Rating: 
Summary: Try to not enjoy it. You'll be young agian.
Review: I truely enjoyed this book! I'm not a huge reader and I didn't grow up in that time period but I've identified with many of the things that took place in Josh's life. The humor is very well writen and I've found myself reading the book over time and time again just to laugh and cry all over. The only thing I would change in the story is telling me more. I coudn't get enough of "Red Sky" Enjoy it. You'll find it a book you read more than once.
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Summary: Red Sky at Morning - a new friend is found.
Review: It has been so long since I've had time to read anything fictional. There's not a lot of time in a middle-aged guy's day to spend on fluff like that. Then I ran across this book at an estate sale my wife was dragging me through one day (I collect books but rarely read them) and the short exerpt of Mr. Arnold's admonition to Josh to take care of his mother while he was away on the cover leaf caught my eye. Throughout the book there is a frankness between Josh and his father that I strive for with my son ... sometimes successfully. Mr. Arnold had come to the conclusion that he has brought into the world an intelligent young man and he treats Josh just that way. If more fathers would have a relationship like this with their kids most of this country's problems would disappear in less than a decade! This book is worth more than its weight in 24k GOLD. It will always be one of my most cherished garage sale finds. (Its the fifth printing version of the 1968 release)Josh, himself, is a smart kid. Perhaps it's because his author is pretty sharp himself as youthful ignorance seems to be missing in much of Josh's observations and narration. Nevertheless, this story takes me back so smoothly, successfully and with such wonderful dead-pan humor that I made time for it almost every night before my eyes slammed shut until I'd read the whole thing. Now I ache for my kids to add this book to their reading experience. Once I read with incredulity of that Southern delicacy called Coca-Cola ham I was hooked and laughed my way through the rest of the book. I fervently hope my kids will too. My wife is Mexican-American. I was always jealous of the kids that could speak Spanish in school and thus maintain their privacy in a crowd. That makes our kids half Mexican and our son speaks it regularly with his abuela. Our daughter, welllll... I delved into my Spanish/English dictionary, and my wife's knowledge, many times throughout this book because it thrills me to learn what I can of this language in an everyday setting. This being the case, it makes this book doubly good for those who have an interest (if you don't you ought to) in our country's "second" language. Even though many of the phrases may be from a era strange to us now it opens a wonderful and accurate picture into the Hispanic community in a much simpler time. This book will help those of us outside the Hipanic community understand the pride that comes from being born into it and the distinct priviledge of being welcomed into it.
Rating:
Summary: You can't read it just once.....
Review: It's funny; I've read this book at least 10 times and I see from the reviews here that lots of people have seen fit to revisit Red Sky at Morning. I, too, grew up in the "real" Sagrado. In fact, Bradford's son and I were briefly acquainted as teenagers. I think the book is more autobiographical than Bradford would like to admit; my aunt has said that almost all of the teenaged characters were recognizable as actual people at the local high school at that time--especially Chango. Any time I'm homesick, all I have to do is reread the book and I'm right back home again. I'm glad that so many people from so many walks of life have enjoyed it as much as I have. It totally captures, very affectionately, all of the GOOD things about Northern New Mexico--things you wish would stay the same forever. It's like Catcher in the Rye, but it's warmer. It lovingly represents the wholly unique people of Northern New Mexico, who are unlike people anywhere else in the world. But it also reflects human nature and adaptation through scenes of humor, pain, the clashing and meshing of cultures, and the inevitable unwelcome changes that come with the passage of time. Red Sky at Morning bears witness to the coming of age of Joshua Arnold--the futile battle to remain young and untouched by the uglier side of the world, the bittersweet and inevitable transformation of boy to man. It was originally an allegory, I believe, parelleling Josh's growing pains with those of a post-war America. Ironically, it is now an allegory for what has become of the "real" Corazon, Sagrado--full of bittersweet memories--the end of an old road and the beginning of newer, less innocent one. Just beware: you won't be able to put it down and you WILL read it again and again. It really is that good.
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Summary: An Old and Dear Friend - You'll Read Again and Again!!
Review: My husband and I have an audio cassette of this incredible book and have listened to it a dozen times "and counting"! We will never tire of it and have introduced it to most of our family and friends who also love it! Do yourself an immense favor and read (or listen to the audio cassette)this book, I promise you it will become a part of your life also!
Rating:
Summary: "Red Sky at Morning:" An Old and Wonderful Friend
Review: My mother handed "Red Sky at Morning" to me when I was 16. She had no way of knowing that it would become one of "those" books -- one of the books I held up as an example of near (if not total) perfection; a book that I have re-read almost every summer in the past 16 years. It is one of the most well-written and naturally funny books that exists. If you do not kill yourself laughing and suddenly find yourself crying, if you do not fall in love with Josh, Marcia, Steenie and their entire world, then you have my sincere sympathies.
Rating:
Summary: "Red Sky at Morning:" An Old and Wonderful Friend
Review: My mother handed "Red Sky at Morning" to me when I was 16. She had no way of knowing that it would become one of "those" books -- one of the books I held up as an example of near (if not total) perfection; a book that I have re-read almost every summer in the past 16 years. It is one of the most well-written and naturally funny books that exists. If you do not kill yourself laughing and suddenly find yourself crying, if you do not fall in love with Josh, Marcia, Steenie and their entire world, then you have my sincere sympathies.
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Summary: You better read this book
Review: My signed first edition of Red Sky At Morning is one of my most cherished posessions. You must experience Mr. Bradford's at once hilarious and deeply touching coming-of-age story. Buy this book, read it over and over, and dream of a simpler life in New Mexico's shining mountains.
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Summary: Coming of Age in the American Southwest
Review: Richard Bradford's "Red Sky at Morning" finds itself in some pretty heady company being favorably compared to such American classics as "Catcher in the Rye," "To Kill a Mockingbird," and "A Separate Peace." But despite these comparisons, Bradford's novel has seemingly been unable to gain the name recognition of those other "one-hit wonders" from Salinger, Lee, and Knowles respectively. This now nearly quarter-of-a-century novel centers on Josh Arnold's unusual and unlikely journey from Mobile, Alabama to Sagrado (a fictional small town in Northern New Mexico) during World War II. Cultures comically clash as Josh and some of the other "newer" families in town try to blend in with the established Mexican residents. Bradford, who lived in New Mexico during the 1950-60s, is particularly adept at capturing the language, flavors, and feel of life in a Southwestern small town. While some of the usual teenage angst is on display here as in other works in the "coming of age" genre, Bradford also explores more serious topics including a father who has left to go off to war and a mother's declining mental stability. A self-proclaimed "slow" writer, it is doubtful that we will read more works from Bradford (he did complete a second novel, "So Far From Heaven," five years after this one). But Bradford's legacy is likely to remain, deservedly so, with "Red Sky at Morning." As the American Southwest's population explodes, one can only hope this coming of age novel finally find its place among its more famous peers.
Rating:
Summary: A vital piece of the New Mexico fiction reads
Review: The Bradford books, Red Sky at Morning and So Far From Heaven are two tomes slightly before their times. When most of the New Mexico fiction enthusiasts discovered Hillerman and Nichols these two had already gone into decline and were settling into obscurity. Each is well worth pulling from the bottom of the heap, dusting carefully and settling down for a great read. Red Sky at Morning would fit well into the John Nichols collection insofar as insight, humor and good story-telling. The characterization is great in both Bradford books; the plotting is excellent; the penetrating insights into a New Mexico forever in transition between a colorful past, chaotic present and incomprehensible future are all conveyed here. Whether the reader wishes to know New Mexico or simply to spend the evening in smiles and laughs, Bradford will provide.
Rating:
Summary: A vital piece of the New Mexico fiction reads
Review: The Bradford books, Red Sky at Morning and So Far From Heaven are two tomes slightly before their times. When most of the New Mexico fiction enthusiasts discovered Hillerman and Nichols these two had already gone into decline and were settling into obscurity. Each is well worth pulling from the bottom of the heap, dusting carefully and settling down for a great read. Red Sky at Morning would fit well into the John Nichols collection insofar as insight, humor and good story-telling. The characterization is great in both Bradford books; the plotting is excellent; the penetrating insights into a New Mexico forever in transition between a colorful past, chaotic present and incomprehensible future are all conveyed here. Whether the reader wishes to know New Mexico or simply to spend the evening in smiles and laughs, Bradford will provide.
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