Running on Red Dog Road

Book Review of
Running on Red Dog Road

Author: Drema Berkheimer
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Publisher Summary:

“Mining companies piled trash coal in a slag heap and set it ablaze. The coal burned up, but the slate didn’t. The heat turned it rose and orange and lavender. The dirt road I lived on was paved with that sharp-edged rock. We called it red dog. Grandma said, Don’t you go running on that red dog road. But I do.”

Gypsies, faith-healers, moonshiners, and snake handlers cavort through Drema’s childhood in 1940s Appalachia after her father is killed in the coal mines, her mother goes off to work as a Rosie the Riveter, and she is left in the care of devout Pentecostal grandparents. What follows is a spitfire of a memoir that reads like a novel, with intrigue, sweeping emotion, and indisputable charm. Drema’s coming of age is colored by tent revivals with Grandpa, poetry-writing hobos, and exotic carnivals, and through it all, she serves witness to a multi-generational family of saints and sinners whose lives defy the stereotypes. Just as she defies her own.

Grace's Review

Running on Red Dog Road

I always have a book going on my kindle app on my phone, and for part of this fall semester this was my book that I had going.

Running on Red Dog Road is the story a girl living in the back woods during World War II time period. I thought that it gave a good view of her childhood even though it was probably a little faulty as she was a child, which as children we do not remember things the same way as they happened. This is why I question the accuracy of the book, but besides that it was a good read.

It was not the best book that I have ever read, but I found it rather easy to put down and pick up as I do when I read a book on my phone. The thing that I did find most fascinating was that Drema’s older brother had a handicap, and it was interesting to read about her view of him and the medical attention he received back in the day. If you like reading different types of stories, then you’ll enjoy this one.

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