Set in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, Haun's stories of Appalachian life capture the forceful simplicity of the legends and ballads that still live in the rural hollows.
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These are stories, strongly imaginative and excellently told, by a talented writer who used material real enough for ballads in that appropriate setting where balladry has made a last stand.
--Robert Van Gelder,
The human predicament done in terms of a natural world, which does not forbid the supernatural. Mildred Haun has the true sense of a certain people, removed from a (so-called) more advanced kind of society.
--Andrew Lytle, Sewanee Review
--Robert Van Gelder,
The human predicament done in terms of a natural world, which does not forbid the supernatural. Mildred Haun has the true sense of a certain people, removed from a (so-called) more advanced kind of society.
--Andrew Lytle, Sewanee Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent fictional depiction of life in Appalachia,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hawk's Done Gone (Paperback)
Mildred Haun's work continues to be read and taught at the collegiate level nearly 70 years after it was written. It is an excellent depiction of life in Appalachian Tennessee shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. It is also a highly skilled use of dialect and folk lore in a fictional setting. The majority of the stories in the book utilize a common narrator, a central group of characters, and a rough chronological progression. The book is often discussed in settings that seek to determine the point at which such a collection of short stories cross the line and become a novel. The book is a must read for anyone seeking to attain a complete understanding of Appalachian Literature.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Southern App Collection,
By
This review is from: The Hawk's Done Gone (Paperback)
Being originally from the same part of the country as Mildred Haun I can attest to the authenticity and accuracy of the style and speech used throughout this book. These are stories where deep tragedy and farcical humor innertwine, told in speech patterns still common to East Tennessee. One of the recurrent themes (among many) in these stories is the silent suffering of Appalachian women; they keep their sarcastic observations to themselves while their worlds crumble around them. Yet the reader has just cause to doubt their veracity, and wonder why these women don't react if circumstances are really as bad as depicted. This demonstrates Haun's keen sense of irony as she lays inner thoughts in relief to the harsh but simpler realities of late 19th and early 20th century Appalachia. In addition, there are strong references to the supernatural throughout, owing to the intimacy between mankind and nature in these settings. The first part of this book consists of "The Hawk's Done Gone", a loosely unified novel told in a series of vignettes by the same narrator -- a "granny woman" (i.e. midwife and makeshift funeral arranger). Like Faulkner's "Go Down, Moses" these individual stories build a masterful composite picture -- here, of rural mountain life in an area removed from the stereotypic coal mines and bootlegging of other popular Appalachian books. The second half is a collection of separate, unrelated stories, and the last one, "Dave Cocke's Motion," is worth the price of the whole volume. It is a side-splitting satire that beautifully captures the wry, sarcastic humor of East Tennessee. Beginning as the recounting of a rivalry between two young, aspiring musicians, it explodes into a church split, which in turn dredges up deep-seeded political divisions from the Civil War era -- an important nuance, given that as many Union sympathizers lived in that part of the country as Secessionists. Not one to miss, "Cocke's Motion" is every bit as clever and insightful as anything in Mark Twain's canon. In cannot be overstated that Mildred Haun's work is literature in the fullest sense. Despite her milieu, which is often derided as backward, Haun had the smarts to attend Vanderbilt University where she honed her writing chops under the guidance of the celebrated "Fugitive" poet/essayist John Crowe Ransom. "The Hawk's Done Gone" is the work of an obscure literary genius, and is possibly the finest example of Southern Appalachian fiction ever written.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hawk's Done got here quick,
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This review is from: The Hawk's Done Gone (Paperback)
This is a great book and opens your eyes up to a new perspective. It shipped quickly and it is a good story to analyze and think about.
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