With a Hammer for My Heart

by George Ella Lyon

Book Overview

With a Hammer for My Heart is the story of Lawanda, a precocious, poverty-stricken fifteen-year-old girl from Cardin, Kentucky, who dreams of attending college. When Lawanda's friendship with an alcoholic World War II veteran named Garland is misinterpreted by their fellow townspeople, a tragedy calls her future into question.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813191750
• ISBN13: 9780813191751
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The whole package!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sometimes I read books just for the plot, sometimes for the characters, and occasionally for the writing itself. I enjoyed all three aspects of this book. Highly recommended.

A Great Novel for Everyone!!!!

With a Hammer for my Heart was one of the greatest novels I've ever read.It was passionate,poetic & just a really lovely book.I gave it five stars because it was so greatly & beautifully written. George Ella Lyon is a literary genius. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel & hated to see it end.I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone looking for a really great read.The plot is fantastic & I just loved the story.

Kentucky Treasure

If you like a good story told straight from the characters' mouths, then you will enjoy this book. As a Kentuckian, I enjoy stories with a decisively Appalachian flavor, and in With A Hammer For My Heart, Ms. George Ella Lyon (yes, the author is a SHE) weaves a deceivingly simple, yet powerful, story about family, friendship, and forgiveness. Told through the voices of its many characters, the story centers around the friendship between a young girl, LaWanda, and a war-ravaged veteran, Amos Garland. Determined to make her way to college, LaWanda charges into Garland's life selling magazines. Although he does not welcome company, Garland finds that he has become (somewhat unwillingly) a friend to LaWanda. However, through a series of tragic events, LaWanda's loyalty to her family and Garland are tested. Yet, in the end, LaWanda's strength and courage brings about powerful changes in the people around her. Ms. Lyon's first attempt at adult fiction is a success and I look forward to reading more of her adult work. She is truly one of Kentucky's treasures!

a book for those who enjoyed Fried Green Tomatoes

A friend gave me this book to read. Since Lyon is known as a children's author, I wasn't that eager. But when I opened it, I was hooked! I have since recommended it to everyone I know. It's a story of love, anger, and reconciliation. And more, it's a fable about faith; faith in the capacity of humans to forgive and go on. The story is written from the point of view of each of the main characters-a device that makes the reader feel as if you are sitting at the table listening to each person tell his/her version of the story. That the author is able to create five distinct voice is a credit to her ability. I won't go into much about the story except to say that Mawmaw is the most interesting character with her believe in God the Mother, Daughter, and Holy Ghost. I read a great deal and this book has stayed with me more than any in recent times.

Great book

It all begins with fifteen year old Lawanda Ingles' aspirations to be the first in her family to go to college. Because money is scarce in the Kentucky mining town of Cardin, she decides to earn her tuition fees by selling magazines. Her sales quest takes her to the two broken down buses occupied by Amos Garland, a World War II veteran with demons in his closet and alcohol in his veins. The unlikely twosome grow close, until Garland realizes that the guileless young woman is beginning to soften the rock hard stone he calls a heart, and sends the bewildered girl away. He pens his alcolholic fears, in which his feelings for Lawanda become mixed up with his guilt over his own children, his wife, and a young soldier named Canaan. When the sheriff inadvertently gets his hands on the journal, he assumes that the ramblings imply an illicit relationship between the disagreeable old drunk and the affectionate teen which brings the story to its horrifying climax. I would recommend this engaging tale to older adolescents, as the vivid language and subject matter is quite intense. Ms. Lyons draws a revealing and touching portrait of the life and ambitions of a free-spirited teen who is unwilling to accept that life must progress as it always has, and that people cannot change.