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Among the Silent Giants
When Sharon Porter was a gutsy, precocious kid, she lived in the giant redwoods of Northern California, high up in a remote logging camp called Whitethorn. Told from young Sharon’s point of view, Among the Silent Giants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, and often unexpected narrative of her adventures and struggles coping with life in and around the camp and gaining a sense of her identity. On her horse Stardust, she explores the timber country, fishes, traps, and hunts for food in mountains with the big, ancient trees so quiet and still that she believes they have spirits in them.
Sharon grows up fast and is tested by adult prejudices—and occasionally violence—against Native Americans, Chinese, and “city slickers.” The larger-than-life members of her family boast brains and wit but are trapped in poverty and drink. Their carefree unconcern and benign neglect test Sharon’s mettle to fend for herself early in her life. At other times, her impractical mother inadvertently challenges her to take on an adult role to protect and save both of them.
In the rough-and-tumble, vanished Americana of the logging camps of the 1940s, quick-witted, scrappy Sharon grows and brings to life a nostalgic time of this country’s more simple, natural, and wild self.
Sharon grows up fast and is tested by adult prejudices—and occasionally violence—against Native Americans, Chinese, and “city slickers.” The larger-than-life members of her family boast brains and wit but are trapped in poverty and drink. Their carefree unconcern and benign neglect test Sharon’s mettle to fend for herself early in her life. At other times, her impractical mother inadvertently challenges her to take on an adult role to protect and save both of them.
In the rough-and-tumble, vanished Americana of the logging camps of the 1940s, quick-witted, scrappy Sharon grows and brings to life a nostalgic time of this country’s more simple, natural, and wild self.
211 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 3, 2012
I embarked on reading, Among the Silent Giants: A Young Girl’s True Adventures with great anticipation. Even before the book was published, this historical memoir received the Editor’s Choice Award for literary excellence followed by the Rising Star Award for promising new titles destined to reach the bestseller charts.
If the Lone Ranger or Dennis the Menace ever had a sister, I imagine it would be Sharon Porter. Plucky and courageous, tough and tenderhearted, tolerant and forgiving, Sharon exudes a take-charge attitude growing up in a small, secluded town of Whitethorn nestled deep in the Northern California redwoods. When Aunt Maude can’t make any fried chicken until Uncle Gene returns from work to kill the chicken, eight-year-old Sharon Porter decides she will do the honors although the axe weighs almost as much as she does.
Sharon can shoot a gun, ride a horse, and outwit the school bully. She can catch squirrels and wear them on her shoulders, light an oil heater with a match, and survive a terrible case of typhoid fever. But in spite of her toughness, Sharon harbors a secret tenderness that allows her to identify with the outcast Indians and the old timer who begged for a drink only to be beaten to a pulp by the bus driver turned bar man. This memoir, full of keen observations, incredibly bravery, and boundless justice, sets Sharon apart from her shrewd businessman stepfather, Al; beautiful and intelligent mother, Ruby; slow and tempestuous best friend, Jackie; and the rest of the Porter family and friends that populate Whitethorn and the surrounding neighborhoods.
I was riveted by the lyrical wonder of Sharon’s sharp prose and intuitive perceptions. Her tales of growing up amongst the hardworking, hard drinking loggers in a world that no longer exists continue to haunt me. Reading Among the Silent Giants: A Young Girl’s True Adventures left me with a deep admiration and respect for the woman who lived to tell about a world that no longer exists.
If the Lone Ranger or Dennis the Menace ever had a sister, I imagine it would be Sharon Porter. Plucky and courageous, tough and tenderhearted, tolerant and forgiving, Sharon exudes a take-charge attitude growing up in a small, secluded town of Whitethorn nestled deep in the Northern California redwoods. When Aunt Maude can’t make any fried chicken until Uncle Gene returns from work to kill the chicken, eight-year-old Sharon Porter decides she will do the honors although the axe weighs almost as much as she does.
Sharon can shoot a gun, ride a horse, and outwit the school bully. She can catch squirrels and wear them on her shoulders, light an oil heater with a match, and survive a terrible case of typhoid fever. But in spite of her toughness, Sharon harbors a secret tenderness that allows her to identify with the outcast Indians and the old timer who begged for a drink only to be beaten to a pulp by the bus driver turned bar man. This memoir, full of keen observations, incredibly bravery, and boundless justice, sets Sharon apart from her shrewd businessman stepfather, Al; beautiful and intelligent mother, Ruby; slow and tempestuous best friend, Jackie; and the rest of the Porter family and friends that populate Whitethorn and the surrounding neighborhoods.
I was riveted by the lyrical wonder of Sharon’s sharp prose and intuitive perceptions. Her tales of growing up amongst the hardworking, hard drinking loggers in a world that no longer exists continue to haunt me. Reading Among the Silent Giants: A Young Girl’s True Adventures left me with a deep admiration and respect for the woman who lived to tell about a world that no longer exists.
October 26, 2012
You can taste and smell the redwoods all the way through Sharon Moxley’s memoir, Among the Silent Giants, and you’re also right there as she experiences neglect and hunger during her first decade of life. The neglect and hunger are just one part, though, which is one reason the entire story is so real: the young girl who guides us through her childhood also enjoys rich afternoons of imaginative play with a girl her own age who becomes a close friend—they lay out moss gardens on stumps, decide there are Tibetan Lamas in certain special trees. She hunts, alone, with a knife and rifle, and masters horseback riding. Her remarkable mother Ruby, neglectful in many ways, nevertheless sees to it that her young daughter gets a horse of her own. And various grandparents and aunts and uncles, plus the divorced-and-living-elsewhere father, fill in some of the gaps created by Ruby.
Our heroine visits and explores the dilemma of “church people and bar people” in her tiny Redwoods settlement, removed from Eureka by nearly impassable backwoods roads. Somehow the author overcomes the lacks, and takes on the courage of the people she knew in her childhood; she emerges gutsy and strong, with a great sense of humor. Moxley’s a terrific writer, and after enjoying Silent Giants you’re going to want to buy copies for your friends and family.
Our heroine visits and explores the dilemma of “church people and bar people” in her tiny Redwoods settlement, removed from Eureka by nearly impassable backwoods roads. Somehow the author overcomes the lacks, and takes on the courage of the people she knew in her childhood; she emerges gutsy and strong, with a great sense of humor. Moxley’s a terrific writer, and after enjoying Silent Giants you’re going to want to buy copies for your friends and family.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews