ChinaberryAuthor James Still is well considered the "Dean of Appalachian Literature" - his regard for the living world that surrounded him and his inherent ability to express the very heart of it are the qualities that set him apart. A native of Alabama, Kentucky became Still's home at 25 and, it remained so until his death in 2001, at age 94. After his death, the unpublished manuscript for "Chinaberry" was discovered, and it was Still's friends, family and literary advisers who asked Silas House to edit the work. A highly regarded author in his own right and the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, House readily accepted the daunting task.
Delivered in an old briefcase that was wrapped in a well-worn belt to compensate for the broken handle, the contemporary author lingered over every word and sentence. Writes House in his introduction: "Some chapters are presented here just as (Still) wrote them, with almost no changes. ...This book sings with the strength of a writer working at the height of his powers."
The setting is Texas and the cotton crop is in early bloom when an unnamed young boy (the book's narrator), accompanied by two laborers and a family friend, arrive in a small dusty town in search of work. Traveling many miles from the boy's home in Alabama, the roads leading south are a tribute to his burgeoning independence. In the dusty Texas courthouse square where the group stops, he catches the eye of a well-dressed man, Anson Winters, who offers the entire crew work on his farm, Chinaberry Ranch. Grateful, they travel to the farm and immediately the boy is adopted into the Winters household, where he is provided with a pampered existence in sharp contrast to the large family and undemonstrative love that ran deep in his Alabama home.
As the cotton season progresses, the boy experiences Texas at its purest -
the weather, the culture and a type of family life he has never seen. He soon learns that the farmer who has taken him in lost his first wife and a young son a few years back. As the farmer's story slowly unwinds, the boy finds himself drawn to the overpowering dedication and attention he is paid by the wounded couple, while still longing for his Alabama home. When the season winds down and his father insists he return, his emotions are torn -
pulled between his longing for home and his family and his life as it has evolved in the vast plains and rich farmlands of Chinaberry Ranch.
Writes Silas House, "The wonderful messiness of life exists in these pages, and the characters become real people to us, whether they were or not."
Fact or fiction -
or a combination of the two -
Still's final work speaks of a way of life since passed, and does so in a language and style that captures a reader with its rhythm and clarity.