Review
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Every once in a while, a voice comes along that
makes you yearn for a childhood you never lived. Author Drema
Hall Berkheimer invites you to skip along with her, big sis
Vonnie, and best friend Sissy into the coal mining hills and
hollers of West Virginia, at a time when gypsies and hobos were
as common as doctors who made house calls. (Kathleen M. Rodgers,
award-winning author of Johnnie Come Lately)
Running on Red Dog Road took me away to a time and a family that
I will never forget. Drema Hall Berkheimer is a masterful,
joyful, humorous storyteller who is just getting started. What a
great book. (Fawn Germer, International Speaker and
Oprah-featured bestselling author)
Time and again I have been carried away by these stories, by the
observations of a very shrewd little girl of her elders, both
wise and the foolish. But don’t let the sly humor fool you. Like
the West Virginia coal country Drema Berkheimer writes about so
affectionately and beautifully, there is always something going
on here just beneath the surface, something grave, firmly rooted,
even eternal. (Bill Marvel, author of The Rock Island Line and
(with R. V. Burgin) Islands of the Damned)
Drema Hall Berkheimer is a pure storyteller, one of the most
wonder- fully gifted I’ve ever read. As they make their way
through Running on Red Dog Road, readers will smile continually,
laugh out loud occasionally, and turn misty-eyed at times of joy
or sadness as this child of Appalachia shares so lovingly her
growing-up experiences with her cherished family and friends. Her
phrasing is so exquisite and her words so perfectly chosen that
her writing is a mixture of prose and poetry. It’s best read in
private, so there will be no distractions as the reader travels
hand in hand with the author from beginning to end. (Dr. George
T. Arnold, Professor Emeritus, W. Page Pitt School of Journalism
and Mass Communications, Marshall University)
Running on Red Dog Road is an American treasure. Echoes of Mark
Twain resonate in Ms. Berkheimer’s tales of life in West Virginia
in the care of loving and wise grandparents while her widowed
mother helps save the world as a Rosie the Riveter. This family
is an icon of what we should wish to be. Truly a needed voice in
our world. (Julianne McCullagh, author of The Narrow Gate)
I love this memoir. The voice is masterful. Berkheimer layers
into a perceptive child narrator an understated love of her
family, a sassy streak that dodges consequences, and a precocious
questioning of the society that surrounds her. (Robin Underdahl,
coauthor with Anshel Brusilow of Shoot the Conductor: Too Close
to Monteux, Szell, and Ormandy)
A competent historian could get the details right about
mid-century Pentecostal Appalachian culture, but only Drema Hall
Berkheimer could set us right in the middle of it. Through the
eyes of a little girl who doesn’t miss a thing, we experience
spicy stew in the gypsy camp, and creative avenues to
intoxication, and river baptisms. If the child Drema’s
observations could not always be shared with her grandparents,
they are now shared with us. That will be to the delight of every
reader. (Dr. Douglas M. Gropp, member, International Team of
Editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Academic Dean, Redeemer
Seminary)
A sweet, whimsical, and often touching account of the author’s
childhood during a kinder, gentler era. It triggered great
nostalgia during my reading. (Dr. William L. Grose, retired NASA
scientist and Assistant Director of Atmospheric Sciences, NASA
Langley Research Center)
In this gem of a book, Drema digs deep into her memory pool to
bring forth images of well-developed places, characters, and
things. In this highly technological age, we need this story to
understand how ordinary people survived, thrived, and endured.
(Njoki McElroy, PhD, storyteller, performance artist, and author
of 1012 Natchez: A Memoir of Grace, Hardship and Love)
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About the Author
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Drema Hall Berkheimer was born in a coal camp in Appalachia, the
child of a West Virginia coal miner who was killed in the mines,
a Rosie the Riveter mother, and devout Pentecostal grandparents.
Her tales of hobnobbing with gypsies, moonshiners, snake
handlers, hobos, and faith healers, are published in numerous
online and print journals. Excerpts from her memoir, Running On
Red Dog Road and Other Perils of an Appalachian Childhood, won
first place Nonfiction and First Honorable Mention Nonfiction in
the 2010 West Virginia Writers competition. She is a member of
West Virginia Writers, Salon Quatre, and The Writer’s Garret. A
longtime resident of Dallas, she lives with her husband and a
neurotic cat that takes after her. Her husband is mostly normal.
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