From the #1 bestselling author of October Sky comes this rich, unforgettable tale. With the same dazzling storytelling that distinguished his first memoir, Homer Hickam takes us deeper into the soul of his West Virginia hometown at a moment when its unique way of life is buffeted by forces of time and change.

It is fall 1959. Homer “Sonny” Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, and the town of Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads.

The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where Homer Sr. struggles to save the mine, and his wife, Elsie, is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl, finds his own mood darkened by an unexplainable sadness.

Then, with the holidays approaching, trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider bring unexpected changes in both the Hickam family and the town of Coalwood ... as this luminous memoir moves toward its poignant conclusion.

Average Customer Review: ( 74 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

Homer discovers truths about himself and others, even as he's about to move away from home. There is always more to learn from one's parents. There are many emotional highs and lows in Coalwood, but lessons learned from both will leave you feeling hopeful for the human spirit. The people of Coalwood continue to display a dogged determination to get though the difficulties, even if they stumble along the way. Not one to cry easily, I found my eyes welling up with tears during the last chapter. It is possible to find great joy and beauty in hard times.

Homer doesn't miss on emotion. There's anger, joy, fear, excited anticipation, sorrow, laughter, and contentment. You may very well learn something about yourself while reading The Coalwood Way. I highly recommend it!

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

A satisfying 'sequel'Oct 10, 2000
By Len LaCara
While not as lyrical as "Rocket Boys," Homer Hickam still tells an engrossing tale in his new memoir, "The Coalwood Way." The same people we grew to love are here: Sonny, Elsie and Homer; the Rev. "Little" Richard; Quentin, Roy Lee and all the Coalwood boys. But instead of focusing on his rocketing exploits, Hickam delves into the psyche of a town that's changing in ways it doesn't even know. This is less a story about Homer Hickam than it is a story about Coalwood, West Virginia. As readers, we're richer for the experience.

With the clear eye of a scientist, Hickam focuses on two watershed events in the Christmas of 1959. One delves into the undercurrent of spite and envy that marred his beloved hometown. The other shows a proud man, Homer's father, feverishly working to save his town the only way he knows how -- in the mine. But even that battle has unintended consequences.

The book starts a little slowly and the ending seems a little contrived. But it must ring true, or Homer's mother surely would have called him on it. And these are minor flaws in an otherwise excellent story.

As someone who lives in West Virginia but didn't grow up here, I never will fully appreciate Homer Hickam's world. But as one who loves the Mountain State and wants to see it thrive, I thank Hickam for sharing Coalwood with the rest of us. Homer Hickam has a message for the Mountain State: Honor the legacy of coal, but let it go. Education and a refusal to quit will take you wherever you wish to go. If those of us he left behind work hard enough, we can make our dreams come true -- without leaving our West Virginia hills.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

Classic material!!Nov 02, 2000
By jeanne-scott
Homer Hickham has done it again!! I loved Rocket Boys so much and didn't think it could happen again. Then along came The Coalwood Way!! This is a marvelous book about life. Homer takes the reader on a journey to a time when lives and times were changing, not always for the best. The author shows us a picture of a coal town and the Country in a period of transition, much like Sonny and his friends in their period of transition from high school, stepping into their future. The story tells us that no matter how bright or strong or motivated someone is, that life can throw some hard curve balls, and it is always good to know that you can count on family, friends and neighbors. Mr. Hickam also points out the importance of looking out for each other and knowing when it is time to step up to the plate for others. The story ends with a brilliant Christmas scene that really tells the reader that we are a wondrous creation molded by all the experiences in our lives, those that happen to us and those that we initiate ourselves and that always, always, the Creator's hand is with us. That he can do all this in "The Coalwood Way" without once being preachy is unique. This was an inspiring book, that takes real life examples and attempts to draw the readers along to look at the big picture of life. This book was fun, humorous, introspective, open, honest and very touching. I enjoyed it immensely.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

UpliftingOct 31, 2000
By Alice Rice
In a time when so much that is published and shown in the media is negative and inconsequential, 'The Coalwood Way' uplifts the spirit with the honest reflections of a young man who discovers the secret of growing up. Homer Hickam reveals the deepest longing of his heart as the book carries the reader through a short but significant period of time that changes his life. Homer's heartwarming self-searching is so reflective of what I experienced as a teen that I'm certain that many others can also relate to his story. The Coalwood Way is not a sequel to Rocket Boys but rather an 'equal' that enlarges upon the relationships and complex personalities of the characters in the town. Homer (who is as sincere and nice as he comes across in the story, and is married to ones of the most beautiful and talented ladies around) seems to unroll the story like a red carpet, encouraging the reader to follow and explore the richness of this coal mining community in southern WV. My husband, daughter and I have visited Coalwood several times and spent time with the gracious people who live there and who are working so hard to bring restoration to this gem of a town. There is a proud spirit among the citizens and that rare closeness that the word 'community' stands for. The reader of Homer's Coalwood books are able to experience this spirit. If you are wondering what exactly Homer means by 'The Coalwood Way' I encourage you to read the book. It's one of those 'life lessons' we need to share with our kids, model ourselves, and encourage in others. Warm, rich, uplifting, thoughtful, and engrossing. It's a rare treat to find an author like Homer who writes with consistent integrity and unashamed joy. I'm so thankful he is working on a third book and can hardly wait to read it!

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Drill Farther into Hickam's Coalwood RootsJun 30, 2003
By thomasbc
Aimlessly wandering the fiction aisles of the library, glumly looking over the "been-there-done-that" Grisham novels, wishfully scanning the Hiaasen section in slim hopes of finding something new, when out of the corner of my eye, I caught a name on a book spine: Homer H. Hickam Jr. I instantly recognized the name as a character from one of my all-time favorite movies, "October Sky". I pulled the book, expecting it to be "Rocket Boys", the memoir on which the movie was based. I had always meant to pick up that book and get more familiar with the story that so captivated me in the movie. Only, the title of this book was "The Coalwood Way". Instantly, I knew that my browsing malaise was cured (funny how that often works)!

Not only did I now have a chance to get more familiar with the "Rocket Boys" story and characters, but I also had a whole other novel with which to do it. For, you see, this memoir isn't really a sequel to the aforementioned book, but actually an expansion of a section of the original story; a kind of story within a story. Think of it as zooming in on just one section of a fractal image to see all of the intricate details within the new image.

The scope of the first memoir was pretty much the entire high school career of Homer (Sonny) and the Rocket Boys and focused predominantly on their exploits with amateur rocketry. But, the real charm of the original story came from the background setting and people of Coalwood, West (by God) Virginia. The boys of the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA) still play a big part in this story that spans basically only one year of high school from roughly Christmas of their junior year through Christmas of their senior year. However, this time around, rocketry plays second fiddle as we delve much deeper into the lush background and learn more about Sonny's deep roots in Coalwood and how really fortunate (and bittersweet) it was that he and the rest of the boys of the BCMA could escape that life.

Having seen the movie first, I found myself constantly imposing the images of the actors onto the characters in the book, which wasn't always such a bad thing since all of the characters in the movie were wonderfully cast. The only time this was a problem was with the group of boys, which in the movie numbered four, but in the book numbered six! It seems that possibly as many as three characters in the books, Sherman, O'Dell and Billy, were all "merged" into one character, Sherman O'Dell, in the movie. Not much of a problem, though, as Hickam's eloquent prose quickly conjured up images for all six young men.

In this story, the town of Coalwood really comes alive. I instantly felt like I could have grown up there myself and maybe, in a way, I did. Hickam has an uncanny ability to touch the heartstrings of just about any American man (and possibly woman as well) who grew up in and around that time period, regardless of geographic location. We all have either shared a common anecdote or experienced an unrequited, adolescent love like he describes in his books (I was just crushed when Ginger told him that they would just be great friends). The ending of this book did seem a bit sappy and contrived but, darn it, I felt like it really needed to have a storybook ending. The beleaguered folks of Coalwood deserved one, even if it probably didn't actually happen exactly like that (i.e. historical fiction).

I immensely enjoyed this book. So much so, that I have since gone back and read the original "Rocket Boys" and then skipped forward to read the third book in the series "Sky of Stone". I'll probably also buy his non-fiction book "Torpedo Junction" and his true fiction novel "Back to the Moon". But, this is the one that started it for me. I think I have found another favorite author!

See all 74 customer reviews on Amazon.com