Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones: A Novel

by Lana Witt

Overview

Bringing to life a cast of eccentric, unforgettable characters, Lana Witt weaves a tale of epic dimension in a small rural town definitely worth a visit.

When wayward Californian Tom Jetts rolls his broken-down car into remote Pick, Kentucky, he finds himself in a town among friends, enemies, and lovers who are playing out tales as old as the prehistoric soil beneath their feet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780671891220
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lana Witt is the author of Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones, a Simon & Schuster book.

Editorial Reviews

Rich characterization and black humor with a thick Southern accent distinguish Witt's irresistible debut novel. Tom Jett, freshly equipped with a degree in philosophy, has left California for the open road. After three months of traveling, his Toyota breaks down outside Pick, Ky., a three-street mountain town that is being bought up by the Conroy Coal Company. Gilman Lee, Pick's premier mechanic, bootlegger, lover and musician, offers to put Tom up in a rundown cabin; in exchange, Tom is to keep a lookout for Conroy Coal augers trying to burrow under Gilman's land in search of new deposits. But Gilman hasn't told Tom that he keeps the skeleton of his best friend, Zack-upright in a chair, cigarette in hand-in the old smokehouse near the cabin. The odd nature of the town becomes clearest to Tom, however, when he spots Gemma Collet sitting naked in a nearby creek, covering herself with mud. Gemma, he learns, has ``been mad ever since she turned white''-i.e., contracted vitilego-at age 18. Gemma and Tom's romance makes cautious progress until Rosalie Wilson, Gilman's great lost love, returns from Florida, on the run from her rich but homicidal lover. Witt's talent, big and pleasingly quirky, marks her as a fresh new voice. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

When the folks at the machine shop society in eastern Pick, Kentucky, wage war against a coal company, unadulterated havoc erupts. Each bedeviled by a special loss and inspired by the love of drink and music, the citizens of Pick engage in murder, make love, and live troubled lives puntuated with humor. There's Ten-fifteen, "who was born with arms that stick out from his sides like the hands of a clock." His best friend is Gilman Lee, a blues musician mechanic, who conspires to eliminate the coal company. Tom Jett, a California philosopher, is just plain lost and seeks the right mountain range to call home. Gemma, milkshake white from a skin disease, is feisty, hell-bent, and incapable of deciding whom she loves more, Tom or Gilman Lee. In a clever first novel, Witt, a native Kentuckian, presents a high-spirited work replete with romance, suspense, and fascinating eccentrics. Highly recommended for avid readers.-Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Library Journal

"Southern storytelling is at its best in Lina Witt's new novel....As in the best traditions of classical drama, the characters complement and balance each other with an almost Shakesperean richness and oridinariness."-- Rocky Mountain News

Joan Hinkemeyer