Prince of the Apple Towns (Hardcover)

Max Arnold couldn't understand why his father hated television. After all, it was the 1960s, and few families in America were without one. But this was Appalachia-- Sawmill Hollow, West Virginia-- a place where "old timers" like Pa still clung to the traditions of this isolated mountain culture. Still, caught between two worlds-- the old and the new-- "Prince" Max couldn't escape the daily barrage of radio reports concerning the Cold War, President Kennedy's assassination and the ongoing racial conflict in the country. Nor could he avoid the greatest challenges of his own life-- burying his best friend, letting go of love and coming to terms with a demanding father hell-bent on keeping the family farm going against all odds. In Prince of the Apple Towns author Gary Winkler evokes the rural activism of an Edward Abbey and the youthful irreverence of a Holden Caulfield, while covering new ground in a style and voice that is unmistakably his own.