TARGET: Book title

[Becky Smith <bsmith@LCC.NET>]

Hi, all.

I need some help.
A few days ago my husband asked me if I remembered the title of a book
that we both read.  Unfortunately, we read it 15 years ago, but now I
can't stop thinking about it.  You know how something like this just
keeps popping into your head?

I kind of hate to describe it, because it sounds like the strangest book
for anyone to read. Actually we both loved it.  It was set in (I think)
Texas or the southwest.  It wasn't a typical western; more like the West
was in reality.  It's about an "earthy" family living in a ramshackle
house.  The kids were grown, and most or all were named after months of
the year.  I remember a July, a Junie, and a January.  The mother was a
laudanum (opium tonic) addict and the father was a horse trader (in the
loosest sense of the word).  The main character was the eldest son and
in the beginning of the book the mother sent him to look for his pa, who
hadn't come home from his last trading trip.  Meanwhile, the mother hung
a summer sausage on the front porch to "ripen" because that's how the
father liked it.  Pretty soon the sausage was so ripe that a buzzard
started hanging out in the tree trying to work up enough nerve to fly
down and get it.  The mother, who spent most of her time in a rocker on
the front porch and in a pleasant drug daze, became convinced that the
bird was her husband, who had changed into a buzzard, so she started
making conversation with it.  I only remember bits and pieces of the
rest.  Something about the richest man in town trying to bring in a
railroad and the stage making its last run.  Oh, and there were two old
men constantly arguing throughout the book over whether the fruit from
the tree in the Garden of Eden was really apples or pomegranates.

(I told you this book was strange ;-)

I would really appreciate any help you can offer.

Becky


--
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 Becky Smith       Rusk ISD
 District Media Coordinator
 Rusk, TX    bsmith @ lcc.net

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