Stormy Weather: A Novel [Hardcover]

Paulette Jiles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2007

From Paulette Jiles comes a poignant and unforgettable story of hardship, sacrifice, and strength in a tragic time—and a desperate dream born of an undying faith in the arrival of a better day.

Oil is king of East Texas during the darkest years of the Great Depression. The Stoddard girls know no life but an itinerant one, trailing their father from town to town as he searches for work on the pipelines and derricks. And in every small town, mother Elizabeth does her level best to make each sparse, temporary house they inhabit a home.

But the fall of 1937 ushers in a year of devastating drought and dust storms, and the family's fortunes sink further when a questionable "accident" leaves Elizabeth and her girls alone to confront the cruelest hardships of these hardest of times. With no choice left to them, they return to the abandoned family farm.

It is Jeanine Stoddard who devotes herself to rebuilding the farm and their lives. But hard work and good intentions won't make ends meet. In desperation, the Stoddard women place their last hopes for salvation in a wildcat oil well and on the back of late patriarch Jack's one true legacy, a dangerous racehorse named Smoky Joe. And Jeanine must decide if she will gamble it all . . . on love.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jiles's eloquent, engaging sophomore novel celebrates four strong women toughing out the Great Depression in the Texas dust bowl. As the book opens in 1927, Elizabeth Stoddard and husband Jack have three daughters: the pretty Mayme, the tomboyish Jeanine and the writerly Bea. Jeanine, resented for being daddy's favorite, soon becomes the novel's primary point of view. After the disgraced Jack dies in 1937, the four Stoddard women move back to the 150-acre homeplace on the Brazos River in Central Texas. Drought, hail and dust storms, land-tax debts and grinding poverty make life a struggle; radio shows, horse-racing, wildcat oil well speculation and stuttering news reporter friend Milton Brown provide diversions. Jeanine falls in love with local rancher Ross Everett; Mayme dates soldier Vernon. Visceral detail of the 1930s rancher life and the hardscrabble setting add authenticity, particularly in the characters' feel for horses. While forthright, some of the dialogue is less than believable (as when Ross compliments Jeanine on her "furious bloody purple" dress), but it serves the characters' greater-than-usual emotional bandwidth. Jiles winds this gritty saga up on the eve of WWII with a patchwork quilt's worth of hope. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In her second novel, following the acclaimed Enemy Women (2002), Jiles proves herself an exceptional writer. This stirring story of four women--Elizabeth Stoddard and her three daughters, Mayme, Jeanine, and Bea--struggling to survive during the Depression is set against a barren Texas landscape, still suffering the effects of a long drought and devastating dust storms. The Stoddards, having followed their charming patriarch, Jack, from one oil field to another, must now cope with his death from a gas leak. His love of gambling and liquor has left them destitute; they return to their long-abandoned family farm, where they face a hefty bill for back taxes. Jack's one legacy is an underfed racehorse named Smoky Joe. Jeanine, smart and practical, is forced to sell the horse to cover their debts but takes a percentage of his winnings; meanwhile, her mom invests in a wildcat oil well. The lack of money, though, never detracts from the Stoddards' dignity. Jiles conveys their sense of self and of home in language as spare and stark as the Texas landscape. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060537329
• ISBN-13: 978-0060537326
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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 I was sorry when I finished it!, May 28, 2007

By 

Karen B. Baierl (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stormy Weather: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved Enemy Women, her civil war novel,so was thrilled to see she had written another book. I just finished reading and want to tell everyone who will listen to me to read Stormy Weather. The setting is harsh (1930s Texas during the drought and the Great Depression) but the writing is so lyrical and beautiful. The characters are fully developed and likeable. And the love story and tension she creates between the two is delicious agony for the reader. This was a reading experience where I had to stop often just to soak up the images she created. I rarely write book reviews, but was moved to do so for this wonderful book!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can see, hear, taste, and touch this story!, May 13, 2007

By 

John C. Wiegard "Virginia Librarian" (Chester, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stormy Weather: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jiles is a brilliant storyteller and a careful craftsman of detail and dialog. She tells a memorable tale here of a Texas family in the Great Depression who lose their husband and father to drink and gambling and are forced to survive without him, somehow.

Quarter horses race down a track at sunset, and the winner pelts the face of the loser with gravel and dirt from his pounding hooves. A well strikes oil, sending pieces of the rig into the sky, as onlookers scream with joy and run like hell. A tough, widower rancher courts a twenty year old girl, and when he says "you're messin with me again" it is the most romantic thing ever said.

Do not wait for the beach trip to read this one at a single sitting. I think it is one of the sleeper hits of the season- it reminds me of Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants"- another colorful story of the dark days of the 1930s. Get it now.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Written with Memorable Characters, September 17, 2007

By 

voraciousreader1 "voraciousreader1" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stormy Weather: A Novel (Hardcover)

Lately I've read so many novels that have disappointed. Not this one! While the subject matter didn't appear to be something I'd be interested in (I'm not one for "a girl and her horse" stories), I'm glad that I listened to the reviews here and bought this book.

It's the story of 3 girls, and their mother and father set in Texas during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The father's a ner-do-well whose death leaves the mother and the girls with few options, but to retreat to a broken down ranch house and try to make a living.

Their story is moving, wry, and poignant. It's beautifully written; each word chosen precisely and carefully - a pleasure to read. The descriptions are lyrical, the characters are memorable, particularly Jeanine, the middle sister. She tells her horse Smokey Joe, that he's "a rocket," but the same could be said of her!

This memorable book is a keeper.