In this coming-of-age story, Porter Osbourne Jr. is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the Depression. On a red-clay farm in Georgia, he learns all there is to know about cotton-chopping, hog-killing, watermelon-thumping, and mule-handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex. But it is Porter's family-- his genteel, patient mother, his swarm of cousins, his snuff-dipping grandmother, and, most of all, his beloved though flawed father--who teaches Porter the painful truths about growing up strong enough to run with the horsemen.

"The writing is elegant, reflective, and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience . . . gifted with perfect timing."--The New York Times Book Review

"Remarkable both for its humor and its sustained and detailed picture of a mischievous Southern farmboy's life during the Great Depression."--The Washington Post