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Listening for the Crack of Dawn

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Listening for the Crack of Dawn

By: Donald Davis
Narrated by: Donald Davis
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About this listen

Donald Davis was born into a southern Appalachian mountain world rich in stories. He grew up listening to his father and his Uncle Frank tell stories of their boyhood, all the while taking in the details of his own childhood experience.

These stories of growing up in Appalachia in the 1950s are funny and true, nostalgic and bittersweet. The characters are memorable: Miss Martha Anne Butler, "the last surviving member of a failed Southern family", whose grocery deliveries always included two pints of gin; the Reverend N.N. Upchurch, old Preacher No-No, whose nickname "pretty well summed up his opinion on most subjects"; and Aunt Laura, who knew to listen for the crack of dawn.

Our narrator faces the trials of growing up with humor, hope, and (usually) good grace. He saves Blue Horse Notebook Paper coupons to buy the world's heaviest coaster bike, engages in games of "Daring Miss Butler", taunts the shadowy Terrell Tubbs with his buddies, and uses the resources of his electronics class to invent a keyless ignition for Red McElroy's Ford pickup. The sweet and painful memories are all here, told in a storyteller's voice.

©1991 Donald Davis (P)1991 Donald Davis
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Editorial reviews

Wise . . . touching . . . funny . . . sad . . .Donald Davis is all these, plus just plain captivating. For twenty years a Methodist minister, he found his true calling as a professional storyteller. In these four original stories he reminisces about his childhood in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, in a small town that sounds very like Lake Wobegone. But there the resemblance stops. Although appearing to ramble as much as Garrison Keillor, Donald Davis gives each story a spin and a polish that leaves the listener wiser at the end.

Critic Reviews

"As wholesome as milk." (Raleigh News and Observer)
"Davis has interconnected this set of stories in such a way as to create a place...as memorable as Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon." (Lexington Herald-Leader)

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