TARGET: Book Title

[Becky Smith <bsmith@LCC.NET>]

Hi, all.

First of all, it's nice to see that many of you are back online.  It's
been pretty quiet without you and I'm looking forward to another
informative, enlightening year as a member of LM_NET.

Okay, was that enough flattery to get you to rack your brains for me?;)

This is a repeat of a request I made this summer, with no results.  I
thought I'd repost now that most people are back online.

A while back 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 life in
the West as it was really lived.  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 ;-)

If you remember the title or anything about this book I would really
appreciate any help you can offer.

Becky


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

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