The Town on the Beaver Creek Essay Example for Free

The Town on the Beaver Creek Essay In her â€Å"The Town on the Beaver Creek† Michelle Slatalla presents humorous and lively writing in order to present intimate and enchanting history of a 20th-century frontier. The author evokes place and time to make people remember. â€Å"When he was seven, my uncle Jack saw a man dying of rabies on the county courthouse lawn. The man wore bib overalls, and as he convulsed and choked, his boot heels flung divots into the air. He begged for water. Someone brought a dipper cool from the pump, but he could not swallow. After an ambulance took the farmer away and Hesta reappeared on the concrete steps in a rush to catch the next Sparks Bros. bus, Jack tried to forget the strange scene†. In such a way the author starts her narration making people acquainted with a small Kentucky town. Actually, the author tells a story of small town Martin specifying the life stories of three generations of her family before the town was bulldozed. Michelle finds appealing approach and inquisitive mind to shed light on the life and glory of Martin, â€Å"built by the hardy†, which population amounts about 860 people. Aparent strength of the book is that Slatalla prefers novelistic style to make her narration more realistic and true to life. She manages to be remarkably thorough without seeming academic or sterile. The author excellently had done her job and her characters have appeared very expressive and vivid. For example, Doc Walk Sumbo, who rode down the church aisle on horseback and ran – successfully – for sheriff after a stint in prison for embezzling government money, whereas Stumbo’s opponent was running an ad in the town: â€Å"I will give the office personal attention, as I have nothing else to do†. Actually, the author tends to show that politics in the town is inexhaustible source of jokes and humor. She writes that in another unlikely election, an outhouse cleaner was named county coroner over an undertaker, solely by virtue of his fortuitous first name, Judge. Therefore, the book illustrates both political and social life of the town in a rather sarcastic and humorous way. As it is mentioned above the author tells a story of her family: of her mother who was so nostalgic for the town she had to leave as an adult, of her father who managed to build a scale model of small town in their family basement. Slatalla notes that â€Å"the results looked like a movie set created for a heartwarming Frank Capra film†. Nevertheless, the author writes that nothing would be the same as their native town. The model carted by her father, for example, failed to reproduce the stash of courageous, scary, heartrending and hilarious stories which filled the lives of inhabitants in Kentucky town in the beginning of the 20th century. Further, the author mentions that she aware that Martin tow was going to be demolished and a new locale would be built. And that fact caused her to act and to struggle for her native city. She writes that she was outrageous and really furious that old traditions and memories weren’t appreciated and only material wealth was emphasized. Michelle realized that some things would be lot forever, though they would be kept in memories and records and she made such an attempt. Therefore, she decided to grab â€Å"as many of the old stories as I could carry†. So, her recollections are transformed and presented in a really delightful book. Her expert hands managed to show her husband Fred, her Uncle Red, great-grandmother Hesta, grandmother Mary, her grandfather Elmer and the town physician, Doc Walk very alive and vibrant : â€Å"Sometimes a town is past saving, but its history shouldnt be†. The author seems so anxious at times not to leave anything out. Slatalla was very proud of her native city. Summing up the book is a fitting memorial for an unusual town and makes one wonder how many other towns stories have been lost. References Slatalla, Michelle. (2006).The Town on Beaver Creek: The Story of a Lost Kentucky Community. USA: Random House Publishing Group.