This is my favorite book in the whole entire world
Rating:
5 / 5
I was surprised to see that I had not already written a review on "Red Sky At Morning" as I have purchased countless used copies and passed them on to anyone I loved. I decided to simply make a statement recommending this to anyone who loves a well-written book that will make you laugh out loud, cry and quote its words to anyone who will listen. From the perspective of a upper-level literature student, there is enough allegory, bildungsroman, symbolism and carpe diem to make anybody happy.
But like "The Old Man and the Sea," this book can be read on so many different levels. I first picked it up in an airport bookstore at about age 12 in about 1970, intrigued by the description on the cover. But I didn't read it for five years or more. When I finally picked it up again, it spoke to me on levels and in ways that no novel ever has. And I'm 47 years old and a person who devours novels like Elmer's Gold Brick Eggs (a Louisiana Easter tradition - I digress).
I have read it more than probably any other book in the world and it is still fresh and relevant. It makes me laugh and it makes me cry.
God Bless You, Mr. Richard Bradford!
Sailor take warning
Rating:
5 / 5
I first read RED SKY AT MORNING when I was 14, and immediately bonded with the teen age narrator, fatherless in a strange new world. The wry humor, sarcastic wit and evocation of a vanished, war time New Mexico all combine for a wonderful read. The only other book I enjoyed this much was Jackson McCrae's "The Children's Corner" which is also full of great writing and wonderful descriptions. I've reread RED SKY with great pleasure several times since (32 years and counting) and ordered a new copy for my 16 year old son. He read it and passed it along to his sister which I choose to interpret as an act of kindness, rather than the usual bantering siblings display. A fine book.
A vital piece of the New Mexico fiction reads
Rating:
4 / 5
The Bradford books, Red Sky at Morning and So Far From Heaven are two tomes slightly before their times. When most of the New Mexico fiction enthusiasts discovered Hillerman and Nichols these two had already gone into decline and were settling into obscurity. Each is well worth pulling from the bottom of the heap, dusting carefully and settling down for a great read.Red Sky at Morning would fit well into the John Nichols collection insofar as insight, humor and good story-telling. The characterization is great in both Bradford books; the plotting is excellent; the penetrating insights into a New Mexico forever in transition between a colorful past, chaotic present and incomprehensible future are all conveyed here. Whether the reader wishes to know New Mexico or simply to spend the evening in smiles and laughs, Bradford will provide.
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