Carolyn Howard-Johnson has the magical way with words that makes her a great story teller. She has the talent and determination to succeed that all writers strive to achieve. Her descriptions of characters and places are so real that her readers can picture them in their mind.
By Pat Hayworth
Harkening: A Collection Of Stories Remembered.
By Carolyn Howard- Johnson
ISBN: 1-59129-550-5
Paperback: 144 pages
November 2002
Harkening is a collection of short stories about family and childhood memories that are written so well readers will find themselves remembering their own family stories. Some are happy, some sad, but remind us that life is a tapestry woven with the threads of everyday happenings. How we choose to deal with them makes us the people we become in adult life.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson has the magical way with words that makes her a great story teller. She has the talent and determination to succeed that all writers strive to achieve. Her descriptions of characters and places are so real that her readers can picture them in their mind. In the story The Way she tells of driving with her mother and her aunt through the city beginning with this description: “My city is a saltwater pearl, gently, gently cradled by the Wasatch Mountains. The crescent of the foothills tenderly curves around the city like the palm of a mother’s hand. It is a city one cannot lose one’s way in, for the range of shale and granite points north and south and the streets run parallel to their perfect inclination for true direction. Others intersect them in a grid that defies confusion.”
In Child’s Play and Neighbors she takes us back to a universal connection that we all feel as children, the fear and embarassment at being the new kid on the block or somehow different.Our need to be liked by the rest of the crowd and the inner struggles we go through to fit in with them.
There are seventeen stories in the book leading us from one generation to another.They show us that our memories are both a link to our past and a bridge to our future. I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to other readers.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson has also written a novel titled This Is The Place which won the Reviewers Choice Award in the spring of 2001, was named Top Ten Novels in the Preditor and Editors Reader’s Poll, and was given the NUW Award of Excellence. A free chapter of this book for readers to enjoy is on this Website:www.tlt.com/authors/carolynhowardjohnson.htm
For more information on Harkening visit:
Harkening
About the Reviewer: Pat Hayworth lives in Coleridge, NC. She is an avid reader and enjoys writing, painting and working in her garden. She can be contacted at:pathayworth@rtmc.net