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Book still in a good condition - Winner of the Newbery Medal >>> I knew Virginia Hamilton as a collector of folk tales (the fabulous 'The People Could Fly' and 'The Dark Way'). Aware that she had won the Newbery for 'M.C.,' I have meant to read it for some time, but was put off by the covers of the editions I have seen (especially the current paperback shown here). Which just goes to show you how powerful a bad cover can be, and how misleading. Because this is an amazing novel. It's not really magical realism because it is absolutely real, but everything in it feels mystical. The characters are drawn in visceral detail (some down to their six-fingered hands and feet) but they remain mysterious. It's the coming-of-age story of Mayo Cornelius Higgins, who suffers under the weight of a slag heap which looms over his Ohio backcountry home, teetering on a mountainside that looks out on beautiful wilderness one way and a strip-mined hell on the other, and the pressures of his domineering father and vibrantly alive mother. It's a very particular and peculiar story about an unusually isolated African-American family that is wholly universal. Highly recommended. (Lars Guthrie on Goodreads) * Prize Winner * Teen Reading *
