Doodle Bug Doodle Bug Your House Is on Fire is a classic coming-of-age novel. It portrays eccentric and sturdy characters that will stick with you long after you put the book away. Set in the mid-1950s, Doodle Bug is the story of 17-year-old Corley Malone when the materially modest but spiritually rich ways of life in rural West Virginia are fast being replaced by “progress”.  Such things as swimming holes, summer catfishing, one-room schools, and satisfaction from days of hard work in fresh air—are rapidly being lost.

But Mack Samples is no mushy romantic; Corley also raises hell on back roads and beer joints. Corley is innocently profane and profanely innocent, and it is this seamless integration that gives the book its unique flavor.

His antics provide doses of laugh-out-loud humor—and I haven’t even told you about the dynamite yet. As he approaches graduation in an era when the three R’s meant readin’, ritin’ and Route 35 to Ohio, Corley is faced with moving for a job, or staying with his austere yet emotionally rewarding life.

He is also torn between the old time music he plays, and upstart rock ‘roll—all the while still grappling with the differences between love and passion. I think you’ll like the answers he finds.

This is an early classic Mack Samples novel back in print at last!