Zion's Cause (1920-1950) - Hardcover

Peyton, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0912697547 ISBN 13: 9780912697543

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 1987

Synopsis

Traces thirty years in the life of a small Kentucky town and tells the story of a long-hidden family secret

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Set in the corn fields and on the porch of a general store in a backwater Kentucky hamlet, this lyrical first novel describes an unexpected world of poetry and heroism. In a series of vignettes that loosely document the folk history of the town of Zions Cause during the three decades following 1920, the commonplace is inextricably entwined with the epic and miraculous. Although hard work and frustration cloud the unchanging days of these old-fashioned farmers, their thoughts range boundlessly over unique inner landscapes. The community's mythic lore centers around the rare occasions when these primordial yearnings are released. Thus it is told that one man pitted himself against an enormous fish; another battled with an angel; primly repressed sexual energy was mistakenly unleashed by an herbal remedy; a railroad was stolen by a thrifty businessman dreaming of empire; and a premature death was marked in the church cemetery by a pagan centaur sculpted in stone. The cadence of Peyton's prose is strikingly attuned to his subject, rising and falling hypnotically like the text of a hymn or a church sermon drawn from scripture.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0912697547
• ISBN 13: 9780912697543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224