Hub

By Robert B Herring Jr. and Robert Herring

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670385522
• ISBN13: 9780670385522
• Release Date: July 1981
• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 20.0" x 20.0" x 20.0"

Customer Reviews

southern story telling master

Hub : He who can breathe life into the unreal and make it live, and with that touch a part of the reader, drawing the reader into the story, preventing them from closing the novel until every word is read, is a true word master. Robert Herring does just that with his novel Hub. The reader is engulfed in the terror that pursues two boys and a wise, old man and yet feels an empathy for the pursuer, a slow minded, drooling monster of a man named Lute, who has gone crazy from a lifetime of abuse and ridicule. This is a learning experience for the boys. They learn to trust the ways of the old, to trust in each other as friends and trust that life is not always what it seems. Heubert is a boy like many, he loves adventures and hates to be called a chicken. He doesn't like to admit that he's scared, even when he is shaking in his shoes. The one place that he doesn't fear much is on his island, following around his old friend, Uncle Ethel. He has learnt much from the old man, how to trap, build fires to cook from, to hunt, but the biggest lesson is trust. Hub must put the life of his friend and his own in the old man's hands and trust the wisdom of this man he has grown to love. Uncle Ethel would never let him down. "Heuburt." "Yessir," Hub said. "You be afeared?" "Nosir!" "Heuburt?" Silence again. Hub looked away, then back. The old man's flinty eyes looked back at him. "Yessir," he said. "I guess some." "Good. Do you believe I was some too." "Sir?" Hub said. Afraid? Uncle Ethel? The old man glanced off toward the fire. "Man's not afeared sometimes is a fool. You 'n me ain't got no room fer fools this night." (214) This is a journey from innocence to understanding, a journey that ends with good winning over evil. In the sleepy little Arkansas town where the story is set, the abrupt awareness that evil can live anywhere, unnoticed until tragedy strikes, turns the town upside down. Gossip and speculation spread like a brush fire, and each time the fire is pursued and put out, a sighting of Lute sparks it one more time. As the law pursues the killer and the killer pursues the boys and the old man, the river pursues them all. The unpredictable forces of nature gain more strength as the story races to its nail biting conclusion. Herring creates perfect imagery with the setting but it's in his characters that he creates the magic. Right from the first page, they become real. The reader pities Lute for his ugliness and filth, and yet understands the cruel humour of the boys who abuse him. The sherriff and deputy, although stereotypical of lawmen of the south, become part of the reader's own community. This novel is the mirror that one does not want to look into for long, as it reflects the readers own fears, predudices and failings, and yet it is imposible to put down or close until safety is restored to the freinds the reader has made. These are not just flat, faceless people. They are living in the readers imagination. M