Product Description

When Manda Frank gives birth to an astonishing eleven babies, the world descends on her home town of Three Chimneys, Virginia. Beneath the intense media spotlight the town begins to give up its long-held secrets: from the unrequited love of August Vaughn, the town's avid Thomas Jefferson impersonator, to the more dangerous and subversive passions of Mr March, the local history teacher. Meanwhile, cheesemaker Margaret Prickett decides to highlight the plight of the rural community by creating 'The Mammoth Cheese' - a 1,235-pound wheel of Cheshire which she plans to parade all the way to Washington - while failing to notice the plight of her own teenage daughter Polly, who is caught up in the dangerous romance of rebellion, and veering precariously towards tragedy...'This panoramic social novel with a needle-sharp point of view sends up both small-town America and politics. There's mordant social commentary, discussion of Jeffersonian civic ideals and bittersweet romance, plus more than you needed to know about cow midwifery' PEOPLE

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #594426 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
US reviews for The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman 'An engaging, multidimensional tale ... [Sheri Holman is] a gifted writer' Anita Shreve, Atlantic Monthly 'Lovely and disarming ...the storyline is droll but the book is also tough, sad and surprisingly sweet' New York Times Book Review 'Like the 1,200-pound cheese of the title, Sheri Holman's novel is a big, ambitious enterprise. Unlike many such enterprises - though again like the cheese - it possesses, page by page, or bite by bite if you prefer, an intense, refined and lingering flavour ... comic and absolutely gripping' New York Times 'Profoundly moving ... Holman has fashioned a tale that is poignant and powerful and, like an award-winning cheese, surprisingly complex' Washington Post 'Holman's novel is brilliant, the characters deeply rendered, the philosophic underpinning astute, the touch sure ...Holman is one of those novelists whose world you trust completely. She's as adept as Barbara Kingsolver at tracing the political and intellectual life of small rural communities. In fact, some of Holman's social satire has Kingsolver's humour' Seattle Times 'Flawlessly plotted ... so satisfying' Atlanta Journal 'Holman is a skilfully detailed writer whose prose blends the factual with the personal in a manner as straightforward as it is compelling ... Holman's characters are deftly drawn, flawed and earnest, corruptible and alight with brave dreams' The Globe and Mail 'Inventive, offbeat ... an exuberantly eccentric tale of small-town life ... a delicately nuanced, vivid creation making this work one that dazzles with its combination of history, religion, political satire and tragedy' Publishers Weekly 'This big but nimble novel is absolutely compelling in its swift satire, yet readers will also respond to its deep sympathies for "well-foibled" individuals ... Human nature exposed at its rawest - and most entertaining' Booklist 'Fantastic ... this is a Great American Novel par excellence ... stunning' Newsday 'This panoramic social novel with a needle-sharp point of view sends up both small-town America and politics. There's mordant social commentary, discussion of Jeffersonian civic ideals and bittersweet romance, plus more than you needed to know about cow midwifery' People 'The denouement of Holman's sharp American satire could easily be a scene out of a Robert Altman movie ... Holman's intricately crafted look at family, religion and class in the rural South seamlessly blends the quotidian and the surreal' Time Out New York 'Holman virtuosically entangles two arresting plotlines: the ripple effect of the birth of (count 'em) eleven babies to an exhausted Virginia woman and the creation and transportation to Washington of the eponymous protein source ... enthralling ... part John Hassler, part Robert Altman film - and all-round terrific' Kirkus 'Believability is one of the things that makes this such a wonderful book. Sheri Holman performs a nearly faultless balancing act between reality and satire' Chicago Sun-Times 'Wonderful ... Holman made her debut with the grisly, remarkable The Dress Lodger. She is even more remarkable here. Her story is deep and compelling, populated by characters who are moving and thought-provoking, and her images are precise and surprising' Philadelphia Inquirer 'After reading only a few pages I was hooked ...an engaging work of fiction that explores big ideas with an off-kilter freshness and a genuine knowledge of human experience ... a marvellous, entertaining novel' BookPage

About the Author
Sheri Holman grew up in rural Virginia and now lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of A STOLEN TONGUE and THE DRESS LODGER. THE MAMMOTH CHEESE is her third novel.

Customer Reviews

Eleven babies fructuating in her womb
There is hard-working Margaret who has the upkeep of the dairy farm to think about; her daughter Polly, in love with her cynical and dangerous history teacher. Then there is August, who has been in love with Margaret ever since he first saw her, and is the shy, retiring son of the local pastor, Leland Vaughn. Leland has a lot on his mind since he has just counselled Manda and Jake that they should go ahead and have the eleven babies fructuating in Manda's womb since they sent for some dubious fertility drugs from an unnamed eastern European nation.

How the giant cheese comes about is in pursuit of Margaret's passion for Adams Brooke, a presidential candidate who stands for "the family" and promises to give an amnesty to all small farmers whose familial debts, built up over their family lifetime, are about to bury them in penury.

Amusing and poignant by turns, it gradually turns a bit weepie-like but since the premises are so latently comic it's a little hard to take seriously. Nevertheless, most things do come good for the righteous in the end. Predictable, but a good read nonetheless.