Rattlebone [Paperback]

Maxine Clair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

Set in the fictional town of Rattlebone, Kansas, in the 1950s, these eleven interrelated stories reveal the emotional, financial, and social conflicts that govern the lives of the African Americans who live there. Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award. Author reading tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clair's debut, a collection of 11 short stories, centers around the coming-of-age of a young African American girl growing up on the outskirs of 1950s Kansas City.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Each of these related stories contains insight and intensity on its own; as a group they successfully create the African- American 1950s Kansas City (Kans.) community of the title as an insular world replete with detail and texture. In her fictional debut, Clair (Coping with Gravity, not reviewed) works from the outside in to show her characters, beginning with the way others see them and ending with their visions of themselves. Irene Wilson is the linchpin who connects them to one another, and the narrator of several stories. In ``October Brown,'' she observes her parents' marital problems and watches as her new teacher moves in on her father. ``Cherry Bomb'' has Irene recounting her early, awkward stabs at sexual contact with her cousin's friend Nick and the jottings she made in a diary, as well as her friend Wanda's revelation that she has gotten her first period. ``A Most Serene Girl'' follows Irene as she makes friends with Geraldine and visits her family's basement apartment in a ``tourist home''--which, Geraldine informs her, means that people can rent rooms there to have sex, and she and Geraldine establish an afternoon routine of peeking through keyholes. ``Secret Love'' explains why Irene's friend Wanda abruptly stops allowing Irene to read her own diary after her retarded brother Puddin'--who likes to eat mayonnaise out of a jar with his hand--is taken away. Other characters have their say as well. In ``The Roomers,'' the owner of a boardinghouse who has never been able to have children tells of asking unmarried schoolteacher October Brown to leave because of her pregnancy and chasing her husband away in the process. ``The Great War'' explores Irene's mother Pearlean's feelings about her husband as she sits on the front porch. Even greater than the sum of its admirable parts. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140248250
• ISBN-13: 978-0140248258
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is for you Emily!, February 11, 2000

By 

Luis Yin (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rattlebone (Paperback)

I'm currently studying at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. Reading Rattlebone is one of the requirements for our English 102 class. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that the author, Maxine Clair, graduated from KU. Anyways, it is pretty much a thrill to be able to read about the past of a place where you're living right now. It's not only that, it kind of takes you back through time to the 50's and lets you experience or see a young African American girl's (Irene's) life back then. How family problems, social conflicts, and major political changes affected her life as she went through puberty and early teenage life. I think Maxine Clair does a pretty good job in using and creating different, but unique characters in Irene's life which influences her in their own unique manner. I think that if you're looking for a book to take you back into time, Rattlebone is a must-read book, especially if you live in Kansas or in the midwest. I know everytime I go down to Olathe or Kansas City, I will not look at it the same way I used to.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book that rattled my bones, April 20, 2005

By 

Christine Moore (Charleston, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rattlebone (Paperback)

At first, I could not get used to the transition between chapters/stories. I was finding it difficult to follow and get to know the characters. As I continued to read, the characters began to reappear and become interesting. Also, in the beginning, I was not in the mood for reading in prose. With the author's compelling writing, that quickly changed as I enjoyed her rhythmic phrases. She has a tremendous gift for relaying information in a story without directly saying it. For instance, description of Irene not being able to deliver her "Creation" speech due to racial prejudice was adeptly told without using incendiary descriptions.

Some of the chapters were so engaging, and the ending so unexpected that they left me really feeling like I wanted to somehow interact with them. I wanted to maybe scream at someone or impact them in some other negative way. Overall, I enjoyed reading Rattlebone, and would recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Town Meeting - A Portrait, July 30, 2002

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rattlebone (Paperback)

Rattlebone, Kansas. Circa 1950. A group of related short stories paints a picture of the town of Rattlebone, Kansas and its inhabitants. Driven by strong characterizations, Maxine Clair's Rattlebone introduces us to Irene, a young girl living there as she grows, experiences, and blooms. Other notable characters include the Red Quanders, a group of people living together in a kinship environment, reminiscent of Igbo and other West African traditionalists, October Brown, Irene's grade school teacher, and Nick, Irene's introduction to love and all things pre-pubescent.

In essence, the tales tell two sides to every story, first relaying how a character is perceived by others and also how a character perceives himself or herself. The stories and characters all tie together if they do not pronounce themselves with novel-like fluency. Clair even continues a character's (October Brown) story in her second fiction title, October Suite. Each of these stories has its own moral, its own personality, its own undercurrent of emotion and is, thus, worthy of any reader's attention.

Reviewed by CandaceK