Reviewed by Philip K. Jason This soulful biography has the makings of an American classic. It has attributes that are likely to put it on all kinds of reading lists: family dynamics, coping with illness, grieving, religious questioning, small town life, and regional culture to name a handful. Its subtitle pushes some of these buttons: […]
June Read of the Month: “The Little Way of Ruthie Leming,” by Rod Dreher
June 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“The Day is a White Tablet,” by Jill Fletcher Pelaez
May 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Jill Fletcher Pelaez creates a compelling fictional world steeped in lesser-known details of the last days of the Civil War in her novel The Day is a White Tablet. The story is told through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Tench Traymore, a black youth charged with the task of caring for his […]
May Read of the Month: “The Kings and Queens of Roam,” by Daniel Wallace
May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Matthew Simmons One of the great frustrations of being a young person in a small town is how incredibly boring it seems. Everything that happens seems to happen somewhere else, and wanderlust is an oppressive feeling, something inescapable, omnipresent, and, importantly, your greatest desire in the world. This is true everywhere, it seems, […]
May Read of the Month: “The Kings and Queens of Roam,” by Daniel Wallace
May 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Lizzie Gheorghita Daniel Wallace fans, count yourselves lucky. The Birmingham native’s forthcoming novel, The Kings and Queens of Roam, echoes the passion for mythology and adventure first evidenced in Big Fish. Wallace illuminates the rich history of a fictional land rife with burly lumberjacks, Chinese immigrants, feral dogs, and ghosts, and seamlessly melds fanciful and imaginative elements […]
May Read of the Month: “The Kings and Queens of Roam,” by Daniel Wallace
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Southern Literary Review is happy to announce that Daniel Wallace’s novel The Kings and Queens of Roam will be our May Read of the Month. We believe this book is extraordinary, so we have asked two reviewers to write about it. The first review will appear this week, and the second next week. We hope you enjoy.
“Creole Son,” by Michael Llewellyn
April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Mollie Waters The challenge of writing historical fiction is finding the balance between factual events and the fictional story the author tries to weave into that reality. In his work Creole Son: A Novel of Degas in New Orleans, Michael Llewellyn finds that balance by crafting a tale that is rich in both […]