Reviewed by Frederick Parker The way I see it, memoir should do more than tell a story. It should chomp at the bit to reveal something, maybe truths about who authors really are when nobody is looking, or encoded realities waiting for just the right moment to show themselves. I want memoirs that leave me […]
“The Forsaken,” by Ace Atkins
September 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Yasser El-Sayed Let me begin with a disclaimer – not only is The Forsaken my first Quinn Colson novel, it is in fact the first Ace Atkins book I have ever read. One can argue that a work of literature can and should stand on its own, so why not have it reviewed […]
“The Best of Enemies,” by Jen Lancaster
September 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel Sundahl I was at lunch one time with a group of students who were regaling me with the comedy antics of Seinfeld. I asked how many years the program had been on television and about favorite characters. It went from there. I confessed having watched only a few episodes, reruns at that […]
September Read of the Month: “The Wiregrass,” by Pam Webber
August 31, 2015 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Phil Jason It’s 1969 and helicopters drum above the town of Crystal Springs, Alabama twice a day. At ten each morning they leave Fort Rucker for a training field: Field 10. Twelve hours later, the choppers leave in formation to make the return trip. The scheduled explosions of light and noise define the […]
“Understanding Richard Russo,” by Kathleen Drowne
August 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Richard Russo is a beloved novelist known primarily for his stories of life in declining northeastern factory towns, so a reasonable person might question why his work deserves space in a literary review purporting to be southern. In short, the University of South Carolina Press recently released Understanding Richard Russo, a […]
“This Side of the River,” by Jeffrey Stayton
August 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Matthew Simmons 150 years after the end of the Civil War, I sit in Columbia, South Carolina. The banner that the local university’s football coach once called “That Damn Flag” has come down, to the joy of some and the consternation of others. In the spring of this year, I worked on a […]