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Coalwood #2
The Coalwood Way
It's fall, 1959, and Homer "Sonny" Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, launching handbuilt rockets that soar thousands of feet into the West Virginia sky. But in a season traditionally marked by celebrations of the spirit, Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads.
The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered HomerSr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife Elsie is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness.
Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it most needs to come together. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger-and more rewarding-challenge than he has ever faced.
The result is pure storytelling magic- a tale of small-town parades and big-hearted preachers, the timeless love of families and unforgettable adventures of boyhood friends-that could only come from the man who brought the world Rocket Boys
The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered HomerSr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife Elsie is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness.
Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it most needs to come together. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger-and more rewarding-challenge than he has ever faced.
The result is pure storytelling magic- a tale of small-town parades and big-hearted preachers, the timeless love of families and unforgettable adventures of boyhood friends-that could only come from the man who brought the world Rocket Boys
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2000
113 people are currently reading
1591 people want to read
About the author
Homer Hickam
28 books670 followersHomer Hickam (also known as Homer H. Hickam, Jr.) is the author of many best-sellers including his latest, Don't Blow Yourself Up. An eclectic writer, he wrote the "Coalwood Series," which includes the # 1 New York Times best-selling memoir Rocket Boys, (made into the ever-popular movie October Sky) the World War II-era "Josh Thurlow" series, the juvenile sci-fi "Crater" series, the adult thriller The Dinosaur Hunter, the romantic Red Helmet, and many others. Among his many writing awards are the University of Alabama's Clarence Cason Award and the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award plus an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Marshall University. For more information on Mr. Hickam and his books and cats and everything else, please go to http://www.homerhickam.com.
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November 24, 2024
Coalwood, West Virginia, is a real-life town with a zip code of 24824, and its population was about 900 the last time the United States Census Bureau formally counted it (in 1990). Yet this small town in Appalachia made its way into the nation’s consciousness when Homer Hickam, a Coalwood native, wrote a best-selling memoir, Rocket Boys (1998). Hickam described how his aspirations toward rocketry conflicted with his father’s wishes that Hickam follow the family tradition of going into the coal mining business. This story of generational conflict, between a father and son who nonetheless loved each other, struck a chord with readers, and the book was later made into the film October Sky (1999) with Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Laura Dern. And readers who want to learn more about the folkways and social mores of the Appalachian community in which Hickam grew up would do well to turn to Hickam’s later book The Coalwood Way (2000).
The way Hickam described his conflicts with his father in Rocket Boys, I found, had an almost mythic element to it. Hickam’s father was dedicated to going under the earth in search of profitable underground resources, in a way that made me think of Roman mythology’s Pluto, god of the underworld and patron of wealth. Hickam, by contrast, sought, through his rocketry, to soar through the heavens like the sky-god Jupiter. Whether or not author Hickam consciously sought to incorporate into his work those archetypes from classical mythology, I found that they stood out for me.
While The Coalwood Way, like its predecessor, includes accounts of how Hickam and three friends pursued their rocket projects, the focus in this book is on the people, the community, and the values of Coalwood. Hickam called the book “an equal, not a sequel” to Rocket Boys; and The Coalwood Way covers the same period of time as its predecessor, but with more of a focus on the town of Coalwood and its people. The book has particular value as an ethnographic study of Appalachian life at a time when the coal-mining economy of southern West Virginia was at its peak.
As in Rocket Boys, so in The Coalwood Way, a considerable part of the book focuses on how young Homer Hickam – called “Sonny” by everyone, as he had been named after his father – works on experiments in rocketry with three friends. Sonny consistently finds that it’s better, when trying to solve a problem in rocketry, to admit what he doesn’t know. He recalls the words of a former superintendent for Coalwood’s coal company: “It’s better to confess ignorance than to provide it” (p. 8). Clearly, that spirit of open-mindedness in confronting a problem served Hickam well in later life – first as engineer, and then later as author.
The Coalwood Way also resembles Rocket Boys in its focus on the sometimes-fraught relationship between Sonny and his father. Sonny sometimes finds his father’s strictures harsh, as when, responding to Sonny’s disappointment at some setbacks in his young life, his father says, “If you don’t like the way things are going…find the courage to change it. That’s called being a man” (p. 17). It’s good advice, to be sure, but at the same time it’s understandable if Sonny finds it a bit harsh at the time.
At the same time, though, author Hickam takes pains to help the reader understand the pressures that his father was under at the time. Homer Hickam the elder holds a supervisory position at the Coalwood mine, meaning that he is likely to be the target of anger from miners anytime there is a policy change at the mine (anger that the miners regularly express in signs posted throughout the town, all of which manage to misspell the Hickam name). At the same time, the Coalwood coal company has been sold to an out-of-state steel corporation that applies its own pressures from above.
All of this puts Coalwood squarely at the center of some thorny issues that have faced West Virginians throughout the state’s history. The rule, rather than the exception, for many Mountain State communities has involved towns dominated by a single industry – usually an industry that involves extraction of some natural resource. The local company involved in extraction of said resource is usually organized in a strictly hierarchical manner that can foster feelings of class resentment throughout the town. And the profits from that resource extraction generally go out of state, to corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh or New York City or some other faraway place, while ordinary people in that West Virginia town – low-paid, with little or no opportunity for advancement – are left to scrape by as best they can.
All of which is to say that if Homer Hickam, Sr., seems to Sonny to be “grumpy,” those feelings of “grumpiness” do not come out of a vacuum. He is facing pressures from above and below, and he is worried about how to protect his family and secure their future. Such considerations no doubt influence his willingness to move into riskier forms of coal mining, and to bring in West German engineers to help with the task.
Sonny finds himself following, with interest and sympathy, the story of Dreama Jenkins, an attractive young woman from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. Dreama wants desperately to be accepted within Coalwood society, but is despised and treated with contempt by a number of the “respectable” women of Coalwood. Dreama, you see, is living with a man named Cuke Snoddy, a convicted felon who is known to be abusive; and the fact that she is “living in sin” means that the members of the Coalwood Organization of Women (and yes, Hickam has fun with the group’s initials) are more concerned about Dreama having sex outside of marriage than they are about whether she is being beaten and mistreated by a man with a documented history of violence.
The reader senses at once that Dreama’s story is not likely to end well, and is heartened at those few occasions when someone in the story – Sonny and his mother, for example – speaks out on her behalf.
An important mentor figure for Sonny is Reverend Little, an African American preacher in Coalwood. Sonny wants to know how and why a woman like Dreama would stay with a man like Cuke, and Reverend Little tells him, “A man can’t hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls” (p. 207).
Sonny feels lost, lonely, uncertain, and doubtful, and those feelings lead him to declare that he is giving up on rocketry altogether, because (he believes) his father does not think Sonny is smart enough to succeed as an aerospace engineer. Yet Reverend Richard Little once again sets him straight, saying this time that “life is what you make it, Sonny boy. It don’t matter who you are. Sure, God molds you a little on His wheel but, in the end, it’s all up to you. You got to take what you got and do the best you can with it” (p. 317).
At Christmas, as the town of Coalwood goes through its traditional holiday rituals, Sonny finally feels a sense of closure: “All fear, sadness, and anger inside me had vanished. I knew who I was and where I came from and who my people were. I was ready to leave because I could never leave” (p. 358).
I found The Coalwood Way in a bookshop at the Tamarack Marketplace, a regional Appalachian arts-and-crafts market located near Beckley at a stop on the West Virginia Turnpike. And I read the book whilst staying at the Stonewall Resort, a lakeside resort near Roanoke in central West Virginia. In both cases, I found that I did not have to drive too far from Beckley, or from Roanoke, to find small West Virginia towns that looked like the sorts of places where a young Homer Hickam and his friends might have pursued their dreams of conquering the skies.
Hickam’s love for his West Virginia home is palpable; early in the book, when he writes of a Rocket Boys launch, he writes that “To me, there was no better time to launch a rocket than in the fall, especially a West Virginia fall. There seemed to be a cool, dry energy in the air that filled us with a sense of hope and optimism” (p. 1). He adds that “God, who we had no doubt was also a West Virginian, was surely doing His work in heaven, too” (p. 1).
Accordingly, I can’t help thinking that West Virginians may take particular pleasure from reading The Coalwood Way. Visit the town of Coalwood today, and you will see at the town line a modestly-sized green metal sign that reads “Home of the Rocket Boys.” Coalwood may not get its population counted separately by the U.S. Census Bureau anymore, but Coalwood still counts – in part because of how Homer Hickam has preserved his memories of the town and its people for the benefit of future generations.
The way Hickam described his conflicts with his father in Rocket Boys, I found, had an almost mythic element to it. Hickam’s father was dedicated to going under the earth in search of profitable underground resources, in a way that made me think of Roman mythology’s Pluto, god of the underworld and patron of wealth. Hickam, by contrast, sought, through his rocketry, to soar through the heavens like the sky-god Jupiter. Whether or not author Hickam consciously sought to incorporate into his work those archetypes from classical mythology, I found that they stood out for me.
While The Coalwood Way, like its predecessor, includes accounts of how Hickam and three friends pursued their rocket projects, the focus in this book is on the people, the community, and the values of Coalwood. Hickam called the book “an equal, not a sequel” to Rocket Boys; and The Coalwood Way covers the same period of time as its predecessor, but with more of a focus on the town of Coalwood and its people. The book has particular value as an ethnographic study of Appalachian life at a time when the coal-mining economy of southern West Virginia was at its peak.
As in Rocket Boys, so in The Coalwood Way, a considerable part of the book focuses on how young Homer Hickam – called “Sonny” by everyone, as he had been named after his father – works on experiments in rocketry with three friends. Sonny consistently finds that it’s better, when trying to solve a problem in rocketry, to admit what he doesn’t know. He recalls the words of a former superintendent for Coalwood’s coal company: “It’s better to confess ignorance than to provide it” (p. 8). Clearly, that spirit of open-mindedness in confronting a problem served Hickam well in later life – first as engineer, and then later as author.
The Coalwood Way also resembles Rocket Boys in its focus on the sometimes-fraught relationship between Sonny and his father. Sonny sometimes finds his father’s strictures harsh, as when, responding to Sonny’s disappointment at some setbacks in his young life, his father says, “If you don’t like the way things are going…find the courage to change it. That’s called being a man” (p. 17). It’s good advice, to be sure, but at the same time it’s understandable if Sonny finds it a bit harsh at the time.
At the same time, though, author Hickam takes pains to help the reader understand the pressures that his father was under at the time. Homer Hickam the elder holds a supervisory position at the Coalwood mine, meaning that he is likely to be the target of anger from miners anytime there is a policy change at the mine (anger that the miners regularly express in signs posted throughout the town, all of which manage to misspell the Hickam name). At the same time, the Coalwood coal company has been sold to an out-of-state steel corporation that applies its own pressures from above.
All of this puts Coalwood squarely at the center of some thorny issues that have faced West Virginians throughout the state’s history. The rule, rather than the exception, for many Mountain State communities has involved towns dominated by a single industry – usually an industry that involves extraction of some natural resource. The local company involved in extraction of said resource is usually organized in a strictly hierarchical manner that can foster feelings of class resentment throughout the town. And the profits from that resource extraction generally go out of state, to corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh or New York City or some other faraway place, while ordinary people in that West Virginia town – low-paid, with little or no opportunity for advancement – are left to scrape by as best they can.
All of which is to say that if Homer Hickam, Sr., seems to Sonny to be “grumpy,” those feelings of “grumpiness” do not come out of a vacuum. He is facing pressures from above and below, and he is worried about how to protect his family and secure their future. Such considerations no doubt influence his willingness to move into riskier forms of coal mining, and to bring in West German engineers to help with the task.
Sonny finds himself following, with interest and sympathy, the story of Dreama Jenkins, an attractive young woman from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. Dreama wants desperately to be accepted within Coalwood society, but is despised and treated with contempt by a number of the “respectable” women of Coalwood. Dreama, you see, is living with a man named Cuke Snoddy, a convicted felon who is known to be abusive; and the fact that she is “living in sin” means that the members of the Coalwood Organization of Women (and yes, Hickam has fun with the group’s initials) are more concerned about Dreama having sex outside of marriage than they are about whether she is being beaten and mistreated by a man with a documented history of violence.
The reader senses at once that Dreama’s story is not likely to end well, and is heartened at those few occasions when someone in the story – Sonny and his mother, for example – speaks out on her behalf.
An important mentor figure for Sonny is Reverend Little, an African American preacher in Coalwood. Sonny wants to know how and why a woman like Dreama would stay with a man like Cuke, and Reverend Little tells him, “A man can’t hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls” (p. 207).
Sonny feels lost, lonely, uncertain, and doubtful, and those feelings lead him to declare that he is giving up on rocketry altogether, because (he believes) his father does not think Sonny is smart enough to succeed as an aerospace engineer. Yet Reverend Richard Little once again sets him straight, saying this time that “life is what you make it, Sonny boy. It don’t matter who you are. Sure, God molds you a little on His wheel but, in the end, it’s all up to you. You got to take what you got and do the best you can with it” (p. 317).
At Christmas, as the town of Coalwood goes through its traditional holiday rituals, Sonny finally feels a sense of closure: “All fear, sadness, and anger inside me had vanished. I knew who I was and where I came from and who my people were. I was ready to leave because I could never leave” (p. 358).
I found The Coalwood Way in a bookshop at the Tamarack Marketplace, a regional Appalachian arts-and-crafts market located near Beckley at a stop on the West Virginia Turnpike. And I read the book whilst staying at the Stonewall Resort, a lakeside resort near Roanoke in central West Virginia. In both cases, I found that I did not have to drive too far from Beckley, or from Roanoke, to find small West Virginia towns that looked like the sorts of places where a young Homer Hickam and his friends might have pursued their dreams of conquering the skies.
Hickam’s love for his West Virginia home is palpable; early in the book, when he writes of a Rocket Boys launch, he writes that “To me, there was no better time to launch a rocket than in the fall, especially a West Virginia fall. There seemed to be a cool, dry energy in the air that filled us with a sense of hope and optimism” (p. 1). He adds that “God, who we had no doubt was also a West Virginian, was surely doing His work in heaven, too” (p. 1).
Accordingly, I can’t help thinking that West Virginians may take particular pleasure from reading The Coalwood Way. Visit the town of Coalwood today, and you will see at the town line a modestly-sized green metal sign that reads “Home of the Rocket Boys.” Coalwood may not get its population counted separately by the U.S. Census Bureau anymore, but Coalwood still counts – in part because of how Homer Hickam has preserved his memories of the town and its people for the benefit of future generations.
June 6, 2018
I would rate this book 4.5 stars. It could be titled "The Continued Adventures Of Coalwood". My early formative years were in central Kentucky where the cash crop was tobacco, then my family moved to Illinois where corn and soybeans were the thing. But I think the central story, being a teenager in a small town without much money and trying to figure out where you belonged, was a common part of the fifties and almost anyone could relate to this tale. I am a collector of 50's music so I really enjoyed the music he mentioned. Highly recommended.
March 17, 2017
The Coalwood Way is a memoir written by Homer H. Hickam Jr., and elaborates on the story that he wrote previously, titled Rocket Boys. It tells of how he managed with being the son of the local mining company’s superintendent. He is in his senior year in high school, and our story begins a few months from Christmas time, when Homer Jr., most call him Sonny, is instructed to go with his father to see his grandfather, who is in the hospital. He lost his legs in an accident at the mine he worked in, and is most likely never going to leave the bed. Sonny never enjoyed the visits, for he sat in the corner and watched his grandfather in his bed, seemingly oblivious to the company he receives every day. Sonny always looks for an excuse to leave the wretched room, and on one fateful day, the grandfather dies while his grandson is away. Sonny then grapples with the dislike from his father, as well as a mysterious sadness that often grips him for no foreseen reason.
I was first introduced to Hickam Jr.’s work when I was in about 3rd grade, our local library had an event where the group was going to watch October Sky. I was then interested in reading the book it was based off of. I enjoyed the first book, and a while reread it and discovered that it was part of a trilogy. I enjoyed this book, and thought that the detail included helped significantly in understanding the plot. The author also conveys great emotion through his writing. I will definitely continue to read this series, as well as recommend it to a friend.
I was first introduced to Hickam Jr.’s work when I was in about 3rd grade, our local library had an event where the group was going to watch October Sky. I was then interested in reading the book it was based off of. I enjoyed the first book, and a while reread it and discovered that it was part of a trilogy. I enjoyed this book, and thought that the detail included helped significantly in understanding the plot. The author also conveys great emotion through his writing. I will definitely continue to read this series, as well as recommend it to a friend.
January 8, 2021
I feel badly that I couldn’t get into this book. It was the story of a sweet childhood growing up in a coal mining town, but there was just nothing that engaged me. Maybe it was too chirpy? But really it just wasn’t interesting. My dad, 5 grandfathers, uncles, and many men in my family were coal miners and our area of the country had it relatively easy compared to most of the rest of the US, but there were explosions, horrific injuries, and other struggles. This was just too upbeat for a coal mining town.
January 3, 2014
I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading this book. Hickam's narrative style is just so vivid and heartwarming. It's a subset of his Rocket Boys book. If you loved that, you will not want to miss what happens leading up to the Christmas of 1959. The ending does seem to be a bit "Hollywood", but I can believe it to be mostly true nonetheless. It is a great Christmas story.
Now go out and have a GoodReads.
Now go out and have a GoodReads.
March 3, 2020
3,5 Sterne
Wenn ich nicht gerade erst den ersten Teil der Biographie von Homer H. Hickam jr gelesen hätte, wäre ich bei diesem Buch wohl etwas verloren gewesen. Zum einen schmeißt uns der Autor gleich mitten rein ins Geschehen, erklärt zwar nach und nach ein bißchen die Umstände und stellt auch einzelne Personen vor. Aber was die Rocket Boys genau machen und vor allem wieso, wird nicht so richtig deutlich. Während Hickam in "Rocket Boys" wunderbar darlegte, wie es dazu kam dass er als Teenager nichts im Leben mehr wollte als mit Wernher von Braun Raketen für die NASA zu bauen, so spielen die kurzen Ausflüge nach Cape Coalwood in diesem Buch eine absolute Nebenrolle.
Stattdessen erzählt Hickam hier zahlreiche Episoden aus dem letzten Jahr seiner High School Zeit, die gar nichts mit seinem großen Traum zu tun haben, und meiner Meinung auch sonst größtenteils nicht unbedingt interessant sind. Wo "Rocket Boys" wirklich den Weg seines großen Traumes nachzeichnet (und zwar bis zum Abschluss der High School, und kurz zusammengefasst sogar darüber hinaus), ist dieser 2. Teil eher wie ein Sammelsurium an "geschnittenen Szenen", die es nicht ins erste Buch geschafft haben. (Wahrscheinlich hatte Hickam nur ein Buch geplant, und nachdem das so erfolgreich war, dass es sogar von Hollywood verfilmt wurde, kramte er seine Notizen und gestrichenen Kapitel nochmal raus und bastelte eine Fortsetzung).
Während Sonny bisher immer nur Raketen und Dorothy Plunk im Kopf hatte, taucht in diesem Buch plötzlich noch ein zweites "schönstes Mädchen der Welt" auf - Ginger. Dieser wird doch ziemlich viel Platz eingeräumt, ebenso der Parade zum Veteran's Day und einem Krippenspiel, und noch ein paar anderen mehr oder minder interessanten Dingen. Doch über seine Freunde erfahre ich leider nicht viel mehr als ich bereits weiß. Es fehlte hier auch so ein gewisser Spannungsbogen, der in "Rocket Boys" mit der Teilnahme an den Science Fairs gegeben war sowie mit der stetigen Verbesserung (oder auch mal Rückschlag) der Flugleistung der Raketen.
Mit "Schneekönige von Coalwood" ergänzt Hickam seine Autobiographie also um nette Anekdoten. Ohne jedoch das erste Buch zu kennen - und damit Sonny, seine Familie und seine Freunde - hätte es mich wohl wenig interessiert. Man kann es zwar lesen als Buch über das Erwachsenwerden Ende der 50er in einer kleinen Arbeiterstadt in West Virginia, aber auch als solches ist es meiner Meinung nur interessant wenn man an den Personen bereits ein gewisses Interesse (und Vorkenntnisse!) hat. Die letzten paar Kapitel (über die Ereignisse rund um Weihnachten in 11 East, mit Dreama und dem Krippenspiel) wurden dann nochmal richtig interessant, da hat Hickam es für mich wieder etwas herausgerissen. Und das Ende, wo ganz Coalwood zusammenhalf um eine ganz besondere Weihnachtsgeschichte zu erzählen, war sogar hollywoodreif!
Wenn ich nicht gerade erst den ersten Teil der Biographie von Homer H. Hickam jr gelesen hätte, wäre ich bei diesem Buch wohl etwas verloren gewesen. Zum einen schmeißt uns der Autor gleich mitten rein ins Geschehen, erklärt zwar nach und nach ein bißchen die Umstände und stellt auch einzelne Personen vor. Aber was die Rocket Boys genau machen und vor allem wieso, wird nicht so richtig deutlich. Während Hickam in "Rocket Boys" wunderbar darlegte, wie es dazu kam dass er als Teenager nichts im Leben mehr wollte als mit Wernher von Braun Raketen für die NASA zu bauen, so spielen die kurzen Ausflüge nach Cape Coalwood in diesem Buch eine absolute Nebenrolle.
Stattdessen erzählt Hickam hier zahlreiche Episoden aus dem letzten Jahr seiner High School Zeit, die gar nichts mit seinem großen Traum zu tun haben, und meiner Meinung auch sonst größtenteils nicht unbedingt interessant sind. Wo "Rocket Boys" wirklich den Weg seines großen Traumes nachzeichnet (und zwar bis zum Abschluss der High School, und kurz zusammengefasst sogar darüber hinaus), ist dieser 2. Teil eher wie ein Sammelsurium an "geschnittenen Szenen", die es nicht ins erste Buch geschafft haben. (Wahrscheinlich hatte Hickam nur ein Buch geplant, und nachdem das so erfolgreich war, dass es sogar von Hollywood verfilmt wurde, kramte er seine Notizen und gestrichenen Kapitel nochmal raus und bastelte eine Fortsetzung).
Während Sonny bisher immer nur Raketen und Dorothy Plunk im Kopf hatte, taucht in diesem Buch plötzlich noch ein zweites "schönstes Mädchen der Welt" auf - Ginger. Dieser wird doch ziemlich viel Platz eingeräumt, ebenso der Parade zum Veteran's Day und einem Krippenspiel, und noch ein paar anderen mehr oder minder interessanten Dingen. Doch über seine Freunde erfahre ich leider nicht viel mehr als ich bereits weiß. Es fehlte hier auch so ein gewisser Spannungsbogen, der in "Rocket Boys" mit der Teilnahme an den Science Fairs gegeben war sowie mit der stetigen Verbesserung (oder auch mal Rückschlag) der Flugleistung der Raketen.
Mit "Schneekönige von Coalwood" ergänzt Hickam seine Autobiographie also um nette Anekdoten. Ohne jedoch das erste Buch zu kennen - und damit Sonny, seine Familie und seine Freunde - hätte es mich wohl wenig interessiert. Man kann es zwar lesen als Buch über das Erwachsenwerden Ende der 50er in einer kleinen Arbeiterstadt in West Virginia, aber auch als solches ist es meiner Meinung nur interessant wenn man an den Personen bereits ein gewisses Interesse (und Vorkenntnisse!) hat. Die letzten paar Kapitel (über die Ereignisse rund um Weihnachten in 11 East, mit Dreama und dem Krippenspiel) wurden dann nochmal richtig interessant, da hat Hickam es für mich wieder etwas herausgerissen. Und das Ende, wo ganz Coalwood zusammenhalf um eine ganz besondere Weihnachtsgeschichte zu erzählen, war sogar hollywoodreif!
June 2, 2008
If you had asked me after I finished Rocket Boys, the first part of Hickam's biography, I would have told you it was deeply personal and very real. After finishing this second installment I can honestly say that there was much more to come. Rocket Boys covered the years from Sputnik to high school graduation in 1960. Coalwood Way covers only the fall of 1959 but it covers that period in an in-depth way that shows just how powerful a writer Hickam is - and how traumatic such a short period of time can be to a teenager. The first book spend most of its time covering the building of the rockets and the development of the relationships between the boys and the adults who helped or hindered that project. The 2nd book is much more insular, dealing with Sonny's relationship with his parents and brother, with all its ups and downs. As always, the coal mine in Coalwood, WV plays a major role as the town revolves around its workings.
This is a great series of books and I can't wait to read the next episode.
This is a great series of books and I can't wait to read the next episode.
December 25, 2015
People say you know you are in love with someone when being with them is like coming home. I think this applies to books as well. The Coalwood Way is like coming home. It's weird, cause I've never been to West Virginia, built a rocket, had any interest in rockets. I've never had a brother or lived in a small town or even been to a Christmas Paegant. Still, I found myself shaking my head in agreement and relishing in the language. I think it's cause there's a part of
me-- part of us all--that craves this kinda return to simpler times (of friendship and good neighbors and not just iPhones... But of course, without racism and all that jazz.) I agree with previous reviewers that the ending was cheesy, but I finished the book on Christmas and the book centered on Christmas (which I didn't know when I started) and that is kinda miraculous to me.
me-- part of us all--that craves this kinda return to simpler times (of friendship and good neighbors and not just iPhones... But of course, without racism and all that jazz.) I agree with previous reviewers that the ending was cheesy, but I finished the book on Christmas and the book centered on Christmas (which I didn't know when I started) and that is kinda miraculous to me.
March 28, 2014
This is a follow up book to Hickam's Rocket Boys...but basically covers his senior year in high school and the struggles he has in finding his own place in life, in his family, and watching his dad struggle to keep a certain mine open in spite of opposition his dad faces from others in the community.
I definitely enjoy reading his books about growing up in a coal town in WV...as that was my life as well...and I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything!
I definitely enjoy reading his books about growing up in a coal town in WV...as that was my life as well...and I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything!
September 1, 2016
Insights into the hard and difficult world of the coal miners of West Virginia in the late 1950's. The ups and downs of a teenage boy. You find yourself transported back in time. A wonderful thoughtful read.
November 25, 2019
Die Coalwood-Serie
1. Rocket Boys/October Sky (engl. 1998)
2. Die Schneekönige von Coalwood/The Coalwood Way (engl.2000)
3. Sky of Stone (engl. 2001)
4. We Are Not Afraid (engl. 2002)
#. Albert muss nach Hause: Die irgendwie wahre Geschichte eines Mannes, seiner Frau und ihres Alligators (Geschichte von Elsie und Homer senior) kann unabhängig von der Serie gelesen werden
Inhalt
In den Bergen von West Virginia ist es 1959 so kalt, dass das abgemagerte Wild auf Futtersuche bis in die Orte herunterkommt. „Sonny“ Hickam, der im ersten Band mit seinen Freunden (angeregt durch den Sputnik-Flug) erfolgreich eine Rakete konstruiert hatte, tüftelt noch immer an seinem Projekt. Die Flughöhe, die Brennkammer, die keramische Beschichtung, evtl. eine kleine Passagierkabine für ein Tier - es gibt immer etwas zu verbessern. Die Jungs haben sich selbst Trigonometrie beigebracht, noch ehe es Schulstoff war. Sie werden von einer starken Fanbase unterstützt, ihrer Physiklehrerin, Basil, dem Journalisten der Lokalzeitung, und den Mechanikern des Bergwerks. Doch in Homer Hickam juniors letztem Schuljahr ist aus Spaß längst Ernst geworden. Homer will seinen Schulabschluss mit Bestnoten schaffen, um Ingenieur in Cape Canaveral zu werden und auch „Professor‘“ Quentin plant mit der Gruppe während der Wissenschaftswoche der Schulen einen Preis zu gewinnen, um sich damit ein Stipendium zu verdienen. Bisher kannten die Leute von Coalwood nur Sportstipendien als Eintrittskarte zum College.
Vater Homer Hickam senior hat sich vom Steiger zum Zechenleiter hochgearbeitet – und ihm als Kind einer Bergarbeiter-Familie fällt es sichtlich schwer, sich seinen jüngeren Sohn als Raketentechniker vorzustellen. Coalwood funktioniert nach einem simplen Prinzip. Die Zeche liefert Wohnungen, Arztbehandlung, Bildung und Kultur, den Lebensmittelladen, es gibt sogar eigene Geldscheine im Ort. Gezahlt wird jedoch nur an die, die im Bergwerk arbeiten oder „von hier stammen“. Wer den Ort verlässt, wird nicht wieder in die Gemeinschaft aufgenommen - ein verheerendes Signal für Schüler, die fortgehen müssen, um ihre Ausbildung abzuschließen. Verunglückt ein Bergmann, haben er oder seine Witwe den Ort zu verlassen. In der Krise des Kohlenbergbaus bricht das System zusammen. Homer senior steht unter dem Druck, aus einem unprofitablen Bergwerk mit immer weniger Arbeitskräften maximalen Gewinn herauszuholen. Schon während des Krieges wurde ein Abbaubereich geschlossen, der so gefährlich war, dass die Männer sich lieber zur Armee meldeten, als dort zu arbeiten. Doch nun will Sonnys Vater den Zugang zu einem neuen Flöz freisprengen lassen, um keine Bergleute entlassen zu müssen. Koste es, was es wolle. Parallel zu diesen Ereignissen tüfteln die Jungen weiter an ihrer Rakete, Sonny entdeckt, welch liebenswerte Mädchen es doch in Coalwood gibt, und seine Mutter bereitet ihren Plan B vor, für die Zeit, wenn Homer senior mit seiner Staublunge nicht mehr arbeitsfähig sein wird. Die Handlungsstränge laufen in einem etwas zu märchenhaften letzten Aufbäumen des Orts zusammen. Während ich vor 20 Jahren im ersten Band nur mit den Jungen und ihrem Raketenbau mitfieberte, bleiben mir aus der Fortsetzung die liebenswerten, anstrengenden und anrührenden Figuren in Erinnerung - an erster Stelle Mutter Elsie, die sich ihren Traum vom Palmenstrand an die Küchenwand pinselt. Sonny und seine Freunde sind inzwischen um die 16 Jahre alt, ein Alter, in dem sie Autofahren und sich zum Militärdienst bewerben können, in dem Eltern, Lehrer und Pfarrer jedoch noch ein strenges Auge auf sie haben. Ganz Coalwood erzieht mit - und Elsie Hickam erfährt von Sonnys Eskapaden oft, noch ehe er seine Schuhe ausgezogen hat.
Fazit
Homer Hickam erzählt die anrührende Geschichte Coalwoods weiter. Allerdings idealisiert er mit Fortschreiten der Handlung zunehmend die unselige Verbindung aus Manchester-Kapitalismus, Rassentrennung, Religion und Heimatverbundenheit in einem abgelegenen Landstrich. Beim Lesen haben sich mir oft die Haare gesträubt und die Weihnachts-Glückseligkeit hinterlässt einen schalen Geschmack.
1. Rocket Boys/October Sky (engl. 1998)
2. Die Schneekönige von Coalwood/The Coalwood Way (engl.2000)
3. Sky of Stone (engl. 2001)
4. We Are Not Afraid (engl. 2002)
#. Albert muss nach Hause: Die irgendwie wahre Geschichte eines Mannes, seiner Frau und ihres Alligators (Geschichte von Elsie und Homer senior) kann unabhängig von der Serie gelesen werden
Inhalt
In den Bergen von West Virginia ist es 1959 so kalt, dass das abgemagerte Wild auf Futtersuche bis in die Orte herunterkommt. „Sonny“ Hickam, der im ersten Band mit seinen Freunden (angeregt durch den Sputnik-Flug) erfolgreich eine Rakete konstruiert hatte, tüftelt noch immer an seinem Projekt. Die Flughöhe, die Brennkammer, die keramische Beschichtung, evtl. eine kleine Passagierkabine für ein Tier - es gibt immer etwas zu verbessern. Die Jungs haben sich selbst Trigonometrie beigebracht, noch ehe es Schulstoff war. Sie werden von einer starken Fanbase unterstützt, ihrer Physiklehrerin, Basil, dem Journalisten der Lokalzeitung, und den Mechanikern des Bergwerks. Doch in Homer Hickam juniors letztem Schuljahr ist aus Spaß längst Ernst geworden. Homer will seinen Schulabschluss mit Bestnoten schaffen, um Ingenieur in Cape Canaveral zu werden und auch „Professor‘“ Quentin plant mit der Gruppe während der Wissenschaftswoche der Schulen einen Preis zu gewinnen, um sich damit ein Stipendium zu verdienen. Bisher kannten die Leute von Coalwood nur Sportstipendien als Eintrittskarte zum College.
Vater Homer Hickam senior hat sich vom Steiger zum Zechenleiter hochgearbeitet – und ihm als Kind einer Bergarbeiter-Familie fällt es sichtlich schwer, sich seinen jüngeren Sohn als Raketentechniker vorzustellen. Coalwood funktioniert nach einem simplen Prinzip. Die Zeche liefert Wohnungen, Arztbehandlung, Bildung und Kultur, den Lebensmittelladen, es gibt sogar eigene Geldscheine im Ort. Gezahlt wird jedoch nur an die, die im Bergwerk arbeiten oder „von hier stammen“. Wer den Ort verlässt, wird nicht wieder in die Gemeinschaft aufgenommen - ein verheerendes Signal für Schüler, die fortgehen müssen, um ihre Ausbildung abzuschließen. Verunglückt ein Bergmann, haben er oder seine Witwe den Ort zu verlassen. In der Krise des Kohlenbergbaus bricht das System zusammen. Homer senior steht unter dem Druck, aus einem unprofitablen Bergwerk mit immer weniger Arbeitskräften maximalen Gewinn herauszuholen. Schon während des Krieges wurde ein Abbaubereich geschlossen, der so gefährlich war, dass die Männer sich lieber zur Armee meldeten, als dort zu arbeiten. Doch nun will Sonnys Vater den Zugang zu einem neuen Flöz freisprengen lassen, um keine Bergleute entlassen zu müssen. Koste es, was es wolle. Parallel zu diesen Ereignissen tüfteln die Jungen weiter an ihrer Rakete, Sonny entdeckt, welch liebenswerte Mädchen es doch in Coalwood gibt, und seine Mutter bereitet ihren Plan B vor, für die Zeit, wenn Homer senior mit seiner Staublunge nicht mehr arbeitsfähig sein wird. Die Handlungsstränge laufen in einem etwas zu märchenhaften letzten Aufbäumen des Orts zusammen. Während ich vor 20 Jahren im ersten Band nur mit den Jungen und ihrem Raketenbau mitfieberte, bleiben mir aus der Fortsetzung die liebenswerten, anstrengenden und anrührenden Figuren in Erinnerung - an erster Stelle Mutter Elsie, die sich ihren Traum vom Palmenstrand an die Küchenwand pinselt. Sonny und seine Freunde sind inzwischen um die 16 Jahre alt, ein Alter, in dem sie Autofahren und sich zum Militärdienst bewerben können, in dem Eltern, Lehrer und Pfarrer jedoch noch ein strenges Auge auf sie haben. Ganz Coalwood erzieht mit - und Elsie Hickam erfährt von Sonnys Eskapaden oft, noch ehe er seine Schuhe ausgezogen hat.
Fazit
Homer Hickam erzählt die anrührende Geschichte Coalwoods weiter. Allerdings idealisiert er mit Fortschreiten der Handlung zunehmend die unselige Verbindung aus Manchester-Kapitalismus, Rassentrennung, Religion und Heimatverbundenheit in einem abgelegenen Landstrich. Beim Lesen haben sich mir oft die Haare gesträubt und die Weihnachts-Glückseligkeit hinterlässt einen schalen Geschmack.
February 23, 2023
A nice memoir. A wonderful Christmas story.
October 27, 2011
This is the second book that Homer Hickam wrote about his life and the troubles he has. An autobiography that covers his life, Homers, in his last year in high school. With a total of 360 pages it was finished in 2001. With the title “The Coalwood Way” it is very easy to figure out what the book is about, and that is what it’s like to live in Coalwood.
This book is about Homer as a teenager and how he and his dad just can’t seem to get along with one another even though they still love one another. It goes around showing how Homer is starting to realize how bad it really is for everyone around him for finical problems and everything else for the first time in his life. The town Coalwood being owned by the steel company, that is a very greedy company, is starting to make things hard for everyone and people are losing their jobs and homes.
The problem with the steel company is never resolved completely in this part of Homer Hickam’s life and may have never been but the problem with his dad is slightly resolved though. His dad still doesn’t completely understand his son but he does give in to what he is doing. As for the coal mines his dad opens the 11 east mine up again and they find more coal mines, which requires more men to work on it so more men have jobs.
Not the best book in the world but is a very interesting book that has to deal with both suspense and truth in it that really happened. On top of being a real thing that people had to live through it also is a very knowable book about rockets a great companion with the fist book “Rocket Boys”. It is not a book for everyone simply because most people don’t have interests in other people’s lives.
Homer Hickam is an easy character to sympathies with. He is a person that goes through many things that you have. He has had loss, sadness, happiness, and many great trials that many have to go through also. In all I think this is a very good book to read if you just love to read any book you can get your hand on. If you aren’t I don’t think you will like this book.
This book is about Homer as a teenager and how he and his dad just can’t seem to get along with one another even though they still love one another. It goes around showing how Homer is starting to realize how bad it really is for everyone around him for finical problems and everything else for the first time in his life. The town Coalwood being owned by the steel company, that is a very greedy company, is starting to make things hard for everyone and people are losing their jobs and homes.
The problem with the steel company is never resolved completely in this part of Homer Hickam’s life and may have never been but the problem with his dad is slightly resolved though. His dad still doesn’t completely understand his son but he does give in to what he is doing. As for the coal mines his dad opens the 11 east mine up again and they find more coal mines, which requires more men to work on it so more men have jobs.
Not the best book in the world but is a very interesting book that has to deal with both suspense and truth in it that really happened. On top of being a real thing that people had to live through it also is a very knowable book about rockets a great companion with the fist book “Rocket Boys”. It is not a book for everyone simply because most people don’t have interests in other people’s lives.
Homer Hickam is an easy character to sympathies with. He is a person that goes through many things that you have. He has had loss, sadness, happiness, and many great trials that many have to go through also. In all I think this is a very good book to read if you just love to read any book you can get your hand on. If you aren’t I don’t think you will like this book.
October 23, 2011
Second in a trilogy of memoirs that began with "Rocket Boys" (October Sky). Memoir concludes with "Sky of Stone". This one went back and went into more detail. Explores issues any boy or girl faces growing up and some peculiar to a West Virginia coal mining town. The author also struggled over his perception that his father favored his older brother. The conclusion was sublime. The traditional Christmas Pageant was set in CoalWood, not in the Holy Land. At the end, starving deer came down and ate the hay used as props-a miracle! A wondrous book, I can't wait for the third and final book. But part of me is saddened that I am about to read the final installment. Fortunately, he wrote other books, including a novel.
January 1, 2017
I really liked the movie, "October Sky", based on Hickam's book "The Rocket Boys", so I was happy to pick up a copy of another of Hickam's memoirs about Coalwood. It did not disappoint. Hickam describes events that took place in the fall of his senior year of high school, including progress on construction of a rocket, a threatened coal strike, a disastrous Coalwood Veteran's Day float, the important Coalwood Christmas pageant, the high school Christmas formal, an outsider's attempt to become a Coalwood girl, and the dangerous attempt to open part of a coal mine by Homer's dad to increase production in order to save miner's jobs. Somehow all of this takes place in a few months and Hickam weaves together the many threads into a beautiful tapestry of a dying West Virginia coal town.
August 24, 2013
It's a wonder Homer Hickam Jr. could remember all those details about his life at sixteen years old.
Clever, honest, and although nothing really massive or suspenseful or gripping occurs at the end of every page, when the end of page comes you cannot help but turn it over and continue. The very wit and intelligence and clarity with which the author conveys his every experience is entrancing.
Loaded with country sayings. If you grew up in the mountains but don't live there anymore and find yourself wishing you did, read The Coalwood Way. If you grew up in the city and have no idea what I mean by country sayings, read The Coalwood Way. If you grew up, read The Coalwood Way.
Clever, honest, and although nothing really massive or suspenseful or gripping occurs at the end of every page, when the end of page comes you cannot help but turn it over and continue. The very wit and intelligence and clarity with which the author conveys his every experience is entrancing.
Loaded with country sayings. If you grew up in the mountains but don't live there anymore and find yourself wishing you did, read The Coalwood Way. If you grew up in the city and have no idea what I mean by country sayings, read The Coalwood Way. If you grew up, read The Coalwood Way.
January 25, 2015
An very enjoyable read. Sonny(Homer)Hickam is now a senior in high school. He is having growing pains with the thought of leaving Coalwood and going to college, discovering girls, designing the perfect rocket, struggling with his mother's desire to leave his father and Coalwood , and seeking the acknowledgement and praise of his father. Homer does a wonderful job of presenting to the reader his transition from childhood to adulthood. He helps the reader remember their own transition into adulthood painful and bittersweet as it was. It is a heartwarming memoir of his life every bit as good as The Rocket Boys. I can't wait to read the final book in his Coalwood series.
December 23, 2013
It's 1959 and Sonny Hickam and the Rocket Boys are in their senior year of high school. Coal mining in West Virginia is taking its toll on the community and the Hickam family. Sonny is having issues with most of life, especially his dad who seems to not get Sonny at all.
This book overlaps October Sky, but goes into much more detail of the events of Coalwood, the Rocket Boys and the Hickam family.
This book overlaps October Sky, but goes into much more detail of the events of Coalwood, the Rocket Boys and the Hickam family.
March 15, 2017
Another nice visit to Coalwood
I have read 4 or 5 of Mr. Hickam's books and enjoyed every one. 'The Coalwood Way' is a deeper dive into the stories of Coalwood and a future engineer and writer growing up there during the early years of the space race. I enjoyed reading this installment of the Coalwood Trilogy. I have now read all three and hope that the author will find time to tell us more stories from his early years.
I have read 4 or 5 of Mr. Hickam's books and enjoyed every one. 'The Coalwood Way' is a deeper dive into the stories of Coalwood and a future engineer and writer growing up there during the early years of the space race. I enjoyed reading this installment of the Coalwood Trilogy. I have now read all three and hope that the author will find time to tell us more stories from his early years.
December 29, 2012
This was a book selected for my book discussion group and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This gives a more complete picture of life in Coalwood, West Virginia that the reader was first introduced to it Rocket Boys. Even though it covers only the fall and winter of Homer's senior year, it fleshes out all of the characters.
December 15, 2013
I've read this book at least twice, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. If you know the story portrayed in the movie October Sky, then you would enjoy this book. This was meant as a Christmas story, but it's mostly about growing up in a small coal mining town. The rocket building and the Rocket Boys are part of it, but this book goes deeper, looking at all aspects of life in Coalwood.
February 21, 2016
This is a re-read. After reading "Carrying Albert Home," I felt a need to re-read one or more of the earlier Coalwood books, and remind myself of the events of Hickam's life. Also, we had driven through Coalwood and Welch several years ago, after reading the earlier books, and this time I was able to see many of the scenes as they happened.
April 30, 2009
At first I was worried that it would repeat a lot of the Rocket Boy's book, because it covers a lot of the same time frame. But, his focus is different and I really liked his writing style and felt like I sort of had a better idea what in the heck teenage boys have goin' on inside their heads.
September 3, 2014
Another well written gem from Homer Hickam. This one delves a little deeper into a short time covered in this first memoir, Rocket Boys. However, it is less about the rockets and more about the people and the town of Coalwood. A nice look at an American town struggling to hold onto its identity.
June 26, 2012
Sequel to Rocket Boys/October Sky and my favorite of Homer Hickham's Coalwood Series.
January 26, 2013
Further adventures and stories about Coalwood, the town where Hickam grew up and which was memorialized in October Sky. Interesting, thoughtful and a good read.
March 6, 2013
a fantastic sequel to an already fantastic story and must read to anyone that has lived in the shadows of the Appalachian mountains
July 3, 2013
Really enjoy his writing, very humorous! Jenny had to read it for school a few years ago, she recommended it to me. I'm going to watch October Sky now....and I love that it's based on a true story.
October 18, 2013
A continuation of October Sky. Perhaps a little less poignant but still a good read.
June 9, 2014
Well done piece on the old "company town." It is more that coal mining, it is about a kid learning life. Wish I had learned as much at his age.
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