Red Sky at Morning

Book excerpt: Hailed as “a sort of Catcher in the Rye out West,” this classic coming-of-age story set during World War II is “a true delight” (Washington Post Book World). In the summer of 1944, Frank Arnold, a wealthy shipbuilder in Mobile, Alabama, receives his volunteer commission in the U.S. Navy and moves his wife, Ann, and seventeen-year-old son, Josh, to the family’s summer home in the village of Corazon Sagrado, high in the New Mexico mountains. A true daughter of the Confederacy, Ann finds it impossible to cope with the quality of life in the largely Hispanic village and takes to playing bridge and drinking. Josh, on the other hand, becomes an integral member of the Sagrado community, forging friendships with his new classmates, with the town’s disreputable resident artist, and with Amadeo and Excilda Montoya, the couple hired by his father to care for their house. Josh narrates the story of his fateful year in Sagrado and, with irresistibly deadpan, irreverent humor, describes the events and people who influence his progress to maturity. Unhindered by his mother’s disdain for these “tacky, dusty little Westerners,” Josh comes into his own and into a young man’s finely formed understanding of duty, responsibility, and love. “A minor marvel: a novel of paradox, of identity, of an overwhelming YES to life that embraces with wonder what we are pleased to call the human condition. In short, a work of art.” —Harper Lee “A refreshing book, straightforward, funny, touching and . . . true.” —New York Times Book Review “A terribly funny book with some of the richest characters I’ve read about in some years.” —Groucho Marx