Customer Reviews

Miss Etta's Arkansas Spring

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This is the tender story of a mature woman who is very much alone and of her struggle to learn to accept the proffered love of the endearing cast of characters around her. The well paced plot zips along with several contrasting lines of development (including the threat of an approaching tornado) which hold the reader's interest from start to finish. The author has a masterful command of language and it is a joy to read the work of this articulate storyteller.

Miss Etta's Arkansas Spring is a beautiful story. Anyone interested in Southern culture or music would enjoy this book. Dr. Imbragulio captures the true spirit of the smalltown music teacher in his wonderful character development. The greater themes of aloneness and terror are also explored. His descriptions of the piano students, teachers and friends of Miss Etta's are remarkable. This book reminded me of some of the extended short stories of Eudora Welty in the way the tension builds throughout the work and the wonderful use of the language. I will not soon forget Miss Etta and highly recommend this moving book.

This is a delightful book for anyone who loves life and loves to read. It is a moving story of a lonely piano teacher and the struggles she faces in her life. The author's descriptions of the characters and their diverse personalities are so typical of real life, that it seemed to me I had met some of them before. One of the main characters resembled a professor I had in college. The life-changing circumstances of the book and the way in which it is presented make this book a winner in my opinion!

MISS ETTA'S ARKANSAS SPRING shines as one of the most charming books I have read in this decade. In his novel, Mr. Imbragulio dances through the dialogue among these engaging Arkansans displaying a writing style with a sweet, lyrical flow. He describes scenes of nature in sensual imagery and deeply engages the reader to enter into the lives of these downhome, folksy characters whom he has created. His characters are vividly developed and real and it seems obvious that he has drawn them from his own life experience in his field as a pianist, jurist and as a keen life-observer. The story, woven around Miss Etta, a local piano teacher, the regional Piano Guild auditions in her district of Arkansas and the visiting judge from Louisiana who befriends her, keeps one's attention riveted to the pages. An underlying tension prevails throughout regarding the impending tornado and how that event becomes a turning point in resolving Miss Etta's lifelong fears bringing her closer to those who love her.

Mr. Imbragulio shows a remarkable sensitivity toward the human condition of loneliness, valuing highly the individual spirit and its need to rise above itself and go beyond its barriers and boundaries. Anne Nunnally

This is one of those rare treasures that anyone who has ever studied piano will enjoy immensely. It is a quiet story of a sweet little old lady who teaches piano in a town in Arkansas, and the week of the Guild Auditions, when a tornado touches down and changes her life for the second time. Imbragulio is insightful and writes with love, clarity and delicious turns of phrase. You cannot but be touched by Miss Etta. I certainly was.