Storming Heaven [Mass Market Paperback]

Denise Giardina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1988

Annadel, West Virginia, was a small town rich in coal, farms, and close-knit families, all destroyed when the coal company came in. It stole everything it hadn't bothered to buy -- land deeds, private homes, and ultimately, the souls of its men and women.
Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C.J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rose Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines.
They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain -- when the United States Army greeted 10,000 unemployed pro-union miners with airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. It was the first crucial battle of a war that has yet to be won.
"Brilliant, diamond-hard fiction, heartwrenching, tough and tender." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Four strong, entirely different voices evoke the passion and the pain of unionizing the coal mines of Kentucky and West Virginia in the early 20th century. The canvas is broad, the action complex but even minor characters quicken to life in this memorable, beautifully written novel. The inhabitants of the hills of Appalachia see their beloved land stolen by the coal companies; forced to work in the mines, they are cheated out of their pay. Families starve, die of malaria and dysentery and slowly, almost against their will, begin the fearsome job of fighting back. In 1921, an army of 10,000 workers marches on a single town. The coal companies, the police and finally the federal government close in; hundreds are killed and the man who masterminded the attack is shot. As fast paced and compulsively readable as a thriller, this novel never overlooks the gentler pleasure of living on the land, falling in love, raising a family. Stunning sensory images sear scenes on the mind's eye. Giardina (Good King Harry has written one of those rare books that portrays a small world with impeccable clarity while telling an exciting story in vigorous, elegant prose.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA This well-written novel is an earnest recreation of the turbulent events in the West Virginia coal fields during the early decades of this century. The ties of the people to land and family are the book's soul, and their violent confrontations with those who took their land and tried to take their dignity are its body. Because it is well into the story before the lives of most of the characters intersect and because the book builds to a climax of bloody repression of a strike, this may not have universal appeal to young adults. But those who reach at least as far as the black union organizer's fiery death in a company furnace are likely to finish and appreciate this tale of injustice met by bravery. Mike Parsons, Houston Public Library
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ivy Books (May 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080410297X
• ISBN-13: 978-0804102971
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Saga

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply one of the most moving books I have ever read., April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Storming Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

And I've read a LOT of books. This is one of the few books I'veread that will have me laughing until my sides ache in one chapter,crying until I can't see the pages in another, and ready to go on aprotest march in the next.

Storming Heaven is an exhaustively researched, historically accurate, and utterly compelling story of the Battle of Blair Mountain, WV in 1921. It's the story of an armed conflict between coal miners and the hired gunhands who represented the coal operators. It's a story of how the United States government turned on its own people, looking away when women and children were murdered in cold blood, sending troops into the valleys and dropping bombs on the mountains.

And if the story itself isn't stirring enough, Giardina writes some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. The mountains are *alive* in her books.

My copy of Storming Heaven is so dog-eared and highlighted that I'll soon need to replace it. I am astounded that a couple of others have rated this book a 'hard read'. Compared to what? Danielle Steele?

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding, riveting, June 9, 2000

By 

Christine Goldbeck (Middletown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Storming Heaven (Paperback)

Hailing from the coal regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania, when I learned of this title, I quickly ordered a copy and read it within a day and a half. I could not put it down, and, in fact, kept returning to passages because Giardina's prose is brilliant. The characters are so alive that I was actually upset to end the book and lose Carrie Bishop as a friend. Being a writer, I am in awe of Giardina. In fact, off I go to read the other Giardina book I ordered, "The Unquiet Earth." Anyone from coal country, be it NE PA's anthracite field or coal country in other locations, will readily identify with this story for its historical worth. Reading it is like listening to tales as told by our great-grandparents who worked in the damp,dark underground and their families, who toiled above.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read, April 28, 2000

By 

Nancy (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storming Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

This book tells a story, based on actual events, that is little known to those outside of the Appalachian coalfield area. It is told through the eyes of four characters, and is both moving and chilling. The South was built on the backs of slaves, the railroad on the backs of Chinese and other immigrants, but many Americans are unaware that our industrial progress was fueled by the coal out of West Virginia and Kentucky, mined by "mountain folk" who were brutalized by our own government, as well as the coal operators who kept them in abject poverty. A tremendous book.