Customer Reviews

Creeker: A Woman's Journey

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is not just a chronicle of the author's existence. It is instead a book that made me focus on my life and relationships within my family. This author has taken her life and presented it in such a way that it helped me get more insight into mine.

She has also given me insight into, and great respect for a part of this country that has long been mysterious to most of us. To be honest, this is the first really positive thing I have seen about Appalachia. Derosier makes it clear that she loves and honors what she calls her "place" and her "people" as she shows how her extended family has shaped the life she lives today. While there may not have been a lot of money changing hands, there is a beauty and richness in the relationships of these people that some of us can only wish for in our own lives. I know I will be discussing Creeker with my family.

What a book, chock full of universal truths and wisdom! Derosier's language is at once plain and beautiful and I found myself getting lost in it for long periods of time. I have highlighted many places in this book and I plan to put it near the telephone to share with my friends and family.

Great book! When's the next one coming out?

If you've ever thought about the consequences and significance of your life, your family and your home, then you are like me. And, if you're like me, then chances are pretty good that you'll count Scott-DeRosier's "Creeker" among your favorites. This is an interesting and gripping autobiography of a woman who is living the kind of life we all hope to live; it made me laugh out loud, reflect on the choices in my own life, and it moved me to tears -- all qualities of a book to be read more than once. In addition to all these strengths, Scott-DeRosier shared her Appalachian Mountain memories lovingly and candidly. Through her you will see what you've never seen before, respect people you might not have thought about before, and find reasons to hope for renewed community in our own lives. There was so much familiar in Scott-DeRosier's life story that I recognized those universal questions and truths that resonate in my own life, in all our lives no matter where we come from.

This book is written in such a unique and wonderful style. The author has no pretense at all---she is totally honest and straightforward and writes as if she is talking to a close friend. I think she is able to tell the story of her Appalachian childhood with a perspective gained from being on the "outside" in body for many years, but not in her heart. I feel like I learned much about that region that I had never known, and many of my misconceptions were exposed to me! I especially liked that this book did not stop when her childhood was over, but told of the rest of her life up to this date, so you were able to see how her further life was influenced by her childhood and its shaping of her attitudes. This book has other stories to tell, too---how it feels to be a golf widow, how you can end a marriage but not the friendship it was based on, how someone who never planned to do so moves up in the academic world, and more! Books like this are such a gem as they preserve forever a way of life that is probably not going to be here in another 50 years. You will really enjoy the time you spend reading this book!

Read this new memoir and absolutely loved it. It's so good everyone to know about it. The author was born deep in eastern Kentucky in the 1940s and has since gone on to travel and work all over the world, teach at several schools -- all without losing the heart and soul of her homeplace. It's well written & most the time I forgot I was turning pages and thought she was sitting across from me telling the story of her life. It's about how things used to be, about how things can be; it's about what it means to become an adult, a woman, and a fountain of life. I really encourage you to read this book; it's touching and hilarious and insightful.

Just before Christmas my husband and I saw this author speaking on BookTV and he called and ordered Creekers for me. I am glad I saw and listened to her before I read the book because I could clearly hear her cadences as I was reading. In a most unique writing voice she takes us along on her journey from an Appalachian Creek, to which she forever remains loyal, out into the wider world beyond. Though she speaks lovingly of her home in Appalachia, along the way this writer manages to show us the time and the place and the people without a hint of sentimentality or condescension. I particularly enjoyed her description of the metamorphosis brought about by her education. Her story is by turns funny and painful, sometimes simultaneously! Both my husband and I enjoyed this book, which is not the usual occurrence, though he liked the first half while I preferred the last half. We look forward to more work from this talented writer and we agree that she really should put this book on tape!

As an Appalachian expat, I relished every line of Derosier's book especially at the end when she spoke of "that comin' home feeling" of people from that part of the country. That book literally took me to a time and a place I hadn't been in years. After reading parts of Creeker, I could close my eyes and be back on my Granny's porch once again. I never met this author, yet I felt kinship with her throughout her poetic book and I have thought of her often since I finished it. I am a voracious reader but I don't know when I have been so moved by a book. I can vouch that the early chapters are true and I can feel that the latter ones are. I am looking for more from this author. Creeker 2, maybe?

This writer does more to explain the Appalachia of my parents and grandparents than anything I have ever read. I am a college professor too but I was born and brought up in the north. I never understood my parents' love for the area of their birth. Frankly, I was ashamed of it and always resisted going "home" as they insisted on referring to East Tennessee. Creeker has given me insights into the strengths of Appalachia without glossing over the weaknesses. I appreciate that. I hope this author is continuing to write about her roots because I am finally interested in discovering mine. This book is well-written and I just passed it along to my mother. Thank you, Linda Derosier, for your honesty and your willingness to let a city girl finally learn about "our people" in your Creeker.

When one sifts through the layers of one's own life, how often is it possible to look back and evaluate honestly, reflectively, and with courage about how much of who you are is linked with where you came from? Creekers is written with elegance, style, and wit. It is the story of a woman who has overcome her circumstances without ever losing her heritage, and who never forgets that her beginnings are what made her journey so remarkable. The truth that DeRosier discovered about herself when she analysed the experience of her life shows both how different she became while remaining who she always was. A poignant memoir and love story about the choices we make and how they shape us.

To be honest, I'd never heard of this author but she was signing this book when I went into the bookstore to buy Homer Hickam's Coalwood. She also had a line of people there so I bought Creeker and had it autographed for my wife. She read it as I was reading Coalwood and sometimes she laughed out loud. As soon as she finished this book she began insisting that I read it. I too grew up on a "creek" in West Virginia, a few "hollers" over from Hickam's Coalwood. I think I enjoyed Creeker about as much as I enjoyed Rocket Boys. This writer has managed to capture a way of life that is breathing its last gasp, if it isn't dead already. Her descriptions of religion, schooling, and teenage dating are dead on. Now I wish I'd taken time to ask her if she's writing anything else. Like Hickam, she sure knows how to tell it like it was and make those of us who lived it proud. Thanks, ma'am. Now write another one. A fellow creeker

My daughter bought Creekers for me and I read it straight through. Though I laughed my way through most of it, I'll admit to a tear or two also. The author's optimistic vision was based on a feeling for home and family that came out of her truly wonderful childhood. I don't know when I have read such an uplifting book and I was sorry to see it end. Write more, Dr. Hillbilly. Write more! Margot's mom