Survant, Joe. Rafting rise.University Press of Florida, 75p. c2002. 0-8130-2589-3. $12.95. SA Survant describes the world of log rafting in Western Kentucky in the early 1900s. This is also the story of a group of imagined characters who lived there. One is Sallie, a madwoman mad·wom·an n. A woman who is or seems to be mentally ill. Noun 1. madwoman - a woman lunatic lunatic, madman, maniac - an insane person and a healer whose dearest friend is her dog Ruth. In "Sallie Speaks of her Calling," she survives hunger and cold and sees visions that lead to her calling: "So I bring the healing weeds and words, / fluxroot. bitterroot Bitterroot, river, United States Bitterroot, river, c.120 mi (190 km) long, rising in SW Mont. and flowing north to join the Clark Fork River near Missoula. , archangel archangel, in religion archangel (ärk`ānjəl), chief angel. They are four to seven in number. Sometimes specific functions are ascribed to them. The four best known in Christian tradition are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. , fingerwort,/and speak to them in tongues my/sickness taught me. I must speak ..." Survant's words sing with the language of these people. He writes of tragedies, such as death by freezing, and of healing, as when Sallie brings a boy through a fever, both passages brutal and raw like the work they did to survive. He introduces other characters: Bill and Susan Rose Susan Rose was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. She was played by Tilly Vosbergh. She was the ex-wife of market inspector Michael Rose and mother of Matthew Rose. She arrived in Walford in 1997 along with her son Matthew. , who love each other; Robin and Ben. Bill's raft mates; and Lou and Tilda, a couple divided on the care of Sallie, Tilda intolerant of her need for charity and Lou providing secret refuge for her in the barn. Survant loves this land and knows it well: the hills, the plants, the rivers. Sallie, watching cattle graze, sees cattails "... emphatic on the margins I of the pond have begun to dissolve/into flakes of airborne down." The story culminates in a raft trip down the "Rough Green." a tributary to the Ohio River Ohio River Major river, eastern central U.S. Formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, it flows northwest out of Pennsylvania, and west and southwest to form the state boundaries of Ohio–West Virginia, Ohio-Kentucky, Indiana-Kentucky, and , a trip fraught with freezing cold, the loss of a hand and a man's death. This collection can be used in units on the history of the rural South, especially the logging industry in the early 20th century. It can also stand on its own as storytelling at its best, describing a people, their austere life broken momentarily by the sheer beauty of their surroundings. Sue E. Budin, YA Libn., Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, city (1990 pop. 109,592), seat of Washtenaw co., S Mich., on the Huron River; inc. 1851. It is a research and educational center, with a large number of government and industrial research and development firms, many in high-technology fields such as P.L., Ann Arbor, MI |
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