Silas House: Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work

Shurbutt (The Complete Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman) sets up novelist Silas House as unjustly unsung in this scholarly but accessible essay collection. Raised in rural 1980s eastern Kentucky, House has been an eloquent spokesman for Appalachia who, Shurbutt notes, counters the “rapists with banjoes” stereotype. Several authors bring a sharp critical eye to House’s novels, A Parchment of Leaves and The Coal Tattoo, offering incisive analyses of the author’s unique voice and worldview: “the greatest intimacy” in A Parchment of Leaves, Shurbutt writes, “is with the land, with the ridges and hollers and the creek.” “The Stories of Silas House and the Scent of Words” is the perfect introductory essay, effectively blending essential biographical detail and insight into how House developed his work ethic and cultivated his knack for layered characterization and keen observational realism. In “Looking at the Hurting Parts,” Natalie Sypolt deals with House translating his writing from the page to the stage, while in “This Land Is Our Land,” Jacqueline Yahn considers House’s young adult fiction and its themes of cultural identity. This is a welcome collection on a maverick Southern writer who has gone under the literary world’s radar for too long. [em](June) [/em]