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Editorial Comments
Product Description: Harkening is a collection that tells about a charming, dysfunctional, and loving family with enough peccadilloes among them to keep the story roaring along. A heartwarming thread embroiders each story, stitching them into a satisfying whole. It is a lovely piece that bonds memory to identity, mind to soul.
Harkening by Carolyn Howard-Johnson It is a heart warming, charming, at times sad and at times funny collection of stories. Ms. Howard-Johnson is a wonderful story teller.
A Different Generation A Different Generation is just one of the stories Carolyn Howard-Johnson included in her book HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED. After a girl is married, Mom will continue to be mom and act accordingly even though she is at her daughter's home. Sometimes humorous, sometimes out-of-line, but she is still mom. This story brought back many memories of my own mother.
A wonderful sequel and much more... Author Carolyn Howard-Johnson follows up on her first wonderful novel "This is the Place" with what she is calling "creative non-fiction" story telling in her biographical and at times autobiographical book "Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered". The author has taken some poetic license with the telling of some of these stories so it may be hard to discern the truth but as she points out with a quote at the beginning of her book by E.L. Doctorow, " There is no longer any such thing as fiction or non-fiction; there is only narrative". So if as a reviewer I tend to treat this book as a novel then switch back to a memoir, please forgive me.
There are seventeen wonderful short stories inside this book regardless if they are 100% truthful or enhanced versions of reality. You will find them all compelling and well written. Some are heart wrenching, some with bring you a smile, others reveal more family secrets but all of them are poignant and entertaining. The author's use of phrasing is most eloquent and flows like honey on a hot July Utah day.
The book's stories deal with many of the same issues that Carolyn's first novel did. However, I think the reader will begin to see how much more the author's outlook and insights have grown and matured since she wrote her first book. The author feels more at peace within herself as she still deals with old issues and stories. This book show cases the story telling talents of the author. This is truly a great book and worth reading!
Very good stories of home and family This is a group of stories about family, and the occasional strangeness that goes along with it. A sequel to her novel This is The Place, about growing up Mormon in Utah, these stories are part recollections by older members of the family, and part things that actually happened to the author when she was younger.
During a drive in the country with her parents, the author got to watch an old-fashioned cow milking, up close and personal. Another story took place during the Depression, when any scrap of cloth was saved to be made into some piece of clothing. There are stories about this grandmother or that aunt, moving to Utah as a young woman. Included are tales of family secrets passed from one generation to the next.
Every family has stories like these. I enjoyed reading this book. The stories are very easy to read, touching, poignant and humorous. If this book gets the reader to start thinking about their own family history, it will have succeeded. This is well worth reading.
Poetic Prose Carolyn Howard-Johnson's second novel "Harkening - A collection of Stories Remembered" is a poetic adventure. Johnson's skill with words, her poetic phraseology turns each narrative into a mini adventure that reads with the rhythm and tempo of a story poem. As with her first novel, "This is The Place" many of the short stories deal with bigotry and the cruelty words can inflict. Still the thread weaving all the memories into a whole is the power of love. Many of Johnson's narratives brought to mind memories of my growing up. "Harkening" is a marvelous, poetic, must-read novel. Beverly J Scott author of "Righteous Revenge" &...
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