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Summary
Summary
After returning from Vietnam in a wheelchair and opening a roadside cafe, Carney never ventures off the premises. Then Vena Takes Horse, a vibrant young woman with a three-legged dog, enters not only the cafe but the lives of the regulars and, eventually, Carney's heart.
Author Notes
Billie Letts was born Billie Dean Gipson in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 30, 1938. She received a bachelor's degree in English and education from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's in behavioral studies from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She taught English in grade school before moving to the college level. Her last position was at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Her first novel, Where the Heart Is, was published in 1995. It received the 1996 Oklahoma Books Award, the Walker Percy Award, and was an Oprah Book Club selection. It was adapted into a movie starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd in 2000. Her other works included Shoot the Moon and The Honk and Holler Opening Soon. She died from pneumonia on August 2, 2014 at the age of 76.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Letts's gently humorous second novel confirms the promise of her debut, Where the Heart Is. For 12 years, wheelchair-bound restaurateur and Vietnam vet Caney Paxton hasn't left his Sequoyah, Okla., cafe, known (thanks to a sign-maker's error) as the Honk and Holler Opening Soon. Now it's Christmas time, 1985, and for Caney and four-times married waitress Molly O, who helped raise him, the holiday looks bleak: business is slumping, overdue bills are piling up and the roof is leaking. Worried about her teenage daughter, Brenda, a country musician seeking her fortune in Nashville, Molly O is too preoccupied to recognize the romantic interest of cafe regular Life Halstead; Caney, ashamed of his part in the war, feels trapped by his wound and his painful past. But that changes when luck brings the Honk and Holler two new employees: beautiful young Crow Indian drifter Vena Takes Horse, who signs on as a carhop, and Vietnamese refugee Bui Khanh, a cook and handyman running from a guilty secret of his own. Initially skeptical of the two outsiders, Honk and Holler habitus come to value Vena and Bui, especially after an act of violence threatens Bui's life. Even a few unresolved loose ends can't diminish the cumulative effect of this warm, sentimental tale, abundant with quirky detail and homespun wisdom, which emphasizes not only the power of romantic love but the healing powers of community as well. Author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Letts' debut novel, Where the Heart Is (1995), did extremely well and so will this sweet tale, which, like the first, is set in a small, wholly unpretentious Oklahoma town. The first hundred pages are winsome and funny as Letts introduces the characters, who have been tested by life, including Caney, the proprietor of the Honk and Holler, a roadside cafe. Caney opened the Honk after losing the use of his legs in Vietnam, not in combat, but, to his everlasting shame, by falling out of a helicopter. Not only is Caney confined to a wheelchair, but he hasn't left the restaurant for 12 years. His loyal friend, Molly O, is waitress and surrogate mother, working hard to try and escape her grief for her late husband and her worry over her honky-tonk daughter. Things are numbingly routine at the Honk until two strangers appear: Vena Takes Horses, a half-Crow, half-Cherokee mystery woman in need of a sanctuary and some work, and Bui Khanh, a Vietnamese in the exact same predicament. Vena and Bui are sparkling creations, fresh and involving, and Letts tells the story of their impact on the town with a wonderfully light touch until page 105, when it all starts to get just a bit too forced, a bit too manipulative and formulaic. In spite of its increasingly stilted plot, however, this warmhearted novel retains its charm and readability right up to its requisite happy ending. --Donna Seaman
School Library Journal Review
YA-In 1973, Caney Paxton returned from Vietnam in a wheelchair. While in the VA hospital, he and some buddies designed a café that was built on a then-busy highway outside of Sequoyah, OK. The café was supposed be called The Honk and Holler, but because of a misunderstanding and about a half a case of Coors, the nonrefundable $600 red-neon sign read "The Honk and Holler Opening Soon." Caney retreated to his café and for 12 years led a lonely life with only his combat nightmares and his regular customers for company. One day shortly before Christmas, a Crow woman named Vena Takes Horse appears at the door wearing red cowboy boots and carrying a severely injured dog. Caney could see that "she was trouble" but gave her a job, thus changing his life forever. Bui Khanh, a Vietnamese immigrant, arrives sometime after Vena and in broken English also asks for work. He becomes more than a short-order cook; he helps free Caney from his terrible nightmares. Caney, Vena, and Bui become the focus in a cast of unforgettable characters who carry heavy burdens and live life on the edge. As she did in the award-winning novel Where the Heart Is (Warner, 1995), Letts will again captivate young adults with this story of love, hope, and humanity.-Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A sunny look at the dark side, as a poster groupa Vietnam vet, an Asian immigrant, a Native American, and an African- American widowserendipitously find happiness at an Oklahoma diner. Letts (Where the Heart Is, 1995, etc.), while a deft scene-setter, offers characters whose pain seems a plot accessory to be worn until something better comes alongand whose ultimate happiness feels as superficial as their previous misery. First, there's Vietnam vet Carney, who lost his legs in the war and now runs the café. Helping him is widow Molly O, worried about her runaway teenage daughter Brenda, who wants to be a country music star. Also hanging out are locals like widower Life, who has his eye on Moll; notorious gossip Wanda Sue; and three old Cherokee friends and WWII vets, Hooks, Soldier, and Quentin. Carney, a former rodeo star, is so depressed that he never goes outsideuntil Native American Vena Take Horse arrives one evening with a wounded dog in her arms (and a lot of psychic baggage). Venas past includes drug addiction, a bad marriage, and an abortion, and shes still grieving over favorite sister Helen's suicide. But she loves animals, knows old Indian remedies, and soon has the dog cured and Carney back on horsebackand in love with her. To add to the mix and help Carney sort out his feelings about Nam is the new cook, Vietnamese immigrant Bui, who's saving his wages to bring his wife over to the States. Bui angers Sam, a local bigot who dies whole trying to kill him, after which Bui wins the friendship of African-American Galilee when he rebuilds her church. Vena, now pregnant and still troubled by her past, runs away, but she finds herself again, and everyoneincluding newly arrived Bui's wifegathers back at The Honk and Holler to celebrate. Happiness lite.
Library Journal Review
Like the 1980 film Inside Moves, this novel from the author of Where the Heart Is (LJ 7/95) blends together a group of damaged, or at least imperfect, individuals in a caf in eastern Oklahoma. Caney, a Vietnam vet confined to a wheelchair, is the proprietor of The Honk and Holler, which he has been running with marginal success since its inception 12 years earlier. Suddenly, Vena Takes Horse shows up unexpectedly with a three-legged dog in tow. As business picks up dramatically, Caney and Vena find comfort in each other's arms. The cast of characters includes Molly O (a surrogate mother to Caney), Molly's wayward daughter, a Vietnamese refugee, a widower with an abiding crush on Molly O, and many others. Together, they create a sense of warmth and community in which reconciliation and love can flourish. Recommended.ÄKimberly G. Allen, NetworkMCI Lib., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
