Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105904 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
After years of living in a children's asylum for having spontaneous jerks and spasms, Icy returns home and is quickly befriended by Miss Emily, who cares for her and teachers her the ways of life, transforming Icy into a new person and forever changing her view of the world.

From the Publisher
A sad, funny tale of a young girl's coming of age in KY.
"What a grand person Icy Sparks is! What a wonderful book her story makes! The pages of this novel almost turn themselves as the narrative glides gracefully from sorrow to sorrow, from joy to joy. Gwyn Hyman Rubio is a marvelous writer. Too grateful to envy, I admire and applaud her triumph and hope that everyone will share it with me."

-- Fred Chappell, author of Moments of Light, Brighten the Corner Where you Are, and Farewell, I'm Bound To Have You

"ICY SPARKS speaks to us in an entirely new voice, painfully wise and wonderfully peculiar. In her original first novel, Gwyn Rubio makes us see that the tics and noises her remarkable heroine can't suppress are the pure expressions of a brave and lively spirit." -- Francine Prose, author of Hunters and Gatherers

"Gwyn Hyman Rubio twists together her dark and comic visions to create a world so marvelous and strange that it takes one's breath. Her subject is the entanglem! ents of order and disorder in a rural Kentucky setting of the 1950s, and she turns them upside down in a way that challenges our own definitions of where and how we live. She is an extraordinary writer." -- Stephen Dobyns, author of The Church of the Dead Girls

"ICY SPARKS is a work of imagination, about being different in a world whose difference brings separation and pain. Icy, in 1950s Appalachia, finds community with others who also don't fit in and acquires an outlook that is wise, serious, and yet comic." -- Loyal Jones, editor of Reshaping the Image of Appalachia

"A most original work of fiction. ICY SPARKS is an important contribution to the literature that helps us know the emotional realities of wounded people. It is also one of the few novels of the Appalachian region that goes beyond the description of external reality and places the reader in direct touch with the interior lives of its characters. Brilliant." ! -- Gurney Norman, author Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stori! es

ICY SPARKS (Viking) is the sad, funny, and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950s. Gwyn Hyman Rubio's beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Tweedy in Cold Sassy Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her "secrets" -- verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms -- keep afflicting her. As an adult, she will find out she has Tourette's Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation.

Narrated by a grown-up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, tale! nted, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers -- physical, mental, and spiritual -- in order to find community and acceptance.

Along her journey, Icy faces the jeers of her classmates as well as the malevolence of her often ignorant teachers -- including Mrs. Stilton, one of the most evil fourth grade teachers ever created by a writer. Called willful by her teachers and "Frog Child" by her schoolmates, she is exiled from the schoolroom and sent to a children's asylum where it is hoped that the roots of her mysterious behavior can be discovered. Here Icy learns about difference -- her own and those who are even more scarred than she. Yet it isn't until Icy returns home that she really begins to flower, especially through her friendship with the eccentric and obese Miss Emily, who knows first-hand how it feels to be an outcast in this tightly knit Appalachian community. Under Miss Emily's tutelage, Icy learns about life's struggles and rewards, s! urvives her first comical and heartbreaking misadventure wi! th romance, discovers the healing power of her voice when she sings, and ultimately -- takes her first steps back into the world.

Gwyn Hyman Rubio's ICY SPARKS is a fresh, original, and completely redeeming novel about learning to overcome others' ignorance and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique.

About the Author Gywn Hyman Rubio was born in Macon, Georgia. She is the daughter of Mac Hyman, the author of No Time for Sergeants, the bestselling novel which was later made into a film starring Andy Griffith. She has had short fiction published in literary journals and anthologies, and her writing has been awarded grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She and her husband, Angel, live in Berea, Kentucky.

From the Author
Dear readers,
I want to thank everyone who has read Icy Sparks and especially those who have taken the time out of their busy lives to tell me they enjoyed it. I want to express my gratitude to all the dear people who have attended my readings and booksignings. Their kind faces have given me an extra dose of confidence when I most needed it. As an unknown writer breaking in, I do appreciate the constructive comments I've received on AMAZON.COM.

These past eight months have been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but, much to my delight, the year ended positively when The New York Times Book Review listed Icy Sparks as one of the notable books of 1998, when Keith L. Runyon, book editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, listed it as one of the top ten books of the year, and when Fred Chappell, poet laureate of North Carolina, put it on his "Must Buy" Christmas list in the Raleigh News & Observer. Comments like the following from newspapers across the country have also been encouraging:

"Wondrous reading...a combination of emotional fire and ice that will take your breath away." -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Vivid and unforgettable...brimming with love and hope."-- The New York Times Book Review

"Gwyn Hyman Rubio's plucky, imperfect heroine Icy Sparks throws herself into life with a ferocity that cannot be denied." -- San Diego Union Tribune

"This book...puts [Rubio] on the map as an impressive new Southern female voice...richly inspired."--Time Out New York

"ICY SPARKS is an inspiring first novel... a story of hard-won redemption... a significant contribution to the literature of Appalachia, and the world."--Louisville Courier-Journal

"A triumph of heart and humor...Gwyn Hyman Rubio writes with depth, wit, and sympathy."--Lexington Herald-Leader

"Sensitive...funny...remarkable."--Publisher's Weekly

Again, I want to thank those people who have read my novel and recommended it to their friends. A writer is only as good as her audience. I am grateful that I've found an audience in you.

Customer Reviews

I'm so disappointed
Up until the last 20 pages of this book, I would have given this book five stars *****. What happened?? The only explaination I can think of is that the writer was trying to meet some kind of deadline. All of a sudden Icy finds religion and a singing voice. Had there been any mention of this angelic singing voice before?? NO!
This was a real shame. The rest of the book was sensitive, funny and well written.
WHAT A LOUSY ENDING!

Will never forget Icy
4.5 / 5. THANK YOU Tammy ! This book was so wonderful ! Moved me to tears ! Very, very locating ! I will remember Icy Sparks in the way I remember Owen Meany !

a tender story that sparked my own childhood memories
Although I am neither a literary professional nor an expert on Tourette Syndrome, I am a woman who somehow made it through that awkward period of adolescence and now has a daughter of my own. I relived much of that time while reading Icy Sparks -- the feelings of embarrassment and "sticking out", the flush of puppy love, and the discovery of an adult woman who became a mentor to me and remains a confidante to this day. Of course, my experience pales in comparison to Icy's courageous journey that included a culture which couldn't accept her differences and an illness that she could not control. Icy's story is a powerful victory over a painful past and should challenge all women readers to re-kindle a vanishing tradition - the art of mentoring to our young girls.