Screaming with the Cannibals

Summary

Screaming with the Cannibals is the sequel to the nationally acclaimed cult classic Crum. In this action-packed novel, Jesse finds himself in an evangelical service in Kentucky - on the other side of the Tug River from his native West Virginia. As the folks touched by the Spirit rave and howl, Jesse remembers how back in Crum they used to tell him to stay on his side of the river—because the people on the other side were known to eat their children. And now, here he is in a holy-roller church, screaming with the cannibals.

Since his earlier adventures, Jesse has visited the West Virginia holler where his family lived before moving up to the greater sophistication of Crum. Here he discovers that his favorite uncle has disappeared from the face of the earth in a moonshining accident. He then meets the girl who makes the earth – or at least the hayloft – move for him. From there he goes to Kentucky, and then to Myrtle Beach, where he gets hired as a lifeguard—although he can't even swim a stroke.

Of course, Jesse is in a hurry to go. And, he doesn’t much care where. He only knows that his future is out there – somewhere. Not in a coal mine in Crum, West Virginia. Jesse has no possessions. But, he does have an imagination, strength, intelligence—and a strong sense of right and wrong.  Throughout these hilarious pages, his virtues are tried and tested all over again as he anxiously searches for the freedom he knows exists outside of his tiny hometown.

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Part I
•   West Virginia
•   Black Hawk Ridge
• Part II
•   Kentucky
•   Screaming With the Cannibals
• Part III
•   South Carolina
•   Bleeding on the Sand

Author

Lee Maynard was born and raised in the hardscrabble ridges and hard-packed mountains of West Virginia, an upbringing that darkens and shapes much of his writing. His work has appeared in such publications such as Columbia Review of Literature, Appalachian Heritage, Kestrel, Reader's Digest, The Saturday Review, Rider Magazine, Washington Post, Country America, and The Christian Science Monitor. Maynard gained public and literary attention for his depiction of adolescent life in a rural mining town in his first novel, Crum, and received a Literary Fellowship in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete Screaming with the Cannibals.

An avid outdoorsman and conservationist, Maynard is a mountaineer, sea kayaker, skier, and former professional river runner. Currently, Maynard serves as President and CEO of The Storehouse, an independently funded, nonprofit food pantry in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received the 2008 Turquoise Chalice Award to honor his dedication to this organization.

Read more about Lee Maynard here.

Reviews

“[Maynard] once again succeeds in delivering a devastatingly, soul-searching, scabrous and very funny literary experience."
Michael Shannon Friedman, The Charleston Gazette

"Between the first and last pages of Screaming with the Cannibals are characters so real you can see them bleed, smell their sweat, hear their cries of libido-provoked frustration, wallow with them in the darkness of their spirits and -- God help us all -- laugh when they die the most horrible deaths."
Dave Peyton, Charleston Daily Mail