Chalktown
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| Chalktown | |
| Author | Melinda Haynes |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Hyperion Books |
| Publication date | May 2, 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 368 pp (paperback edition), 317pp (hardcover edition) |
Chalktown (2001) is a sophomore novel by Melinda Haynes.
[edit] Plot introduction
Set during the spring of 1961, 16-year-old Hezekiah ("Hez") Sheehand plans to walk to nearby Chalktown, a town where folks are rumored to communicate only by writing on chalkboards. On his back he carries his mentally retarded five-year-old brother, Yellababy. Behind him, Hez leaves his mother, Susan-Blair, a sleezy woman who hits her children; his father, Fairy, who lives in a bus in their yard; and his older sister, Arena, who has run off with a man who pays her to "work on him with her hands." As Hez nears Chalktown, Haynes slips back in time to 1955 to chart the silent community's history. Eerie as it is, the place is strangely soothing, and Hez wishes he could stay a wish that may be granted when Arena's promiscuity drives Fairy to commit a terrible crime. Throughout, Hez's next-door neighbor, Marion Calhoun, a preternaturally good-hearted "colored man," keeps an eye on the feckless Sheehands.
