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Song to the Rising Sun
Book by Jiles, Paulette
- GenresPoetry
165 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
409 people want to read
About the author
Paulette Jiles
20 books2,314 followersPaulette Kay Jiles was an American poet, memoirist and novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 17, 2021
With each re-read the pleasure increases. I love this book.
September 12, 2019
4-1/2 stars
The subtitle of this edition is “A Collection” and it is apropos. You begin with poetry, numbered verses with the overall title of “Song to the Rising Sun,” and the poetry is quite satisfying. The second section is composed of a few poems with the title “A Tourist Excursion to the Badlands.” The third section I think of as poetic conversations – “Oracles.” Then “Moroccan Journey” is fourth, with quite a different mood and timbre, full of Greek choruses. A major portion of the book is contained in a novelette, “My Grandmother’s Quilt,” in which the Ozark atmosphere is both stark and encompassing. The last section is a sequel to it and is entitled “Money and Blankets” and the title comes from the persuasive cajoling of the King of the Rattlesnakes. I love the way Paulette Jiles writes, no matter what her subject. Good reading.
from “My Grandmother’s Quilt:”
“Dale says if we don’t get married, we must be old maids in somebody else’s kitchen and work for nothing all our lives. Dale says that this is life: we bind ourselves to foolish men, fiddlefoots, gandy-dancers, men who are in love with the racetrack, with the railroad, a jug or a bottle, in love with the last idea they had, the one yesterday, the one the day before … "
“We came down the long road through the valley, at evening, through Buffalo Prairie, in September, and the moon was coming up on one side of the world and the sun was going down on the other. And turkey buzzards were uplifting on the air drafts like ashes flying in the heat of the sunset fire, and I think one of them was carrying the soul of my grandmother on his back.”
from “Money and Blankets:”
“And so the telephone rings a compelling blast, a spoiled brat, screaming for attention from anonymous distances.”
The subtitle of this edition is “A Collection” and it is apropos. You begin with poetry, numbered verses with the overall title of “Song to the Rising Sun,” and the poetry is quite satisfying. The second section is composed of a few poems with the title “A Tourist Excursion to the Badlands.” The third section I think of as poetic conversations – “Oracles.” Then “Moroccan Journey” is fourth, with quite a different mood and timbre, full of Greek choruses. A major portion of the book is contained in a novelette, “My Grandmother’s Quilt,” in which the Ozark atmosphere is both stark and encompassing. The last section is a sequel to it and is entitled “Money and Blankets” and the title comes from the persuasive cajoling of the King of the Rattlesnakes. I love the way Paulette Jiles writes, no matter what her subject. Good reading.
from “My Grandmother’s Quilt:”
“Dale says if we don’t get married, we must be old maids in somebody else’s kitchen and work for nothing all our lives. Dale says that this is life: we bind ourselves to foolish men, fiddlefoots, gandy-dancers, men who are in love with the racetrack, with the railroad, a jug or a bottle, in love with the last idea they had, the one yesterday, the one the day before … "
“We came down the long road through the valley, at evening, through Buffalo Prairie, in September, and the moon was coming up on one side of the world and the sun was going down on the other. And turkey buzzards were uplifting on the air drafts like ashes flying in the heat of the sunset fire, and I think one of them was carrying the soul of my grandmother on his back.”
from “Money and Blankets:”
“And so the telephone rings a compelling blast, a spoiled brat, screaming for attention from anonymous distances.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews