Shelter [Paperback]

Jayne Anne Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

In a West Virginia girls' camp in July 1963, a group of children experience an unexpected rite of passage. Shelter is an astonishing portrayal of an American loss of innocence as witnessed by a drifter named Parson, two young sisters, Lenny and Alma, and a feral boy. Like Buddy, the wide-eyed boy so at home in the natural bower of the forest, Lenny and Alma are forever transformed by violence, by family secrets, by surprising turns of love.

What they choose to remember, what they meet within and around the boundaries of the camp, will determine the rest of their lives. In a leafy wilderness undiminished by societal rules and dilemmas, Lenny and Alma confront a terrible darkness and find in themselves a knowledge never lent to them by the adult world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Phillips's second novel is a dark rite-of-passage story of children confronting violence in Appalachia.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In her newest work, acclaimed novelist Phillips (Machine Dreams, 1984) presents a dark, violent, and yet familiar world, using as her setting a forested mountain summer camp for girls in West Virginia during the early 1960s. Classic coming-of-age stirrings in camper sisters Lenny and Alma mingle with the frightening family secrets of Buddy, a young boy who hangs around the camp. Meanwhile, a young man named Parsons who knew Buddy's stepfather in prison, hides in an abandoned shack in the forest and watches the man he believes is the devil. The brutality the stepfather inflicts on Buddy and his "Mam," the camp cook, sets the stage for the terrifying drama that propels this novel. Powerful and riveting, this is highly recommended for most collections.
--Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1994 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: 320 pages
• Publisher: Delta (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385313896
• ISBN-13: 978-0385313896
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,943,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICH OBSERVATION AND LUMINOUS PROSE, May 16, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shelter: A Novel (Paperback)

This searing, sometimes gothic coming-of-age story is written in luminous prose. No surprise here, for Jayne Anne Phillips has done it before in "Machine Dreams," a novel nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Lenny and her younger sister, Alma, are spending the summer at Camp Shelter, a West Virginia Girl Guides retreat. However, rather than spending their days swimming, hiking, and singing around campfires, they undergo an astonishing rite of passage.

Their idyll is interrupted by Carmody, a drunken ex-convict who abuses his young son, Buddy, and another ex-convict, Parson, a sick soul given to delusional religious visions. Through the collision of these antithetical characters, the author explores the existence of good and evil, family relationships, and generational differences.

Jayne Anne Phillips often wields a poet's pen, endowing her prose with a richness of observation and crystalline clarity of words. "Shelter" is a unique literary coup.

- Gail Cooke

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Phillips Fans, May 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Shelter (Hardcover)

For devotees of Phillips' writing style, this is a must-have item. This work, more than any others truly exemplifies her rather unique way with words. No other living author could render such a poetic description of urinals; it is, alas, simply too beautiful to describe. This wonderful book is less about plot and characterization than about the pure joy of indulging oneself in Phillips' marvelously arcane prose. Happily, for the devoted fan, there are quite a few copies on the market, although why anyone would even think of discarding such a marvelous work of art is a complete mystery to me. This is a truly unique author at her very best. Excelsior!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Am I confused or is it just too late at night to be reading?, December 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Shelter (Hardcover)

I found this book to be extremely confusing. I stuck it out and after finishing it I decided I really did not like it. I feel as though I was reading two entirely different books - one that was a supernatural Stephen Kingesque novel and one that was a coming of age chiller/thriller novel. Frankly I didn't "get" all the Parson character/Devil stuff. I agree with other customer's criticism that the characters were extremely underdeveloped - I was half way though the book and still flipping to the front to figure out who was whom. I can hardly wait to see who in my book club got through it and what they thought of it.