From Publishers Weekly
A young Kentucky farm couple becomes a center of public attention after giving birth to quintuplets in Mason's acclaimed novel. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Early in the cold dark spring of 1900, when, according to apocalyptic prediction, the world is about to be destroyed by earthquake, a miracle occurs instead. In the backwoods of Kentucky, a farmwife gives birth to five healthy, well-formed babies-quintuplets, the first recorded in the U.S. From then on her life, and her family's, are never the same, as the world troops to her door to witness this grand spectacle. Or is it a freak show? This is a book about love, the journey of life, and the unsought miracles that transform human existence. Its voice and ambiance are authentic; appreciative readers will savor the lovely old words and the quaint ideas of another time, along with the unlovely, harsh practices of superstition, ignorance, and greed. Christie Wheeler's story is historical fiction at its warmest, fiercest, and most intimate. This moving novel will enrich any student's knowledge of American folklore, folklife, and social history.Marya Andreen, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This powerful historical novel makes a worthy addition to Mason's corpus of deeply affecting fiction (e.g., In Country , LJ 10/1/85) about the hidden hopes and disappointments of her native Kentucky's down-home people. The hallmarks of Mason's work are a sincere love for her characters and a total absence of sentimentality. She possesses a keen ear for the cadences and tropes of everyday speech, transforming prose into another kind of poetry. Feather Crowns tells the story of Chrissie Wheeler, a tobacco farmer's wife in Hopewell, Kentucky, who, in 1900, gives birth to America's first recorded quintuplets. Curiosity seekers pass in a steady stream through the Wheelers' small farmhouse. When the babies take ill and die, Chrissie and her husband are persuaded to go on tour, displaying the grotesquely painted bodies of the dead infants to the idly curious. Chrissie is one of Mason's admirable survivors, providing direction to her family while striving to deal with unspeakable loss. An exceptional book by one of our premier writers.- David Keymer, California State Univ., StanislausCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Christie and James Wheeler, tobacco farmers in turn-of-the- century Hopewell, Kentucky, and already parents of three, become the most illustrious people of their time and place when Christie gives birth to quintuplets. Her pregnancy was marked by a misdiagnosis of fibroids--and after the birth Christie wonders whether her so liking sex with her husband (as well as being once erotically charged by a preacher's millennial verve) could have contributed to so freakish an issue. But whatever their cause, the five babies demand heroic attention: Christie's milk is nowhere near adequate; a black nursemaid is called in. Also arriving are the curious--from as far away as St. Louis and Chicago. But in a matter of months the babies all die--``wooled to death,'' Christie thinks, from being overhandled by strangers; killed by Negro milk, James prefers to think. In any case, life after the babies grows hard economically as well as sentimentally; when a crop goes bad, Christie and James allow themselves to be suckered into going on a lecture tour (with the five tiny embalmed bodies in a glass case) that degenerates into a carny sideshow and worse. Shaking off their nightmare, the Wheelers finally allow a scientific institute to keep the babies' bodies for research; and the book ends with Christie in old age paying a visit to the Dionne quints. Mason (Love Life, etc.) has a wonderful story here and knows it, but has chosen to tell it so slowly, at such deliberate pace, that only the babies' deaths (and Christie's frantic impotence to stop the dying)--plus some of the freak-show hucksterism on the post-death tour--come over as vivid enough to be indelible. Mason's usually fine dialogue is muffled by historical distance, and the book simply is too long to maintain Christie's painful awe at life's oddness. The theme of exploitation rises foremost, but it's a late one the novel accedes to almost halfheartedly--sociology more cut and dried than the fearful psychology of Christie's grief. (First printing of 60,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Set in the apocalyptic atmosphere of 1900--a time when many Americans were looking for signs foretelling the end of the world--Feather Crowns is the story of a young woman who unintentionally creates a national sensation. A farm wife living near the small town of Hopewell, Kentucky, Christianna Wheeler gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in North America. Christie is suddenly thrown into a swirling storm of public attention. Thousands of strangers descend on her home, all wanting too see and touch the "miracle babies." One visitor crawls right in through the window! The fate of the babies and the bizarre events that follow their births propel Christie and her husband far from home, on a journey that exposes them to the turbulent pageant of life at the beginning of the modern era. Richly detailed and poignant, Feather Crowns focuses on one woman but opens out ultimately into the chronicle of a time and a people. Written in Bobbie Ann Mason's taut yet lyrical prose, the novel ranges from a peaceful farming community to a fire-and-brimstone revival camp, from seamy traveling shows to the hushed precincts of the nation's capital. Moving through the center of it all is Christie, a charming, headstrong, loving woman who struggles heroically to come to terms with the extraordinary events of her long life. Feather Crowns is an American parable of profound resonance. Spellbindingly readable, it is a novel of classic stature destined to confirm Bobbie Ann Mason as one of America's most important writers.


About the Author
Bobbie Ann Mason has won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her books include In Country and Feather Crowns. She lives in Kentucky.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Set in the apocalyptic atmosphere of 1900 - a time when many Americans were looking for signs foretelling the end of the world - Feather Crowns is the story of a young woman who unintentionally creates a national sensation. A firm wife living near the small town of Hopewell, Kentucky, Christianna Wheeler gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in North America. Christie is suddenly thrown into a swirling storm of public attention. Thousands of strangers descend on her home, all wanting to see and touch the "miracle babies." One visitor crawls right in through the window! The fate of the babies and the bizarre events that follow their births propel Christie and her husband far from home, on a journey that exposes them to the turbulent pageant of life at the beginning of the modern era. Richly detailed and poignant, Feather Crowns focuses on one woman but opens out ultimately into the chronicle of a time and a people. Written in Bobbie Ann Mason's taut yet lyrical prose, the novel ranges from a peaceful farming community to a fire-and-brimstone revival camp, from seamy traveling shows to the hushed precincts of the nation's capital. Moving through the center of it all is Christie, a charming, headstrong, loving woman who struggles heroically to come to terms with the extraordinary events of her long life. Feather Crowns is an American parable of profound resonance. Spellbindingly readable, it is a novel of classic stature destined to confirm Bobbie Ann Mason as one of America's most important writers.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times Book Review