The Lamoille Stories: Uncle Benoit's Wake and Other Tales from Vermont

By Bill Schubart

Every year on the Fourth of July, Jeeter’s wife Lou struts in the town parade wearing suspenders made of jumper cables with a tow chain around her waist. Those in the know—which means everyone in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1935052101
• ISBN13: 9781935052104
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: White River Pr
• Length: 199 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful stories

I have read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. The stories are so rich and full of real life and real people.

Stories Beyond A Time or Place

The Lamoille Stories truly capture a time gone by: rural Vermont with its quirky characters, improbable but true tales, and the texture of small town life before malls and technology- and by that I mean private telephone lines. I spent a chunk of my childhood in rural Vermont and can taste those memories on every page. Yet this collection transcends a time or region. With lively and witty prose Bill Schubart captures warmth, idiosyncrasies, occasional idiocies, ingenuity, and the realities of rural poverty. And yes, you will laugh out loud- never a bad thing. An enjoyable read, one chapter at a time or all at once.

Frickin great

I stood in the middle of the kitchen and read this book, and said, 'hold on....wait a minute...hold on...wait a minute' to my five-year-old son--for chapter after chapter. I tend to judge books these days by how much they compromise my parenting. I grew up in Vermont, and these stories sounded pitch perfect to me. Nothing precious or forced here. Really, really funny and apt and lovely and insightful and a joy to read. Thanks for them.

Rare Opportunity in Vermont

In Vermont and across our great nation our rich rural culture is fast becoming history. The stories of those intrepid characters who are passing on provide one of our richest cultural heritages. NPR is doing the StoryCorps and, lucky for us, Bill Schubart has written "The Lamoille Stories". Mr Schubart has drawn upon his wealth of experiences growing up in this geographically and socially diverse part of Vermont and combined that experience with the stories he has heard to evoke with humor and pathos of the unique and earthy lives of these mountain folk. This is a timely effort as the gentrification of Vermont is fast overtaking these humble old Vermonters. There is so much empathy, humor and insight into these lives spent in the isolated back hills of Vermont that each story leaves me spell bound. The writing is colorful, concise and peppered with the linguistic peculiarities of the region.

In the Spirit of the Place

Vermont is a unique and quirky place. It is odd but not strange, entertaining but not funny, humble but not retiring. I have lived in this state for 18 years and as a writer myself I still struggle to define its character, to describe its face, to those who don't know it. The Lamoille Stories come closer than anything I've found yet. The stories themselves are wonderful, yes, but it is the tales within the tales - the narrative between the lines, if you will - that tells the real story. This book is to be enjoyed like a good wine - slowly, deliberately, with each twist and nuance to be rolled over the tongue and savored. The last page of this book is disappointing - because it is the last page, the final step of a memorable journey that we wish had gone on a bit longer.