Southern Fiction – Page 9

Category: Southern Fiction (Page 9 of 24)

In ‘Free State,’ notions of equality emerge from behind a black mask

On November 17, 2015

In Civil Rights, Events, Fiction, First Editions, First Editions Club, Guest Post, Southern Fiction

Tom Piazza will be at the Eudora Welty House TONIGHT at 5:00 to sign and read from “A Free State”.

By Jim Ewing. Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Tom Piazza’s “Free State” offers a fascinating study on the nature of freedom in the guise of a thought-provoking novel.

Set in the years before the Civil War, “Free State” focuses on the chance coming together of a black man, who calls himself Henry Sims, and a white man, who calls himself James Douglass. Both are assumed names by characters seeking freedom and a new identity from the lives they were born into and their grim pasts.

Douglass is of Irish descent, the youngest son of a Pennsylvania farmer who chafed under the grueling chores of farm life and the physical abuse of his father and older brothers. He seeks freedom by joining a traveling circus and becomes enthralled by the burgeoning fad of minstrelsy — traveling troupes of musicians who adopt a grotesque rendition of Old South plantation life by performing in black face, or covering their faces with burnt cork. He rises in his musical ability and forms his own minstrel group in Philadelphia, Penn., a free state, which in America, it turns out, is not so free.

But it’s all theater, a masquerade, set for public consumption amidst an imagined tapestry of faux aristocratic plantation owners bemused by the “jollity” of enslaved blacks happily entertaining for their masters. Only the beauty of the music is real.

Why minstrelsy? “The practice of ‘blacking up’ had spread … to feed a hunger that had gone unrecognized until then,” Douglass reminisces. “ In it, we — everyone, it seemed— encountered a freedom that could be found there and there only. As if day-to-day life were a dull slog under gray skies, and the minstrels launched one into the empyrean blue.”

“When I first heard the minstrels,” he recalls, “…I felt as if I had been freed from a life of oppressive servitude.”

Thus, a white man finds freedom by impersonating a black slave.

Douglass’ façade meets horrific reality when he meets Sims, a runaway slave from Virginia, seeking to escape his master father and a slave hunter, Tull Burton, he has hired to track him down. Burton is evil incarnate, a fascinating study of the devil in human flesh, who delights in the torture of those he seeks. Like the society that imposes slavery and inequality even under the guise of democracy and commitment to human freedom, he is unrelenting and devoted to his cause of using the law to brutally enforce the codes of human bondage.

The story itself is absorbing as Douglass and Sims forge a tenuous bond and adopt a rational solution to both of their problems. Sims and Douglass attempt to pursue their love of music while supporting themselves in a world that twists notions of life and livelihood along the lines of race.

Their solution — for Sims, a black man, to assume black face in order to evade laws barring black people from public performance — exposes the theater of the absurd that was the antebellum South. In it, a white man could find freedom only by pretending to black; a black man could only find freedom by masking that he was black by pretending to be black.

The truth of this preposterous state of “freedom” finds echoes today as American society still struggles with issues of race and equality. The true face behind the mask is that the world limits freedom and equality no matter how devoted and pure one’s intention and desires may be, and that we all play out our roles in often absurd conditions to pursue a free state.

It’s an absorbing tale and a parable that exposes the incongruities of living in a democracy still colored by inequality.

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them, now in bookstores.

Collecting Cormac McCarthy

By Lisa

On November 13, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Gift Books, Lisa's First Editions, Southern Fiction, Staff Blog

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Cormac McCarthy is considered by many to be our genius of American literature. He is also one of the most reclusive and humble authors of our time. Born in Rhode Island in 1933, McCarthy grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and set his first four novels in the South. McCarthy lived on the edge of poverty for years and his early work sold poorly. When asked to speak for compensation, he declined saying that everything he had to say was on the page. In 1981, a MacArthur Fellowship allowed McCarthy to buy a home in El Paso, Texas. In that southwest landscape he began to write Blood Meridian (1985) and All the Pretty Horses (1992 National Book Award Winner).

The 2000s brought Cormac McCarthy out into the spotlight. Following the Pulitzer Prize win for The Road in 2006, No Country for Old Men was made into an Academy awardwinning film of the same name by the Coen brothers in 2007. To everyone’s surprise, McCarthy accepted Oprah Winfrey’s invitation for a television interview in 2007 after she selected The Road for her book club. At this point, McCarthy fans were not just a select number of literary readers. The collectibility of his books had also increased. But how do you collect an author who rarely does book signings?

If Cormac McCarthy does sign a book at a signing, he typically likes to personally inscribe the book to the recipient. While in many cases this may satisfy the recipient, a collector will desire a simple signature for long term value. Publishers do issue signed books and this is about the only way to get a signed Cormac McCarthy book.

In 2005, Knopf issued No Country for Old Men to booksellers in a signed hardback edition on a first come, first serve basis. The book is signed by McCarthy on a blank tippedin page. This means that the author received the blank sheets to sign and then the publisher bound the signed page into the book.

Later, B. E. Trice Publishing out of New Orleans used some of the signed sheets from Knopf to complete two of the most beautiful limited editions in contemporary literature: a limited edition of 325 copies in 1⁄4 leather and marbled boards, slip cased, and a deluxe limited edition of 75 copies 3⁄4 leather, marbled boards, with raised spine hubs, slip cased.

Cormac McCarthy, now 81 years old, still maintains his privacy and accepts few request for public appearances, following his own advice that it’s better to be writing than to be talking about writing.

Original to the Clarion-Ledger

To see more titles by Cormac McCarthy, click here.

Collecting Barry Hannah

By Lisa

On November 11, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Gift Books, Lisa's First Editions, Southern Fiction, Staff Blog

“Neighborhood: An Early Fragment of Ray” by Barry Hannah. Tuscaloosa, AL: Gorgas Oak Press, 1981.
Born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1942, Barry Hannah grew up in Clinton, Mississippi. After changing his college major early on from premed to English, he set his sights on writing and earned his Bachelor’s at Mississippi College. While studying for his Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Arkansas, Hannah developed the surreal and dark humor he is known for in his novels and short stories. Nominated for the National Book Award for “Geronimo Rex” (1972) and also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for “High Lonesome” (1996), Hannah gained national acclaim. Over his long career, he became a popular creative writing mentor among students, holding teaching positions at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Sewanee, the University of Alabama, and the University of Mississippi, among others.

While Hannah was teaching at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, he allowed the Gorgas Oak Press of the Graduate School of Library Services of the University of Alabama to design and print the book format for an early fragment of “Ray” called “Neighborhood.” The graduate students handcrafted a striking chapbook of handmade paper, hand-pressed with custom made ink, featuring the original interior etchings of Jill Valentine, and exterior wrapper drawings by Bruce Dupree. The print run was limited to 65 copies. The chapbook was not issued signed and signed copies are scarce today. This copy of “Neighborhood” is signed on the title page.

unnamed (5) This fragment of “Ray” also differs from the complete version of “Ray” published by Knopf in 1980 as pages 12-26. The publication of Gorgas Oak’s “Neighborhood” provides a rare opportunity to compare an early draft of a literary text with its final form.

Original to the Clarion-Ledger

To see more titles by Barry Hannah, click here.

Collecting Margaret Walker

By Lisa

On November 10, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Gift Books, Lisa's First Editions, Southern Fiction

As a young girl, Margaret Walker Alexander listened to her grandmother’s stories. Walker decided at the age of nineteen that “she would clothe that ‘naked truth’ in all the power and beauty of fiction,” and she spent the next thirty years meticulously researching her family’s stories of slavery and the Civil War from every side. When Walker’s novel “Jubilee” was published in 1966, Harper’s Magazine asked her to submit an essay about how she wrote “Jubilee.”
Unexpectedly, Walker’s essay for Harper’s was rejected in 1967.

Instead, “How I Wrote Jubilee” was published in the form of a chapbook by a small press called Third World Press in 1972. Founded in 1967 by Haki R. Madhubuti, a poet and one of the leaders in the Black Arts movement, Third World Press ran alongside another important black literary press of the time, Detroit’s Broadside Press, which published Walker’s “Prophets for a New Day” and “October Journey.”

In 1967, Mississippi’s Willie Morris had just been appointed as the managing editor at Harper’s Magazine. In his memoir “New York Days,” Morris reflected on Harper’s very “modest” operation and their $150,000 deficit. One way to increase their circulation was to publish excerpts of the latest novels. Bitingly, it was “The Confessions of Nat Turner” by William Styron that booted Walker’s essay out of Harper’s—as noted in “How I Wrote Jubilee.” Though Styron also went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature that year, the novel received a great deal of criticism for being more sensational than historically accurate in its depiction of the slave revolt of Nat Turner. While James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison praised “Nat Turner,” much of the black community frowned upon it. Over the years, the admiration and respect for Walker’s “Jubilee” has only grown.

Small presses like Third World have stood for authors like Walker who needed a platform for their work. In publishing “How I Wrote Jubilee,” Third World Press provided a lasting and beautiful chapbook which includes Walker’s essay, a Foreword, Afterword and Discussion Questions for “Jubilee.” Third World is still owned by its founder Haki R. Madhubuti. While most black presses went out of business or were bought out by large corporations, the press maintains its independence despite challenging times.

Original to the Clarion-Ledger

Collecting John Grisham Limited Editions

By Lisa

On October 13, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Southern Fiction

firm movie grisham By 1993, John Grisham’s name had become synonymous with the legal thriller and he had published four of his most popular books: “A Time to Kill” (1989); “The Firm” (1991); “The Pelican Brief” (1992); and “The Client” (1993). This same year Doubleday bought the rights from Wynwood press to reissue “A Time to Kill” in hardback. Meanwhile, “The Firm” and “The Pelican Brief” were box office hits in the movie theater, expanding Grisham’s fan base even further.

The true first edition of “A Time to Kill,” the Wynwood Press edition, was difficult to find signed, and Grisham’s other early books were becoming too expensive or difficult for collectors to find. In 1993 Doubleday began publishing Grisham’s books in limited edition for collectors. It was a prime time to lay the foundations for collecting the author’s work, but Doubleday had to make up for lost time and released “A Time to Kill,” “The Firm,” “The Pelican Brief,” and “The Client” in limited editions of 350 or 300 copies all in that same year.

A signed limited edition of “A Time to Kill” was very appealing because it could be bought for $250 on the release date as opposed to a signed Wynwood edition which would sell in fine condition for around $1,500 in 1993. For those who hold a limited edition of “A Time to Kill,” its value has increased to around $2,000 today.

john grisham limited Every year since “The Client,” Doubleday has issued a limited edition of each of John Grisham’s novels. The legal thrillers are leather-bound, signed and numbered, have decorated end papers, gold stamping, a ribbon marker and are housed in a slipcase. The nonlegal thrillers like “Ford County,” “Skipping Christmas” and “A Painted House” are issued cloth bound and as a group are not always uniform in size as the legal thrillers are. An entire limited edition collection in fine condition—from “A Time to Kill” to the latest book—is valued at around $15,000.

Written by Lisa Newman, A version of this column was published in The Clarion-Ledger’s Sunday Mississippi Books page.

Click here to see all of John Grisham’s books.

Click here to pre-order the latest limited edition, Rogue Lawyer.

Eby’s “South Toward Home” pinpoints literary treasures

By Guest Author

On September 28, 2015

In Biography/Memoir, Guest Post, Southern Culture, Southern Fiction

By Jim Ewing. Special to The Clarion-Ledger

If you’re looking for a sequel to the late Willie Morris’ “North Toward Home” in Margaret Eby’s “South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature,” you won’t find it. However, Eby’s “Home” is a fascinating travelogue of Southern writers’ home country— including Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Harry Crews, Harper Le and Truman Capote, John Kennedy Toole, and Barry Hannah and Larry Brown.

As Eby notes, Faulkner didn’t write about the South; he wrote about Oxford —fictionalized as Yoknapatawpha. In the same vein, Welty wrote about Jackson, and John Toole about New Orleans.

“What makes a Southern writer,” she writes, “is not just the circumstances of his or her birth but a fierce attachment to a particular place.” Eby goes on to give vignettes about the selected Southern writers’ home towns, the places where they lived and wrote about throughout the Deep South. But they aren’t general overviews or a travelogue, per se; rather, they are unique attributes about the towns or the writers who lived in them as reflected by the physical surroundings.

For example, in Jackson, Eby chronicles Miss Eudora’s fondness for fried catfish and butter beans at the Mayflower Café on Capitol Street, and other local haunts. But she zeroes in on the now-open-to-the-public Welty House where, she writes, it’s less like entering another person’s home “than like dropping in to one of her stories.” The objects in the house — and particularly the garden — are masterfully linked to Eby’s obviously voluminous research in a seamless whole, so that Welty comes alive by presenting her provenance.

The formula is repeated in other authors’ surroundings, not the least of which is the absence of an extant home for Wright, who lived across town from Welty. Since his home has been torn down, she traces the trail he sets in his novel “Black Boy” from Natchez—his boyhood home — to Jackson to Beale Street in Memphis, where he also lived.

Eby describes the racism Wright encountered both before and after publication of his seminal “Native Son,” both in his books and contemporaneous accounts, as well as the physical surroundings that exist now. It’s an absorbing juxtaposition of the old and the new that raises profound questions about how race relations have changed and how they have not.

Some of Eby’s juiciest commentary involves Faulkner’s Oxford, where she says, some 50 years after his death, he is “more a part of the social atmosphere … than he ever was in his life.” There, “Faulkner is more than the mythical figure that brought home Mississippi’s first Nobel Prize for Literature. His legend is something like that of a bum uncle who died and revealed a hidden fortune — the very kind of uncle Southerners love to talk about.”

“Home” is a must-read for devotees of Southern writers and especially lovers of Mississippiana, if for no other reason, than the Oxford chapter.

She later returns to Oxford on the piece on Hannah (from Clinton) who described the place as “a United Nations with catfish on its breath,” and Larry Brown (from Yocona), since they were both associated with the place, and Lisa and John Howorth’s Square Books, a literati gathering place like John Evans’ Lemuria Books in Jackson. The tantalizing tales leave the reader yearning for more!

I would have enjoyed a piece about Morris and Yazoo City, especially since she notes that his “North Toward Home” served as an inspiration for her book, for its “warm, evocative” sense of place. Even so, without Yazoo’s inclusion, with her meticulous research and refreshing candor about the South, its places and writers, she does Willie proud.

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them, now in bookstores.

Guinn’s ‘Scribe’ launches him into Big Leagues of authors

By Guest Author

On September 10, 2015

In Fiction, Guest Post, Southern Fiction

By Jim Ewing Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Jackson author Matthew Guinn is moving into the Big Leagues of novelists with his second book, The Scribe.

A mystery that focuses on a grisly series of murders during the opening stages of the Atlanta 1881 International Cotton Exposition, a world’s fair precursor, Scribe has all the elements of the genre to propel Guinn to the top.

The protagonist, Thomas Canby, is a flawed and disgraced police detective and former Civil War soldier who creates as many personal complications in his life as he professionally seeks to solve. A compelling and complex character, Canby is an Atlanta native who joined the Union side for reasons of his own. Unraveling (and untangling), Canby’s life is as intriguing as the plot.

A theme throughout is Canby seeking to grasp the depth and elusiveness of pure evil, personified by a shadowy character who seems to outwit Canby and the leaders of Atlanta at every turn. But confront it, he does: including his own demons.

“When I really saw it for the first time clean and clear it was not a shadow,” Canby confides. “No fleeting glimpse. It was in flesh, real as dirt and cold as gunmetal…”

Mystery surrounds Canby’s quest, as troubled and confused as the callous and boastful shallowness of Atlanta’s post-Reconstruction civic leaders who have discredited and reviled him. It’s hard to tell friend from foe — least of all his partner, Cyrus Underwood, the first black police detective in Atlanta (advanced by those leaders for political reasons though also despised by them). All are suspects. All are flawed as human beings.

It all works, masterfully.

As a historical novel, Scribe is well researched, displaying historical accuracy for the Atlanta area after Reconstruction ended. It has a believable plot with startling twists and turns that grip the reader; spot-on characters that assume lives of their own with dialogue that springs organically from their characters. It’s a gripping tale that will have readers gasping, both in suspense and in horror. And Guinn provides a deft weaving of clues and facts that build mystery and interest.

If there is a criticism to the book, its strength is its weakness. Scribe is rigidly plotted and tightly written — good things. But it could have added a dimension to the characters if there were more fleshed out flashbacks or vignettes to provide lasting word pictures of the main figures.

For example, Underwood is primarily seen through the eyes of Canby, and not given his own voice and motivation. (A future novel perhaps?) The love interest, Julia, has a history with Canby, but we do not know her thoughts or yearnings.

These are minor details that do not detract from the book and, arguably, could have slowed its pace.

Guinn, who also displayed skill of national note in the critically acclaimed The Resurrectionist (an Edgar Award finalist), now has attained with Scribe the distinction of being one of the most promising fiction writers in America today. It proves Guinn to be a bona fide heavy hitter in the genre of mystery writing.

If he can continue on this course, building a body of work of equal quality, he will find himself among a rare few of serious literary merit. It’s exciting to see his work unfold and eagerly anticipate new works from this Southern author Jackson can claim as its own.

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them, now in bookstores.

The Gates of Evangeline

By Hillary

On September 1, 2015

In Fiction, Southern Fiction, Staff Blog

This is a book I actually read a couple of months ago, but haven’t had much of a chance to encourage anyone else to read….because it only just came out today. But! Now you can buy it and read it! Preferably at Lemuria, where you can pick it up right off of my recommended shelf. That’s what your plan was, wasn’t?

The Gates of Evangeline is a great psychological thriller written in a Southern Gothic style. Although Young isn’t from the South herself, the setting of her novel definitely is. Evangeline, a beautiful old plantation home, is captured perfectly in Young’s description of Louisiana’s swamp land. It’s here where our heroin, Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins working on her writing assignment, a thirty-year-old missing child case, for a true crime magazine. It’s a chance for her to move on from her own son’s death, but that’s not the only reason Charlie has taken the assignment. She thinks that the missing child is communicating with her, to help her find out what happened to him.

I know what you’re thinking, “Eh…paranormal is not my thing.”

Trust me, it’s not really mine either. But, Young has written Charlie’s character in such a way that you can’t help but believe in her. I wanted so badly for her to figure out what had happened those thirty years ago because she was such a sympathetic, strong and heartwarming character. There’s a lot of loops and turns before that happens, but Young’s writing sucked me right in and I couldn’t wait to figure it all out.

If you’re not a fan of paranormal, but you are a fan of romance…there’s a little bit of that thrown in there too. *wink wink* Charlie has a bit of a thing for Evangeline’s landscaper. Yet again, the relationship between the two was believable, and I was definitely rooting for them.

This was a really good read. If you’ve always considered getting into a little Southern Gothic feel, I recommend checking this book out.

Also, if you want to be really cool, you should come meet Hester Young on Friday, September 4th at 5 o’clock! She’ll be signing and reading from her psychological, eerie, paranormal thriller with a touch of a romance novel, The Gates of Evangeline.

See you there!

Cereus Readers Book Club Resumes in September

By Lisa

On August 27, 2015

In Fiction, Southern Fiction

We call ourselves the Cereus Readers in honor of Jackson writer Eudora Welty and her friends who gathered for the annual blooming of the night-blooming cereus flower and called themselves “The Night-Blooming Cereus Club.” In this same spirit of friendship and fellowship, this book club was launched.

The goal of the Cereus Readers is to introduce readers to the writing of Eudora Welty–her short stories, essays, and novels–and then to read books and authors she enjoyed herself or were influenced by her. We have been reading the work of Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Katherine Anne Porter, and others.

We typically meet the fourth Thursday of every month, but we change the date as necessary. No previous reading of Eudora Welty required.

For more information and to subscribe to our e-mail list, please send an e-mail to: lisa@lemuriabooks.com.

This fall we’ll be reading E. M. Forster.

We will be reading these texts, available at Lemuria:

The Life to Come: And Other Short Stories by E. M. Forster

Eudora Welty’s review of The Life to Come which is found in The Eye of the Story by Eudora Welty.

Thursday, September 17

We’ll talk about the life of E. M. Forster and his friendship with and influence on Eudora Welty.

Thursday, October 22

The Life to Come: And Other Stories

Thursday, November 19

The Life to Come: And Other Stories

Readers Coming Together

By John

On August 20, 2015

In Culture, Newsworthy, Southern Culture, Southern Fiction, Southern History

by John Evans, Lemuria Books

Mississippi’s literary contributions have enhanced our state and national culture. Our great writers are household names; many of their stories are our stories. But before great writers put pen to paper, they were first great readers.

In my 40 years of bookselling, I have witnessed the power of real books in the hands of readers. In our first statewide book festival, The Mississippi Book Festival, we will celebrate the joys of reading and the authors who bring our culture to the page. Reading real books is where it all starts.

Mississippians are encouraged to read John Grisham’s Sycamore Row together. Reading together, we live together.

The first Mississippi Book Festival, I hope the first of many, will bring awareness to our strong literary history. Perhaps this festival will be the first step toward creating a Literary Book Trail in Mississippi and eventually, a Mississippi Writers Museum.

The first ever Mississippi Book Festival will take place this Saturday, August 22, on the State Capitol grounds.

Originally published here

Category: Southern Fiction (Page 9 of 24)

In ‘Free State,’ notions of equality emerge from behind a black mask

Collecting Cormac McCarthy

Collecting Barry Hannah

Collecting Margaret Walker

Collecting John Grisham Limited Editions

Eby’s “South Toward Home” pinpoints literary treasures

Guinn’s ‘Scribe’ launches him into Big Leagues of authors

The Gates of Evangeline

Cereus Readers Book Club Resumes in September

Readers Coming Together

Authors

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