Customer Reviews

The Coal Tattoo: A Novel

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE COAL TATTOO by Silas House
October 15,2004

THE COAL TATTOO by Silas House was my second book by this author, and third in his "trilogy" of books that take place in the mountains of Kentucky. The novel features characters that appear in his previous two books, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES and his first, CLAY'S QUILT. All three are wonderful books that center on life in the Kentucky mountains, families that built their lives around the coalmines in the early to mid-twentieth century.

In THE COAL TATTOO, the two main characters are sisters Anneth and Easter, who are as different as night and day. Anneth is wild and unleashed, while Easter is a born-again Christian. Their story is a tale of two sisters who love each other, but find that their differences tear them apart.

What I love about these books is the depth that Silas House goes to describe his characters. One feels that these characters are part of one's own family, or maybe a reader may want to meet these characters, because House creates characters that are truly real and three-dimensional. I felt at home with his characters from A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES, and I feel the same with THE COAL TATTOO. He also does a good job at describing the lives of these people, and it feels like I am with them, in the bar dancing up a storm, or in church singing with the choir.

These three books are what I call period pieces, and reflect a time long gone. History and technology has changed what this fictional place may have been like half a century ago, but they remain unchanged in these books by Silas House. I highly recommend reading all his books. These are not easy reads, but one will feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction after experiencing these books. THE COAL TATTOO is no exception, and the Ratmammy rates it five stars.

Silas House is one of the greatest and most gifted authors of our time!! If I could give this book MORE THAN 5 STARS, I would!! His magic with words and the thoughts and dialogue of the people who live in his stories is absolutely amazing.
This is a beautiful tale of the deep love of two sisters who have endured much together as they enter their adult lives, making decisions and choices that may forver alter their relationship with each other. Their lives have been defined by the coal mining that is the lifeblood of their mountain home, a part of their past and their present but how will it change their future?
As troubled times strike the sisters, Silas House brings us into their hearts and minds, giving depth and soul to each of them. He makes you care deeply about what is happening to them in their lives.
Two sisters, so very different and yet so closely bonded......when they are rocked to their core by life's events, can they save each other from despair and bring hope back or will they have to learn to lead separate lives.
This tale would be the second story in a trilogy, coming after Parchment of Leaves and before Clay's Quilt. Silas House is such an exquisite and powerful author that each novel can easily stand on it's own merits.

In Coal Tattoo, Silas House fills in the story of the families he gave us in Parchment of Leaves and Clay's Quilt.
House's descriptions of nature are poetic. He nails the speech patterns of Eastern Kentuckians without being cruel or condescending. He describes authentic faith in God respectfully; he does not stoop to easy generalizations or caricatures. As a native of Eastern Kentucky, realistic portrayals of its people and land are important to me, and House does not disappoint.
Although set firmly in Eastern Kentucky, the stories are universal. Coal Tattoo is a family story, a sister story, a land story, and a Kentucky story. If you're new to his work, I would suggest starting with Parchment, then Coal Tattoo and then Clay's Quilt.

Being from Kentucky, most of my role models have roots in my home state. Silas House is the ultimate role model. "The Coal Tattoo", is another remarkable book from my favorite author. Like his other works, "The Coal Tattoo" contains lively characters. It is so real that you are snapped back in time within a spilt second. You began to be a bystander in, "The Coal Tattoo." For the scenes are so real that you are walking the walk of the characters. A stunning book by a seasoned author. Want to take a day trip back in time? Buy this book. Sit down; buckle up; and read on.

This is Silas House's best book yet. The language is so beautiful if often reads like poetry yet House always manages to keep the plot going just enough that it feels like a literary pageturner. I was completely obsessed with these characters while reading the book and struggled constantly with wanting to get to the end to see how everything turned out but--at the same time--not wanting the book to end. Anneth and Easter are two of the most vivid and memorable characters I have ever encountered in literature. If this book doesn't win some major national awards then I will be highly disappointed. It's time everyone knows who House is. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

House continues to produce exquisite stories and fine writing. His writing is clean and fresh and his subjects are as familiar as one's own hand. House is comfortable with his characters and his environment; he owns his stories and loves his place. A fine book and hopefully, one of many more.

I ran across this book by chance and, being from KY, thought I would give it a shot. Turns out, I finished it in only a few days, which is unusal for me. This book is as powerful a book as I have read in a long time. I laugh, I cried, I felt life (and death) there in Black Banks. The characters on not out of the ordinary for the area, but this book puts a power in the love that exist for this beautiful land and the strong spiritual hold it has on the people who live (or have lived) there. It was my first Silas House book, but definetly not my last.

Having long admired the work of Mr. House, I could not wait to read this latest novel. I do declare that it might be his best work yet. His language sings and the story keeps the pages turning. Mr. House is a writer we will be reading for years to come.

Silas House's trilogy on the lives of people in Kentucky coal country is one of the best-written series of novels I have seen in many a year. The writing is not only superb in structure but gripping and evocative without seeming forced, as so many modern novelists seem to be. His characters are not always likeable but are always interesting: they are real characters, as opposed to "types," and that makes all the difference in the world between a light read and something deeper.

"Coal Tattoo," the second book in his trilogy, focuses on the lives of two sisters, Easter and Anneth Sizemore. Easter is the devout, church-going stay-at-home; Anneth is the wild, honky-tonking roustabout who marries three times, none of them for love but all of them to alleviate boredom and "get away" to a different place or mindset than Free Creek where she grew up.

What makes this book, and the series, so interesting is that House explores the interior lives of these women, putting into words the kind of feelings and vibrations they accumulate from their land and the spirituality they pursue in a new and exciting way. What emerges from this book more than anything else is the deep spiritual connection they have, not only as sisters but also as a race, to the land they grew up in, a connection that we come to believe was inherited from their American Indian grandmother. In a funny sort of way, then, this is a book - and a series - that celebrates the theology of pantheism, God in nature, a theology practiced by figures as diverse as Thomas Jefferson and Ludwig van Beethoven. I say it is a "funny sort of way" because it is Anneth, the wild sister, who best recognizes that God, for her, "ain't in the church" but in the great outdoors, where she can lay in a field of wild flowers, spread out her arms and feel the power of the heavens and the earth fill her up. Devout Easter, on the other hand, is continually fighting such urges by praying and singing and testifying at the Pentacostal church, though she sees visions of the future and cannot fight the urge to enjoy herself outside the confines of her religion and give herself over to the power of the mountains and the valley where she was born and nurtured.

To me, this aspect of the book (and the series) is even more interesting, penetrating and universal in scope than the outward manifestations of the women's lives in general. Easter's husband, El, is a good man who works hard yet is always torn between spirituality and having a rip-roaring good time - sort of a Johnny Cash-type figure. The other women who live in and around Free Creek seem to have a vague idea of the kind of spiritual power that Easter and Anneth feel, but they are not as locked into it as the Sizemore sisters. When Anneth finally finds true love, it is, predictably, with a young man who feels exactly the way she does inside - a man who can look at the mountains and the valley and see the power of the creator in all he surveys, who realizes the polarity that holds people to this site as much as if it were an overpowering electromagnetic force.

Highly recommended.

Two sisters, descendants of coal miners, deal with life in the mountains of Kentucky, in Silas House's THE COAL TATTOO. Although it follows characters created in his previous novels CLAY'S QUILT and A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES, THE COAL TATTOO is not a sequel. These are all stand-alone books that a person can enjoy reading in any order.

Anneth and Easter are the two main characters in this third book. The reader will learn of the circumstances of their birth, the story of their parents, and their relationship with their grandmothers Vine and Serena, all of whom were a part of either A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES or CLAY'S QUILT.

As with the previous two books, THE COAL TATTOO is beautifully written, describing in detail the backdrop of the mining town of Free Creek and the surrounding areas. The beauty of these three books is not just in the description of the mountains and the land, but of the simple life that the characters live. Silas House has a way with words, and the novels evoke memories of a time long gone. It brings to one a feeling of nostalgia.

The Coal Tattoo refers to a mark left on a coal miner after a mining accident, and it is a badge of honor worn by these men. It also helps to set up the theme of this book, that of the life of the coal miner and his family. It is a life of poverty and suffering, but the love of the land, the mountains, faith, and love of family is what keeps them going.

The novel opens with an introduction to Anneth dancing herself into a frenzy at a local bar, the center of every man's eyes. Anneth is the wild sister. At seventeen, she is known to frequent the bars, dancing at all hours of the night and having her fill of liquor. She is considered the pretty one and is never without a beau. Easter is the serious sister, and at age twenty-two, she is the one who has taken on the role of protector and surrogate mother. She will never set foot in a bar, as she is devoutly Pentecostal, and the highlight of her week is going to Church. Their parents died years ago, when Anneth was barely out of diapers. Their two grandmothers, Serena and Vine, together raise the sisters and become the family unit Anneth and Easter would not have had if it weren't for them.

Anneth takes up with various men, and finally meets up with one young man, Matthew Morgan. The two become inseparable and elope to Tennessee after a very brief love affair. Easter is beside herself, but knows she has no control over Anneth's actions. As time moves on, Matthew loves Anneth with all his heart and soul, but Anneth does not seem satisfied, and after a few months of marriage, Anneth decides to come home. She realizes she never loved Matthew after all, and possibly does not even know what love is.

El McIntosh, in the meantime, is courting Easter. While Anneth's love affair with Matthew was fast and furious, Easter's love is steadier, and soon the two marry. Their life together becomes the envy of Anneth, who by this time has returned to Black Banks and moves back home with Easter. The sisters' relationship becomes strained after an incident that takes place between El and Anneth. Life takes on a dark turn for Anneth, while Easter also struggles with some life changes and will question her faith in God.

While it culminates with a stand against the Altamont Mining Company, this book is ultimately about the love between two sisters, a love that is tested by time, lovers and family. If there is a lesson to be learned in THE COAL TATTOO, it is that blood is thicker than water, and nothing can come between the love of two sisters. This reviewer loved reading the tale of Anneth and Easter, and hopes that Silas House will write a fourth book soon.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton (Ratmammy@lofton.org)