Author Jim Gulledge’s novella, A Poor Man’s Supper, is set in the Asheville area and is particularly inspired by the his experiences in the Saluda community.
North Carolina writer Ruth Moose has said of A Poor Man’s Supper that it …”reads like a ballad and …could be set to music.” Dr. Gulledge acknowledges the influence of his own European ancestors on his work. “Our folk culture in Western North Carolina was and continues to be heavily influenced by waves of English and Scottish immigrants who brought their songs and stories with them from Great Britain. The majority of my mother’s people immigrated from Scotland to Pennsylvania and then down the Great Wagon Road to North Carolina. I tried to imagine one of their old folk songs coming to life in prose.”
The main character of the tale is a young woman named Vancie Keller who is trying to survive on her mother’s failing farm when her life is forever altered by the arrival of two very different men: Josiah Buckland and Jagger Hill. The book is in part a morality tale about the tremendous consequences of our choices and actions, but is sprinkled with revelry in the natural world, faith, song and myth.
Readers Reviews