Customer Reviews

How They Shine : Melungeon Characters in the Fiction of Appalachia (The Melungeons : History, Culture, Ethnicity, and Literature)

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Katherine Vande Brake's How They Shine is at once a scholarly examination of the depiction of Melungeons in Appalachian fiction and a readable overview of the topic. Though Melungeons have been characters in Appalachian fiction for many decades, no one has yet analyzed the way in which these misunderstood people have been presented. In this book, the first to address the issue of Melungeons in fiction, Vande Brake has filled that gap.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. While Vande Brake imparts a great deal of information, her style is quite conversational. Reading the book feels like sitting at a kitchen table in conversation with an old friend over a cup of coffee. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a good book about books or anyone who seeks information about the Melungeon people.

How They Shine: Melungeon Characters In The Fiction Of Appalachia by Katherine Vande Brake (Associate Professor of English, King College, Bristol, Tennessee) is the first critical study of Melungeon characters in written fiction. Focusing on the wealth of Melungeon culture and how the Melungeon people have been viewed through the ages, particularly through the eyes of writers who identify them with the virgin Appalachian ridges before European colonization, How They Shine is an ground breaking, seminal, scholarly analysis that takes apart stereotypes and delves into the heart of human perception. How They Shine is a remarkable, informative, superbly presented and persuasive literary account.

The book brought me into a new world,in which people don't know their heritage. I had never heard the word Melungeon before. The author made it easy, interesting reading.

How They Shine is engrossing and captivating. I found it to be a superb book! Vande Brake opens a door into the mysteries of the Melungeon culture. In doing so, you can feel Vande Brake's love of literature and great admiration of this quiet, obscure community that has its roots in Appalachia. While reading, I gained a great respect for the Melungeons as a group. Vande Brake brings to the reader's consciousness that Melungeon characters are used in literature to conjure up an image stereotypical to this group of people in the mountains of North East Tennessee and South West Virginia. Their tenacity, snake handling, moon shining, physical features, and exclusivity to the outside world are all part of this characterization.

How they shine is a fascinating work, full of haunting images of a special community of people who have lived in our United States for centuries.

Vande Brake writes vividly. How They shine is a scholarly work with well-documented claims yet it is an easy read. Those looking to do research or those lay people who are looking for an enjoyable book about another culture will find it satisfying.

Vande Brake's writing makes a complicated topic understandable to any reader.

Buy it!

An excellent book, scholarly and very readable. the Melungeons are a fascinating people. VandeBrake does a very good job of explaining them and how they have appeared in the literature. I expect we'll hear and read a lot more from this author.