Red Sky at Morning

About this book

"Red Sky at Morning is a minor marvel: it is 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 LeeHailed by the WashingtonPost Book World as "a sort of Catcherin the Rye out West," RichardBradford's Red Sky at Morning is theclassic coming-of-age story set during World War II about the enduring spiritof youth and the values in life that count.In the summer of 1944, FrankArnold, a wealthy shipbuilder in Mobile, Alabama, receives his volunteercommission in the U.S. Navy and moves his wife, Ann, and seventeen-year-oldson, Josh, to the family's summer home in the village of Corazon Sagrado, highin the New Mexico mountains. A true daughter of the Confederacy, Ann finds it impossible to cope with the quality of life in the largelyHispanic village and, in the company of Jimbob Buel--an insufferable, South-proud, professional houseguest--takes to bridge and sherry. Josh, onthe other hand, becomes an integral member of the Sagrado community, forgingfriendships with his new classmates, with the town's disreputable residentartist, and with Amadeo and Excilda Montoya, the couple hired by his father tocare for their house. Josh narrates the storyof his fateful year in Sagrado and, with irresistibly deadpan, irreverent humor, describes theevents and people who influence his progress to maturity. Unhindered by hismother's disdain for these "tacky, dusty little Westerners," Joshcomes into his own and into a young man's finely formed understanding of duty, responsibility, and love.