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The Mammoth Cheese: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It was a long walk to the end of the driveway..." (more)
Key Phrases: cheese house, three chimneys, eleven babies, Pastor Vaughn, Adams Brooke, Patrick Lewis (more...)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sheri Holman's The Mammoth Cheese is the Mississippi River of novels. It winds along through most of the great themes of American fiction (tradition vs. innovation, the weight of the past, the dehumanizing effects of industrialization, the rifts between parents and children, men and women), picking up bits of history along the way, and carrying you wherever Holman wishes. The opening pages introduce at least 15 characters (not including the 11 premature babies born to dog trainer Manda Frank), a rough outline of the history of Three Chimneys, Virginia, and more information on small-farm cheesemaking than you might ever have thought you'd would want to learn, let alone absorb with fascination. Along with its moving themes, the pleasures of this novel are in Holman's grasp of human (and not only human) nature, and her gift for expressing this through unexpected details of daily life--that the cows in the local dairy give more milk when Sinatra's playing; that the dirty secret under an eighth-grade girl's mattress is Bride Magazine. Her inconspicuous flashes of verbal brilliance may go unnoticed by all but the most observant readers, but they lend sparkle to a complex and ambitious novel. --Regina Marler


From Booklist

This big but nimble novel, by the author of the well-received Dress Lodger (2000), is absolutely compelling in its swift satire, yet readers will also respond to its deep sympathies for "well-foibled" individuals. The setting is the little Virginia town of Three Chimneys, which has just experienced a record-setting event: the multiple births of 11 infants to a young, unsophisticated couple artificially helped in their pursuit of fertility. National focus on the little burg is enhanced with the visit of presidential candidate Adams Brooke. One avid supporter of Brooke is local cheese maker Margaret Prickett, whose dairy farm is in financial distress; what Margaret appreciates in Brooke's candidacy is his avid support of the small farmer. But as the weeks go on, and as the babies begin to die, the townspeople, to make themselves look good again, endeavor to take a giant cheese, created by Margaret, to Washington, D.C., to duplicate an act that apparently happened during Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Human nature exposed at its rawest--and most entertaining. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 592 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; Stated 1st Edition (10987654321) edition (July 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0871139006
  • ISBN-13: 978-0871139009
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,414,906 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Sheri Holman
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
It was a long walk to the end of the driveway. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
cheese house, three chimneys, eleven babies, old chimney
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pastor Vaughn, Adams Brooke, Patrick Lewis, Mammoth Cheese, Thomas Jefferson, School Street, Miss Marvel, Margaret Prickett, Chase Andrew, Frank Eleven, Harvey March, Amanda Frank, Bob Crenshaw, Family Matters, Governor Brooke, Glenn Mullins, Polly Marvel, New York, Francis Marvel, Civil War, Coach Emery, Elder John Leland, Leland Vaughn, Snow White, August Vaughn
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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
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 (6)
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 (4)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars a good read and a better ending, October 14, 2003
By B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
You gotta give credit to someone willing to title her book The Mammoth Cheese. Luckily, the story stands strong against the title. This is a more sprawling work than Holman's The Dress Lodger. While its geographic base is pretty focused, rarely leaving the small town it is set in, the story spins through a large number of characters and several major plotlines, including a pending farm foreclosure, a Presidential election, the aftermath of a divorce, the birth of 11 babies to one mother, a spiritual crisis, several mid-life crises, unrequited love, a growing relationship between a teacher and his pupil though whether it tends toward good or bad remains up in the air for a while, and of course, the creation and transport of the mammoth cheese itself. That's a lot to tackle and Holman admirably handles the load. As one might expect with so many characters, some are not as fully fleshed out as one would like. The history teacher and the ex-husband in particular I thought were a bit weak in their portrayal, as is the mother of 11 until somewhat later in the book. While their lack of full depth is noticeable, it does not detract over much from the work as a whole. And their somewhat shallow development is more than made up for by the rest of the characterization, which is deeply satisfying. One begins to care for and root for these characters early on. We take on their hopes and desires along with their despair and fear. The woman desperately trying to hold onto her farm and family, the Jefferson impersonator trying to figure out who he is behind his persona, the minister struggling with his recent decisions and his possible motivations, eventually the mother of 11, and perhaps most of all, the young daughter struggling to find herself among and sometimes in spite of all these adults surrounding her. The tension steadily rises throughout the novel as questions come nearer their answers, answers which Holman skillfully manages to not foreshadow too obviously. And because we care about the characters, we care greatly about the answers. There are moments that are truly terrifying, especially as one moves toward the close. It seems lately that my biggest complaint about recent books, even ones I loved such as Lovely Bones or Bel Canto, is that so many of them have had poor or even terribly endings. I'm happy to say this book broke the trend. The ending here is not only earned by what has gone before, but is the best part of the book. Another complaint I've had a lot lately is that so many characters in a lot of recent books have acted not as real people would but in ways to service the plot. Once again, The Mammoth Cheese shines as the opposite. all of the characters, even the small ones, even the ones not so well drawn, at least act human. They do dumb things, they doubt, they make mistakes, they get lucky. and because we can recognize ourselves in their thoughts and actions we care even more about what happens to them. I wouldn't call this a great book or say as some reviewers have that I couldn't put it down though I never considered doing so. It did bog down in two or three places, though only briefly, and as mentioned, some characters were too sketchy for my liking, but even in the slow parts I wanted to read on because I wanted to know what happened to these people. More than wanting to know, I wanted the right things to happen to them. I won't say if they did, but it's worth finding out.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL!!!, August 4, 2003
By A Customer
I cannot recall the last time I read as entertaining and smart a book as the Mammoth Cheese. It's a really smart book about family, destiny, love, and, alas, the government and the ways in which power is obtained and maintained. All of this manifest's in young Polly March's life and a far as narrators go, I haven't come across as interesting a young woman since I read Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye. Sheri Holman nails the sense of a girl beginning to think and live her own life so vividly that I could not put the book down. I was just riveted.

This is a big, important, lovable, endearing book. Don't miss it!

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Absurd title? Maybe. Silly Themes? No Way!, July 19, 2003
By Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
As I was reading Sheri Holman's new novel, THE MAMMOTH CHEESE, on the subway, I received countless comments from strangers on the book's title. "THE MAMMOTH CHEESE," more than one person said to me, "What's THAT about?" Although many of the novel's situations --- and certainly its title --- are rather absurd, the novel touches on themes that are anything but silly.

Sheri Holman, whose previous novels, A STOLEN TONGUE and THE DRESS LODGER, were set in Palestine and England, respectively, here writes a novel that is not only American in its setting and scope but also quintessentially American in its themes of self-reliance, family obligation and, most importantly, independence. In many ways THE MAMMOTH CHEESE is an extended meditation on the concept of independence, explored through the examples of several carefully drawn small-town folks from rural Three Chimneys, Virginia.

There's Manda Frank, part of Three Chimneys's most notorious white-trash family, who finds herself the mother of eleven babies after a fertility drug proves a little too effective. Counseled by her pastor to keep all the babies, Manda is completely bewildered by her new responsibilities. When some of the babies start to die, Manda is torn between anguish at her loss and relief at the prospect of regaining the freedom she has always valued and the ability to hunt and roam the woods with her beloved dogs, a freedom that motherhood seems to have stolen entirely.

Also struggling with his own independence is August Vaughn. By day, August is a farmhand on Margaret Prickett's small dairy farm. By night, he dresses up as Thomas Jefferson to interpret Jefferson's life and writings to audiences of locals and tourists alike. Even though August reveres the man famous for writing the Declaration of Independence, he is unable to declare his own independence. He's in thrall both to his parents, with whom he has lived as an adult for more than twenty years, and to his long hidden and unrequited love for Margaret.

Margaret, too, must define what independence means to her. Recently divorced from her husband, she's struggling to keep her small dairy farm afloat while raising her 13-year-old daughter Polly, protecting her from the corrupting influences of modern life. Margaret has pinned all her financial hopes on newly elected President Adams Brooke, who has run on a platform of granting debt amnesty to America's small farmers. As a dramatic expression of her gratitude, Margaret is determined to present President Brooke with a 1,200-pound cheese, a gesture reminiscent of a gift given to Jefferson during his presidency. Soon, though, the mammoth cheese gets out of Margaret's control, and she must decide how far to take the media circus that ensues.

Finally, there's Polly, Margaret's teenage daughter, who loves her mother fiercely but feels lost in the wake of her parents' divorce and the drama of her mother's struggles to save her farm. She is drawn to her history teacher, Mr. March, whose favorite Jeffersonian motto is "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." Mr. March paints himself as a radical and encourages Polly to rebel, but it soon becomes clear that his interest in Polly is more sinister than a desire to help her gain her independence.

Amazingly enough, all of these threads do come together during the Mammoth Cheese's pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. Without being preachy or predictable, THE MAMMOTH CHEESE manages to incorporate some big ideas about the nature of independence and the character of America.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful character study
There are so many interwoven stories in this book its hard to know where to begin. At its heart, this book is about life in small town America, and the people who live there... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Andrew W. Johns

1.0 out of 5 stars Anti-Semitism? Discuss...
I thoroughly enjoyed this author's previous two books, but I found this one seriously lacking in dramatic tension. Read more
Published on October 21, 2007 by AReader

1.0 out of 5 stars Not interesting or exciting
I found this book to be lackluster and quite boring. The plot was tedious and overwritten. The book never drew me in, I never felt like I was in the story. Read more
Published on October 20, 2007 by Brow

3.0 out of 5 stars Life and Politics
A girl learns about life and left-leaning politics while her mother struggles to keep the dairy going, eventually deciding to take issues to the president. Read more
Published on March 16, 2007 by Dar Scott

1.0 out of 5 stars Nice try, but no
Miss Holman seems to have some good researchers working for her. And she can put together a nice sentence. Read more
Published on September 1, 2006 by mammoth

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, funny poke at American history and small-town life
I like the ridiculously quirky humour of the characters and personalities of this small town; the meteoric rise to fame of an otherwise unremarkable couple who become parents to... Read more
Published on April 13, 2006 by Bettina McQ

5.0 out of 5 stars Holman is truly skilled
I've read this and The Dress Lodger. Consider this a comment on them both.

Sheri Holman's characters are, each and every one of them, beautifully flawed. Read more
Published on January 1, 2006 by cynicalshirleyt,

1.0 out of 5 stars All the wit and vivaciousness of a huge cheese
If you took out all the boring, tedious repetitions this would be a small book. After hearing each character's flaws, preferences, and ideas for the hundredth time, I began to be... Read more
Published on March 21, 2005 by Gentle Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Satire
Here is America with all its warts and all its faults, in the microcosm of Three Chimneys, Virginia, a tiny rural town with a population less than 800 souls... Read more
Published on November 5, 2004 by W. Carol

5.0 out of 5 stars Holman Creates Another Gem
I'm a big fan of Holman's earlier book, The Dress Lodger. And I'm happy to report this book is, at least plot-wise, nothing like it. But that's not a bad thing at all. Read more
Published on September 17, 2004 by Jennifer Barger

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