Josey Rose

by Jane Wood

A spellbinding novel of family secrets and forbidden love, this moving tale of innocence and misplaced souls echoes the intensity of the novels of Alice Hoffman and of Sheri Reynold's The Rapture of Canaan."Funny and heartbreaking at the same time...a novel of secrets". -- Rita Mae Brown, author of Rubyfruit Jungle and Riding ShotgunJosey Rose's childhood has been molded by such mysterious secrets as the whereabouts of his missing mother, whom he...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684837919
• ISBN13: 9780684837918
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Obvious....

The book started out wonderfully, and I liked it in the end. I was full of great imagery, and a good enough story, but I found the end to be painfully obvious before the big surprise is revealed. That's the only thing I didn't really like.

A story that stays with you...

I was really impressed with the depth of Wood's characters. Like a previous reviewer, I wish also that the story did not end so bleak and almost hopeless. The incest theme did not turn me off; but I wonder if Wood's decision to make the story end the way it did (as opposed to a happier ending) was related to trying to not fully confront the incest issue.

A compelling read: Part bildungsroman, part gothic novel

Josie Rose is an impressive first novel. The story involves an 11-year-old boy named, appropriately enough, Josey Rose, who has been told his entire life that his mother is dead. He lives with his eccentric grandmother and his alcoholic father, who is, at best, a loving yet distant parent and, at worst, is physically and emotionally abusive. In the course of the 280-page book, Josey investigates his past, which is criss-crossed with mysteries. The whereabouts of his mother is certainly primary, but the presence of Lily, a will-o'-the-wisp young woman who lives in a nearby abandoned chapel, also raises a number of questions regarding the Roses. Wood's prose is delightfully descriptive (she paints a scene of father and son ice fishing that is wonderfully vivid), often whimsical (scenarios involving the matriarch of a neighboring family reaches a delightfully wry conclusion), and emotionally deep. Josey Rose represents an auspicious debut. I look forward to reading this author again.