Fool's Hill: A Kid's Life in an Oregon Coastal Town
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By John Quick
1995. 320 pages. Illustrated with photographs.
ISBN 0-87071-385-X. Hardcover, $24.95.
ISBN 0-87071-399-X. Paperback, $15.95.
Table of Contents
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John Quick is Garrison Keillor with an attitude and
Fool's Hill
is his quirky childhood autobiography. The setting is Port Orford, Oregon, in the mid-1930s to -40s. Here
a curious, blabbermouth boy learns more at the bottom of a ditch than in
kindergarten and finds real home in a booth at Red's Bar holding hands with
Dorothy, whom he is
never supposed to talk to. Meet Skippy the dog
and Bruno the Terrible Bear, Moran the Mystery Man and Grandfather Frank
the pyromaniac. Learn about human bones, Parker's solid Gold Meteor, double
homers, "Turd" McCormick's wagon, chicken massacres, the Prum-Yay
automobile, falling out of trees, and trying to hang on to friends that
are about to kick the bucket.
With a little help from his friends, young Johnny learns about life and
death and sex and Indians. And, with his help, we remember what it is to
be a kid.
"What a delightful book! Style, shape, voice--it's charming and
original. I just can't think of anything like it. . . . a book about the
dominion of childhood, about memory and dream, about wisdom and ignorance,
and most especially . . . about the meaning and value of community."
Molly Gloss, author of The Jump-Off Creek
"Fool's Hill isn't about Port Orford, really. It is about the community,
and life, and death, and the things that are meaningful inside each of us
but somehow not understandable to others. Quick makes them understandable.
Chances are you've never read anything quite like Fool's Hill. So take a
chance. You might well be touched in ways you never imagined."
Dan Hays, Statesman Journal
About the Author
After leaving Port Orford, John Quick attended high school in Grants Pass,
Oregon, and served in the Air Force in the Far East during the Korean War.
He attended four universities (including a one-year stint at the University
of Oregon) and holds a Ph.D. from the Union Institute. Quick has worked
as a bellhop, actor, VP-Creative Director for New York ad agencies, liquor
store delivery driver, fry cook, and director of sales promotions. Sadly John is now deceased.
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