Keeper of the Moon [Paperback]

Tim McLaurin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

The author of two acclaimed novels, The Acorn Plan and Woodrow's Trumpet, now gives us his first nonfiction book. Beautifully written, it is an affecting memoir of his hardscrabble life in the rural South, his coming-of-age as a novelist, and his struggle with a life-threatening disease.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

His childhood home in North Carolina was a "physical heaven,' ' recalls novelist McLaurin ( The Acorn Plan ), despite the hardscrabble lot of his rural family. Capturing the grittiness of Southern poverty as well as the abundance of joy in its midst, he composes a wistful paean to a southland that has nearly vanished. One of five children raised by a resourceful mother and alcoholic father, he became a handler of poisonous snakes and a youthful stargazer (hence the title) while developing a thirst for a larger world. Also featured are earthy Southern family members and friends, their eccentric behaviors and knack for knockabout fun. McLaurin, who overcame bone cancer with a marrow transplant from a sibling, pays tribute to his heritage in this lively, memorable memoir.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Readers of this tedious coming-of-age memoir hoping for insight on the "real South" will only find here the pretentious manly cliches that Esquire magazine loves so much. The men who populate novelist McLaurin's ( Woodrow's Trumpet , LJ 8/89) North Carolina childhood are hard drinkin', hard livin', colorful characters, while the women are either strong, tough matriarchs (McLaurin's mother) or seductive bimbos (his first wife). (McLaurin's patronizing attitude toward women is particularly annoying; he describes his future second wife as "a fine woman who . . . would birth my two children.") A shame really, because hidden under the overwritten portentous prose is the nugget of a powerful book; McLaurin's account of his struggles against a rare form of bone cancer and his younger brother's gift of bone marrow is the only part where his book comes alive. Not recommended. Librarians should stick to Harry Crews's classic A Childhood ( LJ 9/15/78).
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Down Home Pr; 2 edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878086685
• ISBN-13: 978-1878086686
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-wrenching Reality of Southern Poverty, November 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeper of the Moon (Hardcover)

Reading Tim McLaurin is like talking with a friend. In Keeper of the Moon, he recalls his painful childhood - a childhood of poverty that he didn't even recognize as poverty until he left it. The stories in this collection are so real you can feel the cold, shed the tears, and know the lonliness of the author. His memories are all to familiar to those of us who grew up during the same era and with the same in-bred prejudices and misconceptions. We all saw or knew or were related to the same characters he describes so vividly. Some of us were lucky enough not to have to work a farm, birthing swine or watching our dads drink themselves into oblivion, but we saw it all around us and felt its impact. It all comes home with a vengence while reading his boyhood stories. If you never lived it, you will through his eyes and his words. Read it more than once; you will learn something new each and every time you do. Savor it for the truths revealed; cherish it for the lessons learned and for the sheer joy of reading a masterful artist's work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very powerful book, May 5, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (rtp area, nc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeper of the Moon (Paperback)

every southerner should read this and all of tim mclaurin's works. his perspective and view of growing up in the south touches on some truths that every native person of the south has been exposed to. the stories of the relationships in this and all of mclaurin's books are almost too real. rarely have i read anyone's work who could express such complex feelings with such clarity. tim mclaurin, like ferrol sams and pat conroy, is one of the best the south has to offer.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Bag, August 29, 2001

By 

David Bradley "David Bradley" (Sterling, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeper of the Moon (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book, but I think some of the praise here and on the back cover is a tad overblown.
I think McLaurin is a good writer, and "Keeper Of The Moon" is a good book. He spends a lot of time recreating conversations he didn't witness, or was just too young to remember, but that's a quibble. This is the kind of book a lot of us say we're going to write, but all too few of us ever get around to doing it.
But I have trouble with McLaurin and other "southern" writers who dip into fits of that reverse-snobbery they call "southern pride." Being from the south myself (Virginia, admittedly not the deep south but the home of the Presidents and Robert E. Lee, don't ya know---I do say "ya'll" several times a day), I still don't understand the theory that dying in needless hunting and drunken driving accidents, having children while still in middle school, getting in knife fights, or living in poverty because you spend all your money on booze, drugs, and hookers is somehow a proud tradition. Call me crazy, but I think there's a lot more to the south, or any other part of the country, than that.