Pat Devlin, a quasi-fictional character is developed in an accurate historical setting, to record for posterity the unique times and lives of this great, multi-cultured people in his home town of Mt. Carmel, Pa. Pat was a true, tobacco chewing, coal cracker, deeply in love with his childhood sweetheart and born with an insatiable curiosity and desire to play detective. But it is more than that. The Coal Cracker is about the scrupulous religious fervor of a Catholic education, and about the proud but strange camaraderie of its citizens that exist to this day. It is a story of puppy love, deceit and rejection; innocent times racked with violence; poverty without pity; prejudice overcome; the carnage of war and the primitive practice of medicine in the early fifties. Finally, it is a success story with a literally, incredible happy ending.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
John Devers is a retired physician, who graduated from Gettysburg College and the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He practiced medicine as a rural general practitioner, and later as a city-based anesthesiologist, for a total of 40 years.
He believes that much has been written about growing up on the farm, or on the tough streets of the city, but little, if anything, on what it was like being reared in a small coal-mining town of Pennsylvania, particularly during the Great Depression and World War II.
It was not until his retirement in 1993 that he found the time to fulfill his ambition to write about his early life.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
From a coal miner's daughter,
By
This review is from: The coal cracker (Paperback)
Although I'm originally a "Jerseyite," I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Was astounded to see the names of my mother's cousins, Fritz and Joe Honecker, mentioned. Also recognized my grandmother's next door neighbors, Bill "The Barber" and Stella, when referring to Tommy Dorsey's cousin. Bill cut my hair when I was little girl. Many fond memories returned and the book helped me to understand and appreciate my family's rich culture. Have a picture of the author's parents' wedding, where my grandfather, Pat Cosgrove, served as best man (and was the author's godfather). Wish I could meet the author as I am located in the DC area.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mount Carmel, PA: my home town,
By
This review is from: The Coal Cracker (Paperback)
I was born and raised in Mount Carmel, PA, just as was the author of this book. Although our age difference is about 24 years, and his high school years were the late 1930's while mine were the early 1960's, a lot of the things about the town which are included in his book didn't change from his time to mine. The theatres were still there, and a few of the restaurants (as a matter of fact, I grew up two doors away from Matucci's, the Italian restaurant he mentioned). Some of the games he played, and some of the activities (such as hanging on to the back bumper of cars on snowy streets and getting a "ride" for a few blocks) my friends and I also did. It's a book awash in nostalgia for a way of life that is now gone from this area, and that I miss quite a bit. The author is not a tremendously accomplished writer, but his love for the town of his youth, and the people he knew, shines through quite well. I think that anyone coming from a small, hard-working town full of immigrants would recognize a lot of things in this book, and enjoy it, as I did.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of The Coal Cracker from a "coal cracker",
By Wendy Clark (Williamsport, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Coal Cracker (Paperback)
The best book I have read in quite sometime! Could be because I grew up not far from Mt. Carmel, PA. I certaintly hope there is a sequel to this book. If not, there should be. It is hard for me to be able to tell just what parts of the book were fiction. Mr. Devers is quite the story teller. For those of you unfamiliar with life in the anthracite areas of PA, you are in for an accurate description of what life was life "when coal was king." Very difficult to put this book down. As a matter of fact, my 21 year old son, who previously didn't read all that much, became enthralled in it and in his words "was addicted to it"
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