Doodle Bug Doodle Bug
Your House is on Fire
Set
in the mid-'50s, "Doodle Bug" is the story of 17-year-old
Corley Malone, who grows up along the banks of the "Vandalia
River." Like his friends and neighbors, he is the product
of generations of subsistence farmers whose way of life, even
then, was fast being overtaken by "progress" -- materially
modest, yet rich in the things that matter most. (Water games
in the old swimming hole, lazy summer nights catfishing from
a wooden johnboat, one room school houses, the satisfaction
derived from long days of hard work in the country air.)
Corley and his friends also like to raise a little hell on
the back roads and in the beer joints, sharing midnight six-packs
of Falls City in the front seat of a car, and then taking "target
practice" on the empties. They also fancy themselves "international
lovers," back when condoms were "rubbers" and
used mainly for birth control. Corley is both innocently profane
and profanely innocent, and it is the seamless integration of
these two facets that gives this book its unique flavor. His
antics and observations provide regular doses of laugh-out-loud
humor -- and I haven't even told you the part about the dynamite
yet.
But time is running out for Corley, as he rapidly approaches
his high school graduation in an era in Appalachia when the
three R's meant "readin', ritin' and Route 35 to Ohio."
With few employment prospects in his native state, he is faced
with the choice of leaving home to earn money for the things
he wants or staying with the austere but spiritually rewarding
life of his ancestors, and between the old-time music he grew
up playing and the upstart rock 'n' roll that is replacing it
in the local beer halls and roadhouses -- all while he is still
grappling with the differences between "love" and
"passion."
What Critics Say
John Wehrl, Graffiti Magazine, 1994,
calls the book "an Appalachian Catcher In The Rye,
adding, "Samples writes in the breezy, All-American prose
style that comes out of James T. Farrell and J. D. Salinger,
and which has lately been adopted by more whimsical writers
like Jim Lehrer. With an admirable economy of words, he sketches
telling portraits of eccentric and sturdy characters that will
stick in your mind long after you put the book away. And I'll
tell you the truth: I've always considered myself a pretty fair
writer, but just when you get to where you can throw a piece
of coal across the river nearly every time, along comes one
of those Samples boys and pitches one clear up on the railroad
tracks."
Where to Get The Book
(Just reprinted) $14.95
West Virginia Book Co.
1125 Central Avenue
Charleston WV 25302
www.wvbookco.com
304-342-1848
or Amazon
or The Author
For information on where to buy other Mack Samples books, click
here.
