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Reviews of The Stump’s On Fire and I’m Naked ********"This book is worth reading twice, at least!"******** As an avid reader of non-fiction, I found Stump’s On Fire And I’m Naked…both inspiring and mesmerizing; a book written with such emotion that the reader lives right alongside Donald Oakes as he struggles through a childhood of unspeakable poverty and emotional trauma, wrapped in adult situations and dark secrets. Never losing faith that there was “something better out there” Oakes perseveres for education and eventually escapes his life of poverty as a sharecropper/moon-shiner’s son by joining the Air Force. On the other side of the world, Oakes realizes he carries emotional scars from his childhood as he searches for love and normalcy. While successfully ‘climbing the corporate ladder’, supporting his family, and striving for the ‘American Dream’, he is plagued by tormenting nightmares, anger, and illnesses; both physical and emotional. Oakes is finally forced to confront the demons of his childhood face to face in order to survive. A ‘must read’, this poignant and inspirational autobiography is a result of years spent in therapy from which Oakes has successfully emerged. This book reads like a novel with its unforgettable characters and first-hand descriptions of life in the rural South. Vivid, explicitly written scenes denote this a book to be enjoyed by mature readers. Reviewed by Myra Johnson, author of: God
Feeds The Crows; A Labyrinth of Lees; Across The Miles; The Legacy of MDL
Crawford; Grandma’s Apron Strings; Mary’s Children and contributing writer
for Wetumpka Area Magazine, River Region Magazine and Lake Martin Living. **** Not since Angela’s Ashes has a book told the story of a young man’s coming of age so poignantly. But Mr. Oakes has carried it a step further. He has brought back to life the sordid lifestyle of Tobacco Road. And who better to tell this story of a sharecropper child in rural Alabama than a man who lived it. Lived the tortured childhood of a child growing up in the most depraved circumstances. A child who’s most fervent wish was only to have a normal life. A normal family. Normalcy has its price and young Donald Oakes paid that price with interest. If you thought Faulkner and Tennessee Williams had a monopoly on the insanity that can grip the rural South, think again. This book about sharecropping, moon-shining and the "redneck" lifestyle could only be told by one who has "been there, done that." It is a tribute to Mr. Oakes determination that he not only survived his lifestyle, he surpassed it to become a financial and emotional success. If you only read one biography this year, make sure it is The Stump’s On Fire and I’m Naked. You won’t regret it. Reviewed by Kathleen Walls, (www.katywalls.com/) author of: Last Step, Georgia’s Ghostly Getaways, Kudzu and head publisher of Global Authors Publications. (www.globalauthorspublications.com/) **** I don't normally read autobiographies. To me, I expected them
to read like very dry history books, I was born, I went to school, I did this, Well, from the start this book certainly surprised me. No dry facts here, just a well-written tale peopled with characters that would be at home in any novel. The author begins the book, not with his birth, but with the
appearance of some ghostly apparitions that scared his mother and sisters, but not the young five-year-old protagonist. Although having no words
for what he senses, the five year old Donald just knows that these The life is full of hardships, with food as scarce as the
money needed to buy it. Working for pittance on someone else's land, Donald dreams
of escaping poverty and becoming something in his life, someone who Living in various shacks (depending on who they were working
for at the time) in the backwoods of Alabama is not the best start in life for anyone, but Donald overcomes obstacles that weaker characters may balk The book is almost written like a novel, it doesn't matter that the characters are real, only that they are well written and the book also has a mystery to be solved, who were the ghosts? that keeps you reading on. Gritty and realistic (the author minces neither words nor scenes) it is not a book for the faint hearted! Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Drowning Rapunzel and Shadows of the Rose. (www.annettegisby.n3.net/) |