Customer Reviews

Home Call

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

 

 

Bob Sloan describes himself as a "blue-collar" writer. That may describe his characters, but there's nothing common about his writing. It is as sophisticated as any you'll come across. He captures the integrity and honesty of the people of Appalachia in elegently simple language with descriptive phrases that ring with a crystal clear authenticity. This is a book that will fascinate you from beginning to end.

Home Call is a dang good story! Every character is extremely well drawn, the story rings true to one who has "gone home" in his own neck of the southern woods, and keeps the reader wondering until the final pages. Bob Sloan effectively evokes sense of place in the modern Appalachia. His story is believable, worth writing and worth reading. Bob Sloan is one of our best new novelists! I highly recommend this novel.

I was unable to put this book down until I finished it. It kept me up most of the night. I have not read a better contemporary appalachian novel. You've probably met Sloan's characters before, but they are certainly not stereotypes. They are well developed characters, the REAL people of Eastern Kentucky, caught up in true-to-life situations. You will care about them. Sloan's collection of short stories "Bearskin to Holly Fork" is a good read, but "Home Call" held my attention more.

"Home Call is a fascinating, old fashioned yarn in an intensely modern setting. Sloan is a master of the unpredictable and the skillfully drawn characters draw you deeply into their lives whether you want to be there or not. This is a fine read."
-- Jim Harrison, author of True North, Legends of the Fall, Dalva and many other books

"Home Call is an important and original look at contemporary Appalachia. Sloan doesn't pull any punches and bravely exposes both the beauty and the pain of living in a world that is caught up in the complexities of honoring the past but also moving forward into unknown territory. This is an Appalachia that readers haven't seen yet, and it's about time they did."
-- Silas House, author of Clay's Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves

"Bob Sloan doesn't waste a word as he rolls out the cast of characters who people Jesse Surratt's life, letting us in on the news that not every soul in hes Kentucky mountains is tenderhearted -- or morally upright, for that matter. This book is hard to put down, and is sure to bring waves of homesickmess to all those of us who wonder if maybe we could go back home and try our own brand of living down our past. What a storyteller! Thanks, Bob."
--Linda Scott DeRosier, Creeker and Songs of Life and Grace

I've met this Bob Sloan feller and he sure is full of it. I hate reading Appalachian fiction about someone raising weed. This book os god awful. Bob Sloan is the worst writer I have ever read.