Essay by Louis Gallo A history with scandalous cameo personalities* While away in grad school I sent weekly book reviews to Vieux Carre Courier, an alternative, low-budget newspaper owned by lawyer Jim Derbes and his wife, Ginny. Jim was an old friend from my early teen years. We had met, weirdly enough, over the forty […]
“Hints of Impermanence: Ghosts and Orphans in Gail Godwin’s Grief Cottage,” by Kerstin W. Shands
February 14, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Kerstin W. Shands Gail Godwin’s new novel Grief Cottage (2017) is set in coastal South Carolina, an area rich in history, legend, and tradition. Evoking a real place and a real environment, Pawleys Island and the Isle of Palms, this novel introduces us to Grief Cottage, a profoundly charged site, a metaphorical rendezvous […]
“Quail Hunting at Little Hobcaw as Inspiration for Robert Ruark’s ‘The Old Man and the Boy,'” by Richard Rankin
February 7, 2018 by 1 Comment
Essay by Richard Rankin Among Robert Ruark’s (1915-1965) complete body of work as a prolific, high-profile newspaper and magazine journalist and bestselling novelist, perhaps his most enduring literary accomplishments are his two sporting classics, The Old Man and the Boy (1957) and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older (1961). Created from a series of highly […]
“Performing Atonement: Regret, Responsibility, and Redemption in Gail Godwin’s ‘Flora,'” by Kerstin W. Shands
November 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Kerstin W. Shands There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. (Seneca) There are things we can’t undo, but perhaps there is a kind of constructive remorse that could transform regrettable acts into something of service to life. (Godwin 1) Wistfully […]
“Following Truman Capote on the Island of Ischia, Italy,” by Susan Van Allen
August 8, 2017 by 1 Comment
Essay by Susan Van Allen I’m standing on a balcony overlooking the port of Forio, on the island of Ischia, floating in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Naples. Sounds fancy, but it’s far from it. The port is fronted by a parking lot of taxis and Vespas, smooching teenagers, signoras strolling by with bags of […]
The Tate of Our Souls: The Lost Cause of the Southern Agrarians
July 27, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Essay by James McWilliams Few readers, even the well-read, know much about Allen Tate. Those who do know the arcane American poet—usually professors who teach “southern literature”—would likely not label him a humanitarian. Cerebral, distant, combative, self-obsessed—yes—but not a social reformer in any sense of the term. And yet (a million caveats notwithstanding) there […]