit that it was a beautiful novel. But another friend was adamant that I read this debut novel, CLAY'S QUILT, and now I realize that it was the the best surprise of the year, and my favorite book of 2001. House paints his world in subtle strokes--I was endeared to the characters before I ever realized that they had began to take hold of me. I was lost in the world that this book presents...after reading it I looked all over a map of Kentucky to find a place called Free Creek, but found no evidence of its existence. If I had, I would have probably set out to tour this beautiful little town. Still, I feel as if I have been there. I feel as if I know the people in this book. I am not usually the kind of reader that lets a book take hold of me in such a way, but I don't see how anyone could refuse the very real and raw power of CLAY'S QUILT. Absolutely beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Beautiful, haunting, and down-to-earth. I am so thankful that a friend recommended this book to me, so I thought I ought to do the same and recommend it to everyone out in Amazonland. I devoured this book in two sittings and can't wait for the author's next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Relationships, passions & quirks create a story-based quilt
Review: Clay Sizemore's background is surrounded by much the same mists that descend and rise from the surrounding Kentucky mountains in which he lives. His mom was a wild, music loving, hard drinking young woman who hailed from a Pentacostal family...although a number of its members love their liquor, cigarettes and cards more than revival meetings!Once he reaches the age of 18, Clay strikes out on his own but frequently drifts back to the aunt who raised him, Easter, for the comfort of her presence, her homemade meals, and his roots...even though they may seem obscured at times. The pull of family connections and belonging exert a strong influence with him! The author keeps us guessing about Anneth, Clay's mother. A box of her belongings mysteriously appears one day on Easter's porch. Clay is given the box, when the moment seems right, and it is his exploration of the its contents, along with more details from Easte Anneth's sister, that assists in his re-building fleeting memories of her. There is snow, blood, cold, a frightening flight from an assailant...and the old memories of his mother cease there! Despite the fact that Clay's seeming pursuit of wine, women and song appears to be pretty normal for a young man his age, he has a strongly introspective side. He also has a love of classical music, and a spiritual connection to the lushness of the changing seasons in the "holler" in which he was raised. "Cake", his best buddy, is the real party animal and it seems as though Clay just goes along for the ride till he can find whatever his soul is really in pursuit of. That pursuit culminates in his eventual meeting with a talented "fiddle player", Alma, the daughter of a devout "hell, fire and brimstone" family known for their church-related musical abilities. Like some of Clay's relatives, religion has faded in importance to Alma and her wild sister, Evangeline. Alma is about to become a divorcee, which is strictly forbidden in her church. The dysfunctional relationship that led to Anneth's eventual murder are mirrored in Alma's relationship with her about-to-be-ex-husband. Alma, on more than one occasion, expresses her fear that her husband just won't allow her to be happy and that has implications for the developing relationship with Clay.
The beauty of this story is its talented writer's skillful blending of nature and human relationships including the strong, the dysfunctional, and the quirky. As the story and its mysteries unfold, the reader realizes that a virtual quilt is being pieced together, much as one of the story's characters, Uncle Paul, is constantly carefully selecting appropriate pieces and colors with which to weave together his own quilts.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Quilt!
Review: Clay's Quilt has a Human and a Nature's connection to our inner voices. Embroided with a fascinating characters and their own little world that you will be glad to escape your own,even if for a while.__"Brilliant"_____________
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Summary: Clay's Quilt: A Beautiful, Haunting Novel of Appalachia
Review: Clay's Quilt is a powerful novel lovingly and masterfully pieced from the lives of the residents of Free Creek, Kentucky. Whether working, playing, laughing, praying, driving, crying, singing, fighting, dancing, hollering, or loving, these people do it passionately and with every fiber of their beings; these people LIVE. As a result, the novel itself lives and breathes and makes a joyful noise through the voices of its people as well as through their music. House's prose is lyrical yet unsentimental, fiercely grounded in real, concrete, sensuous and intimate details of everyday life. As the novel follows Clay Sizemore's struggle to find his place in the world and to make peace with a tragic past, we witness his tender and ferocious love for family and friends, his awe and gratitude at finally finding true love with a fiddle player named Alma, and his determination to make a home and a life for himself and his new family. House's voice is true and Clay's Quilt is a book both joyous and haunting, a story whose characters stayed with me long after I finished reading.
Rating:
Summary: A fine debut novel
Review: Clay's Quilt is filled with clear, beautiful imagery, and truly memorable charaters. The smokey bars, misty mountains and haunting music were all vividly brought to life in this well written debut effort. My only criticism (if you could call it that), was that I was fascinated by the character of Clay's mother, Anneth, and would have loved to know more about her turbulent life. Perhaps a "prequel" is in order. This is a thoroughly enjoyable debut novel that is well worth your time to seek out. I look forward to reading more by this talented new author.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Appalachian Based Book
Review: Clay's Quit is a wonderful work of writing. Silas House captures a lot of appalachian culture in his book. He shares the tight woven love that eastern KY people have for their families and heritage. Anyone from the Eastern KY area can identify with one or more of his characters. The quilts in our families always hold special sentiments that are dear to our hearts and souls just as Clay's was to him when he breathed in the sent of his mother from his quilt.
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