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Oil is king of East Texas during the darkest years of the Great Depression. The Stoddard girls—responsible Mayme, whip-smart tomboy Jeanine, and bookish Bea—know no life but an itinerant one, trailing their father from town to town as he searches for work on the pipelines and derricks; that is, when he's not spending his meager earnings at gambling joints, race tracks, and dance halls. And in every small town in which the windblown family settles, mother Elizabeth does her level best to make each sparse, temporary house they inhabit a home.
But the fall of 1937 ushers in a year of devastating drought and dust storms, and the family's fortunes sink further than they ever anticipated when a questionable "accident" leaves Elizabeth and her girls alone to confront the cruelest hardships of these hardest of times. With no choice left to them, they return to the abandoned family farm.
It is Jeanine, proud and stubborn, who single-mindedly devotes herself to rebuilding the farm and their lives. But hard work and good intentions won't make ends meet or pay the back taxes they owe on their land. In desperation, the Stoddard women place their last hopes for salvation in a wildcat oil well that eats up what little they have left . . . and on the back of late patriarch Jack's one true legacy, a dangerous racehorse named Smoky Joe. And Jeanine, the fatherless "daddy's girl," must decide if she will gamble it all . . . on love.
Jiles's eloquent, engaging sophomore novel celebrates four strong women toughing out the Great Depression in the Texas dust bowl. As the book opens in 1927, Elizabeth Stoddard and husband Jack have three daughters: the pretty Mayme, the tomboyish Jeanine and the writerly Bea. Jeanine, resented for being daddy's favorite, soon becomes the novel's primary point of view. After the disgraced Jack dies in 1937, the four Stoddard women move back to the 150-acre homeplace on the Brazos River in Central Texas. Drought, hail and dust storms, land-tax debts and grinding poverty make life a struggle; radio shows, horse-racing, wildcat oil well speculation and stuttering news reporter friend Milton Brown provide diversions. Jeanine falls in love with local rancher Ross Everett; Mayme dates soldier Vernon. Visceral detail of the 1930s rancher life and the hardscrabble setting add authenticity, particularly in the characters' feel for horses. While forthright, some of the dialogue is less than believable (as when Ross compliments Jeanine on her "furious bloody purple" dress), but it serves the characters' greater-than-usual emotional bandwidth. Jiles winds this gritty saga up on the eve of WWII with a patchwork quilt's worth of hope. (May)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLike the oil desperately needed during the Great Depression, Stormy Weatheris a slow gathering of hope underneath the surface. The Stoddard women's story coalesces after the death of the sole male in the family, who has left them little besides a wild racehorse named Smoky Joe, a tenuous belief in wildcat oil wells, and the ability to fend for themselves in the dustbowl of East Texas. Daughter Jeanine is the true heroine of the tale, but her mother and sisters provide a strong portrait of the diverse women of the era. Well read by Colleen Delany, the novel straddles romance and history and is recommended for audiences who prefer those genres.
—Joyce Kessel
An acclaimed poet, Paulette Jiles is the author of Cousins, a memoir, and the bestselling novels Enemy Women and Stormy Weather. She lives on a small ranch west of San Antonio, Texas.
In 1992, Jiles published Cousins, a beguiling memoir that interweaves adventure and romance into a search for her family roots. Ten years later, she made her fiction debut with Enemy Women (2002), the survival story of an 18-year-old woman caged with the criminally insane in a St. Louis prison during the Civil War. Janet Maslin raved in The New York Times, "This is a book with backbone, written with tough, haunting eloquence by an author determined to capture the immediacy of he heroine's wartime odyssey." The book won the Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction (U.S.) and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (Canada).
In her second novel, 2007's Stormy Weather, Jiles mined another rich trove of American history. Set in Texas oil country during the Great Depression, the story traces the lives of four women, a widow and her three daughters, as they struggle to hold farm and family together in a hardscrabble world of dust storms, despair, and deprivation. In its review, The Washington Post praised the author's lyrical prose, citing descriptions that "crackle with excitement." Stormy Weather became the fourth selection in the Barnes & Noble Recommends program.
A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Jiles currently lives on a ranch near San Antonio, Texas.
"When I lived in Nelson, British Columbia, there were three or four of us women who were struggling writers; we were very poor and we had a great deal of fun. We shared writing and money and wine. Woody (Caroline Woodward) had a great, huge Volkswagen bus -- green -- named Greena Garbo. When any of us managed to publish something there were celebrations. It was a wonderful time. They always managed to show up at my place just when I'd baked bread. One time Meagan and Joanie arrived to share with me a horrible dinner they had made of cracked wheat and onions -- we were actually all short of food. I had just made lasagna -- and they ate all of my lasagna and left me with that vile dish of groats and onions. And then we all got married and went in different directions."
"I have a small ranch that keeps me busy -- two horses, a donkey, a cat, a dog, fences, a pasture -- I and spend lots of time preventing erosion, clearing cedar, etc."
Chapter One
When her father was young, he was known to be a hand with horses. They said he could get any wage he asked for, that he could take on any job of freighting even in the fall when the rains were heavy and the oil field pipe had to be hauled over unpaved roads, when the mud was the color of solder and cased the wheel spokes. The reins were telegraph lines through which he spoke to his horses in a silent code, and it seemed to Jeanine that her father's battered hands held great powers in charge. He could drive through clouds or floods. During the early oil strikes in Central Texas he was once paid $1,250 to drive a sixteen-mule team hauling a massive oil field boiler from McAllister, Oklahoma, to Cisco, Texas. He got it across the Red River Bridge and through the bogged roads of North Texas without losing a mule or a spoke or a bolt.
Jeanine sat beside him on the wagon seat and watched the horses plunge along. They were buoyant, as if they were filled with helium. This particular morning his hands shook when he rolled a cigarette because the night before he had been drinking the brutal intoxicating mixtures that were sold because the Volstead Act was still in effect that year, 1924. After an hour they came to the oil field and her father told her to stay in the crisscross shadow of the derrick until he got his deal done because he and the foreman were probably going to sit around and talk and cuss for a while. You can't step past those shadows, there. Don't go playing around the horses' feet. Here, read this comic book. She sat and read from panel to panel as Texas Slim shot his way through the saloon doors on hishorse Loco. She couldn't keep her mind on it and so she walked the shadows of the derrick and pretended they were dark roads leading her away to distant countries like Mars and Boston and Oklahoma.
Her father talked with the driller about pipe to be hauled and how much a load and how many loads. The driller needed casing pipe, and casing pipe weighed more than drill stem so her father was trying to get paid by weight as well as by the load. After they had agreed and shook hands, he stood up carefully to balance his enormous beating head on his shoulders and called out, "Jeanine, come on, we've got to go."
Jeanine came to stand against her father's knees. All the machinery was still. The oil had been found and was being held below their feet, dark and explosive, until the crew would let it up through the casing pipe.
She said, "Let me drive the horses." Jeanine had a low voice and it made her sound like an immature blond dwarf.
Her father patted her heavily on top of her head. "You're too little to drive."
"But I want to play Ben-Hur."
He smiled. "You can't be Ben-Hur, honey, you're a girl."
The week before they had gone to see the movie star Raymond Navarro playing Ben-Hur in a toga, in screenland black and white, ripping around the arena at a suicidal speed, lashing a whip.
"Yeah, but he was wearing a dress, and I'm the one that's got the pants on."
Her father laughed and held his head. Jeanine was so relieved that her own laughter had a frantic sound and tears came to her eyes. The driller thought it was funny as well and he repeated it to the crew several times over and even after a week the driller could be heard to say Don't mess with me, boys, I'm the one that's got the pants on.
They started home. They lived in half of a rent house in Ranger, where they had moved as soon as there was word of an oil strike. Before that they seemed to have lived on the old Tolliver farm, but Jeanine was too young to remember it. Her father's strong hands were scarred, they had been knocked around by everything, by engine cranks and coffin hoists and the wagon jack. His cloth cap barely shaded his bloodshot eyes. All round them the horizon shifted from one red stone layer to another and down these slopes spilled live oak and Spanish oak and mesquite, wild grape and persimmon. Alongside the road were things people threw out of cars and wagons. A baby doll head lay under a dense blackbrush and seemed to watch as the hooves of the team went past. There were tin cans and mottled rags and lard pails and tiny squares of broken safety glass.
He reached under the seat and took out his bottle.
"If I have a drink now she'll never know by the time we get home." He took a quick drink and then handed the bottle to her. "Hide that for me."
Jeanine kneeled down and found the feed bags under the seat and stuffed the bottle in one of them and sat back on the seat again. She leaned against him. During the tormented shouting of the night before, Jeanine and her sister knew these were noises of pain. Their parents needed comfort.
"I love you," she said.
"You'll be mad at me too someday, Jenny," he said. "Before the world is done with me."
"But how come you threw the album out the front door?"
"Because the sewing machine was too heavy."
The photographs of herself and her sister Mayme tumbled down the steps like playing cards, like the doll head, discarded. Her mother and father's wedding portrait spun into the dirt. Jeanine and her sister Mayme picked them all up and carefully pasted them back into the album. Before long her mother and father would kiss each other. After that her father would be paid and they would buy a case of Lithiated Lemon soda and a radio and a race-horse.
Stormy Weather LP. Copyright © by Paulette Jiles. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.Anonymous
Posted December 13, 2011
This was a great story that kept me engrossed from beginning to end. The characters are deep and fully realized and stick with you. Reminiscent of Little Women. An excellent book I would highly recommend.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 4, 2008
I saw a lot of similarity between the characters--with enough differences to not be obvious, But Mayme--Amy? Jeanine--Jo? Bea--Beth. It was interesting reading but, like other reviews I read, it was easy to put down, and come back to later. Not bad, but not absorbing.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 11, 2007
I found this book to be pretty disappointing. Even though the setting and premise of the book ''depression era Texas'' is interesting and has potential, the plot of the book is weak and even cliche. The first few chapters take place over 5-10 years a very hurried and at times confusing description of events. The plot is pretty traditional- a young woman faces difficulties with determination, while being pursued by two totally opposite and unlikely men whom she has always known, only to get married and achieve success and relative happiness in the end. The characters themselves were also weak for the most part- I found the romantic relationships to be melodramatic and quite unbelievable and unrealistic, in addition to the dialog that is exchanged. I couldn't imagine any of the characters interacting and in this way I felt that the story was overall pretty disappointing. I would much rather read something that makes me think more and presents me with intriguing content. This IS good for a light read though.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 1, 2007
This book was okay, but not great. It actually was a little on the boring side. Seemed to be the same old thing chapter after chapter. Not enough action, in fact hardly any at all. It was actually leaning towards disappointing. I don't plan to read this author again.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 13, 2007
Stormy Weather Paulette Jiles Author Jiles has written about my days, the Thirties, and my part of Texas. As if looking over my shoulder, she has traced my paths of childhood, resurrecting little forgotten details once so familiar to me of that era. Her research is very thorough. But that is little compared to her astounding metaphors and similes. ¿. . . waistlines down around their hips, legs shining and pale in silk stockings, they moved forward into the 1920s that came like a light summer wind all over Texas, a decade that would have a hundred years in it and would never end.¿ Just one of many examples that pleases and delights the reader, illustrating Jiles natural flair for the poetic. Her characters are real, breathing people, determined to survive the now with hearts turned toward better days.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 1, 2007
Enjoying this book was like a time travel experience. I felt that I was in the 1930's dust bowl of Texas with our 4 brave, courageous, and resourceful women. I loved the clothes and furnishings being made from any cloth that was available anywhere. The working on the land and hot dusty days actually sent me into the refrigerator for a cold bottle of water as I read. The horse racing was something different than what most of us have heard about in the 'classic' race tracks of today. I really felt like I was part of this family, and enjoyed the personalities, talents for survival, industry, and pure fun with what was available for each woman's interests. The 'historical fiction' was at it's best done by Jiles. Throw in a great love story and this book is a wonderful read for book groups. One of the best books of this kind that I have read in a very long time!!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Stormy Weather Paulette Jiles Morrow, May 2007, $24.95 ISBN: 9780060537326 In the late 1920s in Texas, Elizabeth and Jack Stoddard raise three daughters beautiful Mayme, tomboy Jeanine and scholarly Bea. Her two siblings detest the fact that their dad makes no effort to hide that Jeanine is his favorite as she is his sidekick at the races. When the drinking gambling Jack dies in 1937, he leaves behind four females needing to survive. They, accompanied by an aging capricious yet still fast racing horse Smoky Joe, move onto a run down neglected homestead overlooking the Brazos River. However, life proves hard as an extended drought has turned Central Texas into a dust bowl while the younger females begin seeing men. --- This deep family historical drama brings to life the Depression in Texas oil country through the lives of the four female Stoddards. Each member of the Stoddard quartet is a unique protagonist so that the women bring differing points of view to what is happening to them especially when they return to the dilapidated ranch once Jack dies. Fans of dust bowl character driven tales will want to read STORMY WEATHER, a keenly vivid look at life in 1930s Texas. --- Harriet Klausner
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 8, 2012
I was with starclan but they kicked me out read warroir books
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Posted July 28, 2012
Tc
Teddy
I love u teddy
Anonymous
Posted May 24, 2012
What book blew my mind away is....this book i just read its so beautiful i love it please let me read dis agian pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeededeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese
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Posted April 28, 2012
Can any one tell me how many pages there are in this book?
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Posted April 18, 2012
Awesome book made me cry
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Posted April 15, 2012
A bit odd at times but a quick and easy read
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Posted April 14, 2012
Im locked out of camp.
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Posted April 7, 2012
ICECLAN
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Posted March 24, 2012
This book is pretty good from the cover can anyone tell me if this is a good book please because it seems good on the back information
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Posted March 18, 2012
So lnstering loved it :D
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Posted July 8, 2011
Great characters, interesting events, a real feel for the rugged Texas life during the era late in the Depression and just prior to WWII. Ms. Jiles writing reminded me of Annie Proulx. One of those books that you just can't put down and then are sorry that you read it so quickly!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.amwhidden
Posted June 27, 2011
This book was quite the poetic read. The protagonist wasnt the typical strong female character but she had a lot of inner strength that helped keep her family going. She was very relatable and you cared about what happened to her, her mother, and her siblings.
The author did a great job of showing how childhood scars can haunt you throughout life and that you must inevitabley learn to trust again in order to find happiness.
Poetic language throughout book. The setting was really brought to life. Sometimes I wished there was more dialogue and less setting but in the end it really worked to make a poignant read.
Recommend.
vtTX
Posted May 9, 2011
Been trying to read this since Jan. Message always says not available for purchase. Anybody else with this problem?
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Overview
Oil is king of East Texas during the darkest years of the Great Depression. The Stoddard girls—responsible Mayme, whip-smart tomboy Jeanine, and bookish Bea—know no life but an itinerant one, trailing their father from town to town as he searches for work on the pipelines and derricks; that is, when he's not spending his meager earnings at gambling joints, race tracks, and dance halls. And in every small town in which the windblown family settles, mother Elizabeth does her level...