Brighten the Corner Where You Are - Kirkman Family Cycle by Fred Chappell Paperback

About the Book

Brighten the Corner Where You Are was handsdown one of the most widely read and favorably reviewed novels of 1989. This story of a day in the life of Joe Robert Kirkman. North Carolina mountain schoolteacher, sly prakster, and family man, won the hearts of readers and reviews across the country.

Book Synopsis

This story of a day in the life of Joe Robert Kirkman, a North Carolina mountain schoolteacher, sly prankster, country philosopher, and family man, won the hearts of readers and reviewers across the country.

Review Quotes

"Deeply felt, warm, and funny . . . a wonderful tale, one full of wild humor and humanity." --The Los Angeles Times

"The resonantly lyrical novel enchants us . . . we are lifted to a height of exhilaration few current writers can take us to." --New York Newsday

"Brighten washes you with language. Reading it is like leaping into one of those streams in the middle of nowhere where everything is green and our childhoods wait to reclaim something lost, something astoundingly simple as joy." --Charlotte Observer

"A raconteur of extraordinary gifts, Chappell fluidly spins mountain yarns, weaning spellbinding myths, hypnotic dreams, hilarious dialogue and unforgettable characters into the warp and weft of a funny, poignant and very human story." --Orlando Sentinel

"At once lyrical and plainspoken, relentlessly funny and, at crucial moments, breathlessly sad . . . Brighten the Corner Were You Are is Fred Chappell's finest work so far and thus--I have been reading and writing and waiting forty years to say this--it's a blooming masterpiece." --George Garrett

About the Author

Fred Chappell is the award-winning author of over twenty books of poetry and fiction. His previous novels include I Am One of You Forever and Look Back All the Green Valley. He teaches at the University of North Carolina in Grennsboro, where he lives with his wife Susan.