The Coalwood Way
The Coalwood Way Summary
- About The Coalwood Way. From the #1 bestselling author of October Sky comes this rich, unforgettable tale. With the same dazzling storytelling that distinguished his first memoir, Homer Hickam takes us deeper into the soul of his West Virginia hometown at a moment when its unique way of life is buffeted by forces of time and change.
- The Coalwood Way: A Memoir - Kindle edition by Hickam, Homer. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Coalwood Way: A Memoir.
901 Coalwood Way, Blacksburg, VA is a single-family home listed for-sale at $1,589,000. Home is a 6 bed, 5.0 bath property. Find 109 photos of the 901 Coalwood Way home on Zillow. View more property details, sales history and Zestimate data on Zillow. Coalwood was founded by George Lafayette Carter in 1905. He came on the back of a mule and eventually found rich seams of coal, and bought 20,000 acres (80 km 2 ). He constructed a mine, calling it the Carter Coal Company and built offices, houses, a schoolhouse, the Carter Coal Company Store, a church and more. 'The Coalwood Way' permits Hickam to thoroughly explain the first semester of his senior year in high school, the seminally important fall and winter of 1959.
The Coalwood Way
| In this follow-up to his bestselling autobiography Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam chronicles the eventful autumn of 1959 in his hometown, the West Virginia mining town of Coalwood. Sixteen-year-old Homer and his pals in the Big Creek Missile Agency are high school seniors, still building homemade rockets and hoping that science will provide them with a ticket into the wider world of college and white-collar jobs. Such dreams make them suspect in a conservative small town where 'getting above yourself' is the ultimate sin and where Homer's father, superintendent of the Coalwood mines, is stingy with praise and dubious about his son's ambitions. Homer's mother remains supportive, but bluntly reminds him, 'You can't expect everything to go your way. Sometimes life just has another plan.' Indeed, Hickam's unvarnished portrait of Coalwood covers class warfare (union miners battling with his authoritarian father), provincial narrow-mindedness (the local ladies scorn a young woman living outside wedlock with a man who abuses her), and endless gossiping along the picket 'fence line.' These sharp details make the unabashed sentiment of the book's closing chapters feel earned rather than easy. Hickam can spin a gripping yarn and keep multiple underlying themes and metaphors going at the same time. His tender but gritty memoir will touch readers' hearts and minds. --Wendy Smith It's fall, 1959, and Homer 'Sonny' Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, launching handbuilt rockets that soar thousands of feet into the West Virginia sky. But in a season traditionally marked by celebrations of the spirit, Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads. The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered HomerSr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife Elsie is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness. Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it most needs to come together. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger-and more rewarding-challenge than he has ever faced. The result is pure storytelling magic- a tale of small-town parades and big-hearted preachers, the timeless love of families and unforgettable adventures of boyhood friends-that could only come from the man who brought the world Rocket Boys A Christmas to Remember Dr. Werner von Braun once said, 'Matters of faith are not really accessible to our rational thinking. I find it best not to ask any questions, but to just believe...' These words are truly conveyed throughout the second of Homer Hickam Jr.'s memoirs, The Coalwood Way, originally published in 2000. Although following his acclaimed, Rocket Boys, this compelling story does not continue where the last left off. Portions of the memoir take place during the same time period as the last, however, this tome portrays the life of Homer 'Sonny' Hickam in a different light. This particular memoir focuses on Sonny's senior year in high school and the hardships he must go through when growing up. In addition to working diligently on creating improved rockets, Sonny must focus on achieving A's in school. Most importantly, he must focus on his family. In 1959 Coalwood, West Virginia is a ticking bomb and as it becomes more and more difficult to keep the mines running, the bomb seems to always be the verge of exploding leaving the people out of jobs, homes and, even worse, their town. Sonny must now try to keep his family together while the town falls apart and yet keep alive the dream of leaving in order to join his role model, Dr. Werner von Braun, at Cape Canaveral. Sonny Hickam is on his way to fulfilling his dreams as the book begins. However there a few obstacles on the way. Troubles in his family prevent Sonny from leading an easy, carefree life. His mother, Elsie, is growing increasingly impatient with Sonny's father. Sonny's father, Homer, is the mine superintendent and with the opening of a dangerous new mine, 11 East; ultimately, he is home even less often than usual. The strain on the marriage becomes too much for Sonny's mother and she insists on leaving Coalwood to escape to Myrtle Beach in order to sell real estate. In addition to his domestic hardships, Sonny is having troubles with himself. Every so often, although only lasting a few minutes, Sonny will find himself engulfed in an unexplainable grief. This mystery baffles Sonny day after day. As he searches for the origin of this mystery grief, he learns more than he ever imagined. Sonny's emotions and adventures are vividly depicted through a truly sentimental story, splashed with humor in all the right places. The writing style of Homer Hickam in this memoir is once again captivating and absolutely unforgettable. Although one may think memoirs aren't written well due to the lack of an experienced writer, The Coalwood Way reads like an old time fable. It is written in such a way that you are taken from your own world and thrown into the small town in West Virginia. Hickam depicts Coalwood in such a way that the image of every part of the quaint town is etched into your mind. His method of writing will bring you to tears when tragedy strikes and laughter when Sonny finds himself in a humorous predicament. This memoir is all about finding yourself and realizing that whenever life trips you up, someone will always be there to catch you when you fall. Throughout this lucid story, Sonny tries to find himself, and while looking down on his beloved town, he finally realizes the answer to what he's being puzzling all along. He understands his feelings, thinking: 'My parents, and all the people of Coalwood, had given me the only true gifts they could ever give, that of their wisdom, and of their dreams, and of their love. All fear, sadness, and anger inside me had vanished. I knew who I was and where I came from and who my people were. I was ready to leave because I could never leave.' Once Sonny realizes he can let go of the past, he is able to finally leave his hometown with the closure he needs to succeed. The 'perfect' next book..... 'The Coalwood Way' is the part 2 contiuation of the 'Rocket Boys', AKA:'October Sky'. I just really like the way Mr. Hickam tells his story in his books. I find them to be 'Americana' like- a success story from a humble start. I think the series could be a must read for middle and high school students as a way to see their potential in their own future and not just the here and now. A great book (and series) to read! Very much different from Rocket Boys/October Sky I'm not sure where the below reviewers are coming from. The Coalwood Way, although including the Rocket Boys, is very much different from the first memoir. And it is not a bunch of disconnected stories, not at all! The Coalwood Way opens with Sonny Hickam in a strange depression a year after the death of his grandfather who had lost his legs in the coal mine. It is a depression he struggles with throughout the book and is the core thread. How he determines what is causing that depression really fills out a part of the original memoir that was left out and provides us with insight as to how he ultimately succeeds. Hickam reveals how that last winter in Coalwood so much is happening to him and his friends. His rockets are starting to work, but nothing else does. He even lets Chipper, his mom's beloved squirrel, escape into the winter cold and snow. He also meets Dreama, a young woman also struggling, and wanting Sonny to be her friend. Dreama is considered something like white trash, and is living with one of the most detestable men in town. Sonny also falls for Ginger who dreams of being a professional singer and provides an interesting counterpoint to the coal miners' sons of Coalwood with their dreams of spaceflight. 'Dad,' or Homer, Sr. is also struggling, trying to open a part of the mine that has defeated previous mine superintendents but upon which the future of Coalwood depends. 'Mom,' or Elsie, struggles with her failure to win the annual Veteran's Day parade (Coalwood's float has always won before), as well as her continuing attempts to get Homer, Sr. to quit the mine before black lung kills him. Elsie also identifies very much with Dreama and wants to help her but is held back by the 'Coalwood way'. The story is told with Hickam's tradmark humor and there are as many laugh out loud moments as tears. The dramatic arc of these threads to the story all join in a night of murder and mayhem when Coalwood is also buried in a huge snowstorm and cut off from the rest of the world. This is followed by another night of hope and amazing redemption on Christmas Eve that will cause even the hardest heart to melt. In many ways, this is Hickam's Coalwood Christmas story and it's a great one. You will love it. The same story... A story told first time can be fasicnating. As Rocket Boys was. The same story told second time is just boring. The first one had a backbone: boys trying to achieve the goal despite the circumstances. The second one - ranomly selected stories about this or that - I simply don't care. Meaningless and boring nothing new, but still ok i read Rocket Boys, which i loved, and then moved on to the Coalwood Way. i was rather disappointed when i started it. it wasn't that it was about a period of time covered in rocket boys - i knew that already. but what i loved about rocket boys was the portrayal of a small town, and the coalwood way basically repeats that subject, which i think was pretty well covered already in Rocket boys. so this book isn't a must-read, like rocket boys. but it's still pretty good, as i discovered after getting throught the first couple introductory chapters (which mostly just repeated things said in rocket boys). there's still plenty of new plot material - there's dreama, a girl living with an abusive man out of wedlock, who just wants to be accepted by the town's women. then there's sonny's girl-related woes, mostly centered around a girl named ginger (there's very litttle dorothy plunk, for those of you sick of her from rocket boys). then there's sonny's relationship with both his parents, and with his brother. (sonny is homer, in case you don't know.) this is sort of an alternative to rocket boys, telling some of the same messages from different angles. if you've already read rocket boys, read some of the other books on your list first. |
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The Coalwood Way Book
Below are a few ideas for discussion in your group with our attached commentaries.
The Coalwood Way Book
- As you read this memoir, did you begin to feel as if you knew the people involved? Did you like them? Do you think you’d have been happy to live in Coalwood in the late 1950’s? If you had, what position in it would you have wanted? Coal miner? Foreman? Teacher? Housewife? Preacher? Doctor? Rocket Boy or Girl? Football Star? An outsider like Dreama?
Coalwood had a distinct role for each person who lived there. In order to live in the town, it was required that the head of the household work for the mine in some capacity. The exceptions to this were the teachers at the Coalwood School. Even the preachers were company men!
- Was this memoir similar in its construction with others that you have read? What do you think of the memoir genre? Do you think it might be hard to write a memoir that is interesting to readers?
A memoir is, as its title implies, a memory of long-ago events. In his note in The Coalwood Way, Homer wrote: “Memoirs are tough things to write. How can you remember what somebody said or did forty years ago? I don¹t have an answer. All I know is I do. I¹ve changed a few names and disguised some other folks to protect them but, otherwise, this is pretty much the way it happened, I swan.” We suggest a discussion of the current popularity of reading memoirs. Also see the Coalwood, WV section for photos and biographies of the real people in the book.
- How would you describe this book? Would you call it a man’s book or a woman’s book? Is it just a story of a boy with a dream or the story of a small mining town? Or is it something grander and deeper?
Homer has always said he used the rockets as a metaphor to tell the true story of life in the coalfields of West Virginia but he also had something else in mind, a weaving of many allegorical themes that begin loosely connected but are gradually wound tighter and tighter until they become as one. Can you spot those themes? Homer gets lots of glowing fan mail from “reluctant readers” who had the book recommended to them, but thought they wouldn¹t be interested, then they stayed up all night reading it.
- How would you describe Sonny’s parents? Do you think Homer (Senior) and Elsie love each other? How do they display their love? Why to they fight?
Homer (Junior) believes that the core to all his Coalwood memoirs is the conflict between his parents.
- Contrast the hopes and dreams and attitudes of Dreama and Ginger? How are they similar? How are they different?
Dreama was an outsider who saw Coalwood as a refuge from the tough little mining town of Gary. Ginger grew up in Coalwood and saw it as just the place where she lived. Her parents were also in the upper strata of social life in Coalwood. Ginger’s aspirations took her far past the little town while Dreama’s were centered on it.
- Why did Elsie think the Christmas Pageant was so important to her and to Coalwood? Why did she initially give up on it and decide to go to Myrtle Beach? Why did she change her mind? Why did Sonny not want to help her on the Pageant? Why did he change his mind?
The annual social events in an industrial town such as Coalwood came to have great meaning to the people who lived there. During the late 1950’s, the mining company in Coalwood was gradually evolving from benevolent dictator to mere employer. This is illustrated by its selling of the houses and stopping its support of events such as the Christmas Pageant. Coalwood’s people were changing their attitudes as well. They were starting to see an end to their relationship with the company and becoming more independent.
- Is this a universal story? Could it be set in other times or is it specific to Coalwood and West Virginia in the late 50¹s?
Homer never knows who’s going to show up in his autograph lines to tell him how much they enjoyed this book. They vary from astronauts to coal miners to just about everybody, young and old.
- This story is also about the rewards and costs of nonconformity. Who conforms, who doesn¹t and what is the consequence of their actions? Is that a problem today and can this story help those who tend to go against the expected norms? How was Quentin a nonconformist? How was Dreama different? Why did Elsie love Quentin so much but seemed to reject Dreama? Would you consider Ginger a non-conformist?
Elsie still loves Quentin. Whenever they’re together, Homer (junior) is relegated to the sidelines while they talk. It is an interesting chemistry between the two. It might be because Elsie sees Quentin as someone very much like herself – extremely talented but born to circumstances that never allowed her to fully reach her potential.
- When you began to read about it, why did you think Sonny felt strangely sad? Did the real reason for it surprise you? Do you think allowing Quentin to psychoanalyze Sonny would have been a good idea? Why do you think Sonny didn’t think so. Do you think Sonny would be diagnosed as clinically depressed these days?
Homer wanted to write about those feelings because he’s aware so many teen-agers and adults are fighting forms of depression today.
- Why do you think Dreama stayed with Cuke? Was Cuke all bad? Why did Coalwood accept Cuke but not Dreama? Why did Dreama want to be a Coalwood girl? Did her encounter with “Santa Claus” Clowers change your opinion of her? Why did Roy Lee seem to have such a problem about Dreama? Did Dreama have a destiny that she couldn’t escape?
This is one of those underlying themes to the book, that destiny is one of life’s grandest mysteries.
- Why do you think Sonny wrote the Pageant script the way he did? Why did he choose the three “Kings” of Coalwood to be who they were? Do you think it was wrong for Coalwood to pretend it was where the Christ-child was born?
The pageant was where Homer was headed during the entire book. There, he was able to wrap all his themes into one moment.
- Do you think Ginger and Sonny were really a “cute couple?” Do you think they should have worked harder to be together?
Naturally, as Homer’s wife, I’m glad he didn’t!