Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #628175 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
In this sensual, beautifully written coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Charles Hulse transports readers to a time when radios crackled with the sounds of Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers, when ice cream was a rare, hand-churned treat, when destitute farm folk traversed Route 66 in search of elusive property, and nobody ever talked about the things a sexually precocious teenage boy might encounter along the way...Sandwiched in the back seat of a Model A Ford, between his older brother and baby sister, Totsy Woods has, in a sense, seen it all - from a dusty Ozark farm to the golden cities of the California coast; from sun-parched Albuquerque to the bright lights and flooded streets of Phoenix. Yet even schoolyard games with other curious boys could never have prepared him for the passionate, strangely exhilarating journey that unfolds against the backdrop of the Depression Era American Southwest. Now, his forbidden stirrings - shrouded in layers of shame and guilt - force Totsy to face a difficult lesson about growing up and being a man...on his own terms.

Customer Reviews

Not Just Another Coming-of-Age Book
The only novel I have found written in this author's own name, although I suspect collaboration on a few others written by his long-term partner. This is an exquisite book, charmingly written with warmth, passion, angst and realism.

I loved Grapes of Wrath. I love this book too because it gave me the same feeling of depth about the period but also the very deep feelings of the reflections of a young man experiencing the trauma's of a harsh life and some real caring as well as exploitation.

The descriptions of the oral sex between the lad and his 'uncle' may be hard to take for some readers but this is a book where the sex gives momentum to the young man's life when all around him is trauma and devoid of love it seems to me.

There is manipulation but I guess we have to ask ourselves does trouble find us or do we go looking for trouble. Read this excellent book, courtesy of Amazon and decide for yourself.

Coming of age in The Depression
In the opening pages of Charles Hulse's In Tall Cotton the Woods family suffers a severe tragedy. At the time Carlton Woods, the youngest son is fifteen years old, and it is he that relates the account, and then proceeds to tell the family's story that leads up to that event, starting back when he was about seven or eight years old, in the early 1930s. Carlton, nicknamed Totsy or Tots, is a likeable, bright and lively young boy, of slight build and with blond hair. He has a natural sense of rhythm and loves dancing, something for which he clearly has a remarkable talent, but he is no sissy and is quite able to stand up for himself and fight if necessary. Tots loves and respects his older brother by two years, Junior, and Junior clearly reciprocates those feelings, showing a loving concern and care for his younger sibling. The two boys are very different, compared to Tots' slightness Junior is a born athlete, well built and a star baseball and basketball player, he is also interested in books. But the difference is deeper than that, and is well explained by one character who thinks the world of them, Captain Jones: "Carlton . . . he's sensual . . . physical . . . might even go so far as say sexy. Just watch him when he dances. (Junior) is cerebral, not sensual . . . totally physical in the sense of physical coordination . . ."
The story Tots tells shows how his family copes with the difficulties of the time; set in the middle of The Depression they not only have to struggle with the poverty and the scarcity of employment, but also the prejudice as "white trash" from Missouri as they travel West. And travel they do, staying less than a year in most places. We meet the Woods' extended family: grandparents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as the friends Tots makes as they move around.
Tots' sensual appeal presents him with a problem; he attracts in a particular way the attention of young boys and girls alike, as well as some men. With his peers it is mostly sexual experimentation, but with men it becomes more worrying. It is a source of guilt for him and the more he enjoys the experiences the more guilty he feels. The difficulties are even more perplexing when it is one of his cousins, Ron, just a few years older, who reveals that he is in love with Tots.
I found this a very engaging story, well told, and enlightening as to the conditions of the time in which it is set. The characters are well developed, varied and likeable despite their failings. But it is the two brothers that really shine: watching them grow is a sheer joy as the gradually immerge from their innocence and naivety and learn about, and in Tots case experience, the mysteries of sex. The relationship the two boys enjoy is beautiful depicted, they trust, support, confide in and depend upon each other, but above all they love one another. This is a truly moving, at times funny, coming of age tale that has a ring of truth about it.