I Am One of You Forever: A Novel [Paperback]

Fred Chappell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1987

This novel describes the experiences of a young boy growing up in North Carolina in the 1940s.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the 1940s, this series of interlinked yarns about life on a North Carolina "scratch-ankle mountain farm" is told from the point of view of Jess, age 11. PW called Chappell "a gifted spinner of fictions that often verge on fantasy and the tall tale."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (August 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807114103
• ISBN-13: 978-0807114100
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars " Listening" to Chappell's story gets better each time., September 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: I Am One of You Forever (Hardcover)

Once you get past the pure fun of "I Am One of You Forever," then you can start appreciating the resonance of the prose and the rich texture of literary allusions: from Homer to Hawthorne. I've read this book five or six times, and Chappell's storytelling gets better with each reading. "I Am One of You Forever" is a perfect comic complement to Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain": both are representative of the finest Southern fiction and both, coincidentally, take place in a similar area of the North Carolina mountains. This book should receive more recognition. It's a truly great novel.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magical, Wonderful Book, May 8, 2003

By 

James Skrydlak "mostlymozart" (Pella, Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: I Am One of You Forever: A Novel (Paperback)

This, the first in Fred Chappell's tetralogy of books about Joe Robert Kirkman and his family, consists of ten stories about ten-year-old (at the start of the book) Jess Kirkman's encounters with four of his mother's relatives, the live-in hired hand on the Kirkman farm, and some of their neighbors. Chappell's narration veers from straightforward fiction to fantasy, telling of the gusto and humor with which Joe Robert meets life. I found myself laughing out loud and slapping my knee at some of the passages, while being touched deeply by the novel's underlying theme of belonging to a family, a place, and a tradition.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flights of Boyhood Fancy, June 4, 2002

By 

Winston Smith (Locust Grove, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am One of You Forever: A Novel (Paperback)

Called a novel, "I Am One Of You Forever" is really a collection of short stories that are unified as the adventures of a 14 year old boy growing up in the mountains of western North Carolina. These stories cover the spectrum of human experience; love, tragedy, the supernatural, family, comedy. All the stories are made magical by the observations of the especially well-read and intelligent young narrator/persona.
Easily one of the funniest books I've ever read, I think I rarely went more than a page without a good laugh. The book also has some of the most poignant passages I've ever read, those dealing with the death (always a dominant theme in Southern literature).
A well-written book, Southern through and through, and appropriate for young teen-agers as well as adults. The book's title serves as the answer to a question posed as the story's last line, thus giving the book a wonderful circularity. Read this book; you won't be sorry.