Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl I recall my first visit to Charleston a year or so after Hurricane Hugo. Driving south to north along the coastal roads, I made side trips into the South Carolina Low Country where I found isolation and the remnants of the Gullah people. I had been unbeknownst driving along and […]
“The Gospel of the Twin,” by Ron Cooper
April 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith With his third novel, The Gospel of the Twin, Ron Cooper delves into very different and far more controversial territory than his earlier fiction, Hume’s Fork and Purple Jesus. Those were satirical in tone, peopled with wacky characters. In The Gospel of the Twin, Judas Didymos Thomas, now eighty years old, […]
Katie DePoppe
April 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Katie DePoppe is an award-winning freelance writer, developmental editor, and former book publicist. She was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2009, she became the founding editor at large for Azalea Media, a media company that produces three regional lifestyle and cultural publications throughout South Carolina and Georgia. This endeavor led to the […]
“Untying the Moon,” by Ellen Malphrus
October 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl It’s been four decades since Harold Bloom published The Anxiety of Influence. Bloom’s theory is that creative writers are hindered in their work because they maintain ambiguous relationships with precursor writers. He’s enlarged his theory these days by referencing precursor writers as “daemons.” I mention this because in his foreword […]
December Read of the Month: “Return to Tradd Street,” by Karen White
December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Lynn Braxton When Charleston Realtor Melanie Middleton inherits an historic house from a benefactor she met only once, Charlestonians wonder what coercion she employed to gain the property, not realizing that Melanie has a pronounced dislike for old houses, branding the crumbling ruins as money pits. To make matters worse, and 55 Tradd […]
“It Comes in Waves,” by Erika Marks
October 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Jenny Huston Crowley Many readers think of a “beach read” as having a shallow storyline and underdeveloped characters. It Comes in Waves, Erika Marks’s fourth novel, fits the beach material category, except that Marks has written an engaging story with skill and insight. According to the author, “There’s no question that for me, […]