Hang the Moon
By Jeanette Walls
368 pages
Megan’s Review
Quick summary
Don’t miss this delightful family saga, a romping page-turner of a story about 1920s bootleggers in rural Virginia.
What’s it about?
Set in rural Claiborne County, Virginia during Prohibition, a spirited 8-year old, Sallie Kincaid, is exiled by her father to live in poverty with her dead mother’s disgraced sister up in the hills. Sallie, nevertheless, idolizes her father. Duke Kincaid is the most powerful man in the county and the tyrannical ruler of a bootleg liquor operation who dispenses rough justice in line with his own sense of morality. After 9 years in exile, the Duke summons Sallie back to live in the big house to turn her timid half-brother into a manly Kincaid and to help run the Duke’s businesses. With great pluck and wit, Sallie reclaims her place in the family, takes on the temperance movement and a cruel stepmother or two, discovers a few secret love children and engages in several cliffhanging showdowns, all the while fighting against the unfairness leveled against women in the world of the 1920s.
What did it make me think about?
What a delight it is to read a darn good story. How we decide what is moral; how we rationalize bad behavior. Deeply flawed parents and how one man’s actions spill far into the future. What makes a family.
Should I read it?
At first it might be a bit of work to keep track of the complicated family tree, but it’s worth it. Walls is a great storyteller. She wrote The Glass Castle, her bestselling memoir, and two novels, Half Broke Horses and The Silver Star, all of which I loved. She comes through again with an irresistible narrator in Sallie, a cast of unforgettable characters, along with a rollicking page-turning plot. Don’t miss this one.
Quote.
“Back when I was little, with Mama gone, I did my darnedest to believe my daddy hung the moon and scattered the stars. That meant there were many things I didn’t want to see. I’ve been doing pretty much the same danged thing my whole life.”
Megan’s Review
Quick summary
Don’t miss this delightful family saga, a romping page-turner of a story about 1920s bootleggers in rural Virginia.
What’s it about?
Set in rural Claiborne County, Virginia during Prohibition, a spirited 8-year old, Sallie Kincaid, is exiled by her father to live in poverty with her dead mother’s disgraced sister up in the hills. Sallie, nevertheless, idolizes her father. Duke Kincaid is the most powerful man in the county and the tyrannical ruler of a bootleg liquor operation who dispenses rough justice in line with his own sense of morality. After 9 years in exile, the Duke summons Sallie back to live in the big house to turn her timid half-brother into a manly Kincaid and to help run the Duke’s businesses. With great pluck and wit, Sallie reclaims her place in the family, takes on the temperance movement and a cruel stepmother or two, discovers a few secret love children and engages in several cliffhanging showdowns, all the while fighting against the unfairness leveled against women in the world of the 1920s.
What did it make me think about?
What a delight it is to read a darn good story. How we decide what is moral; how we rationalize bad behavior. Deeply flawed parents and how one man’s actions spill far into the future. What makes a family.
Should I read it?
At first it might be a bit of work to keep track of the complicated family tree, but it’s worth it. Walls is a great storyteller. She wrote The Glass Castle, her bestselling memoir, and two novels, Half Broke Horses and The Silver Star, all of which I loved. She comes through again with an irresistible narrator in Sallie, a cast of unforgettable characters, along with a rollicking page-turning plot. Don’t miss this one.
Quote.
“Back when I was little, with Mama gone, I did my darnedest to believe my daddy hung the moon and scattered the stars. That meant there were many things I didn’t want to see. I’ve been doing pretty much the same danged thing my whole life.”
